The Art of Resting

 The feeling of being deeply tired, that is one of the characteristics of modern people. Do not talk about material world, even in the spiritual world there are too many seekers who are exhausted because of pursuing God and enlightenment. It is not only in working time, even in the time of sleep many people do not rest because of having nightmares.

The main characteristic of souls who fail to rest is having too much desire. And even after some desires are attained, a number of greater desire coming again and again. The end result is predictable, life grow from dark to dark.

Before the soul truely entering the dark abyss, it is worthy to learn how to rest. Saying to take a rest sounds simple, but it is not simple in reality, especially because the mind is being dictated by too much desires.

For this reason, the first step in the art of resting is to simplify life by having less desire. Without simplifying life and desire, peace journey will be pointless. And for most people, simplifying life and desire is far from simple.

One source of difficulty in simplifying life is the excessive desire to be called better than the others. The stronger the energy to be called better than the others, the more complicated the growth of the soul.

Moreover, excessive comparing with the others will make a person feel alienated in their own body. The combination between the excessive desire to be better and the feeling of being alienated on the other hand, that is the beginning of many spiritual downfalls as suicide, divorce, or even crazy.

Under this light, it is worthy to consider the idea of resting in each calling of the moment. While working, learn to rest in the calling of work. In the moment of eating, learn to rest in the taste of the food. In the time of praying, learn to rest in the sound of prayers.

To put it simply, remove all excessive desires, leave behind all complexity of life, then completely rest at this moment as it is. In meditation sessions, it is often heard a beautiful message like this: "one who perfectly rest at this moment, they are actually preparing for the best future".

In deep meditation, there is the lesson of washing the dishes for the sake of washing the dishes. While the ordinary people wash the dishes in a hurry to make the dishes clean, in the approach of resting like this, spiritual seekers merge with the sound of flowing water, being one with the smell of the soap, beautifully smile to each movement of hands which clean the dirty dishes.

When all movements of life are done in the spirit of resting like this, by then meditators can experiences a state of perfect rest. At the peak of perfect resting, all fear disappear. In this stage of spiritual attainment, death is as simple as the falling dry leaves. As a result, even death is a moment of perfect resting.

Author: Gede Prama.
Photo Courtesy: Twitter @Koksalakn.

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