Put forth your effort
With no thought of gain.
One should not pray or meditate with any thought of gain. Hold no expectations. Then the rewards will come. If one strives for power and gifts, no true results will come, and one will become lost in lust. Praying for results brings no results — the true spirit appears only when there are no expectations to hamper it.
Books and teachings talk of the results of meditation because they prepare the aspirant for the experiences that will occur. It is important not to look on these writings as advertisements. They are merely descriptions of what you will encounter.
Sit down with no thought of results and you will go naturally and spontaneously with Tao. It is admittedly a paradox. We are to know what to expect, and yet we should allow them to appear as they will. It seems irrational and inefficient. Yet if you would know Tao, there is no faster way to enter the midstream.
“The things you see by the flares of sudden fame are shattering and terrifying: the glittering eye of Greed, the distorted faces of her sisters Envy and Malice. These witches always come to the feast. They chill your heart and leave you alone in the world. But you can’t sit and stare at them always. And you can’t go around forever mumbling, ‘Forgive me, forgive me.’ So you begin the gradual process of unraveling it.” — Mary Coyle Chase
“My mother used to say to me ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh, so smart or oh, so pleasant.’ For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant” — Elwood P. Dowd, Harvey
We all look forward to events in our lives with a sense of anticipation. How many times do you look forward without anticipating anything? It seems like a strange thing to do. In our religious training, we are taught to pray to our god and wonder when god doesn’t answer our prayers. Are we doing something wrong?
I don’t really expect much when I meditate. Mostly it’s a way to calm down, to reconnect. People sometimes comment on how calm I am, but I think it is because I don’t run around expecting something of everyone I meet and to get something out of everything I do.
I don’t expect things out of others, so whatever they give me is a gift and a joy. And I smile and am pleasant with other people, which is often the greatest gift you can give to someone else. They see so many unpleasant people all day that a pleasant person is a joy in itself.Think of the old Jimmy Stewart movie “Harvey”. It wasn’t important whether or not Harvey existed, it was the attitude that came with believing in him that was important. That is how religion is supposed to be – the point is to connect you to the place in yourself where you can be respectful and pleasant to others, not because you recognize that they are like you, but because you know that they are you — whether you like them or not. If you had been raised in their circumstances and with their beliefs and thoughts, you would be them. And you don’t know what those circumstances were, so judging others is foolish. Better to respect them and treat them well and not expect much in return for your kindness. If they are kind back, so much the better. If not, what have you really lost?
Of course, we can’t always remember that. So, we come back and center ourselves again. We meditate to bring ourselves back to that calm place when life inevitably gets to us and people annoy us again.
If you aren’t constantly struggling in life for some future reward, you can learn to enjoy where you are right now in life and what you have right now. And if you can get there, everything becomes easy. You don’t fight with life anymore — you can just enjoy where you are, who you are, right now.
Ah. Isn’t that better?
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