The Spring Lesson

I wrote the following on March 21st, the first day of spring.

After a month long touring of India’s holy places, I am now visiting my family and old friends on the Adriatic coast in Europe. The nature here is truly beautiful. Exotic islands and the warm Mediterranean climate make it very pleasant here. The first day when I arrived to Dalmatia the weather was cold and gloomy, but on the following day the spring powerfully manifested itself. Now it is sunny, warm, and pleasant wherever you look. It even smells great. Everything looks as if it is waking up or as if it’s been released from imprisonment, an unwanted confinement.

To those who develop a sense of possession over this beauty, this loveliness will become their prison. One should be satisfied to simply be a happy witness of God’s glory.

Possessiveness over people, things, and all other phenomena, even though it tends to initially present itself as pleasurable, leads toward an increase in entanglement, confusion, tension, loss of freedom, and unhappiness.

Mahat is the editor of "16ROUNDS to Samadhi." Born in 1975 on the Adriatic coast of Croatia. Monk since the age of 20. Moved to Los Angeles in 1999. Moved to San Diego in 2004. Living in Berkeley since October of 2013.

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