Taking ourselves lightly

One of the enormously valuable benefits of meditation for me is that it taught me I don't need to take myself so seriously. Stephen Levine speaks to this in his book, A Gradual Awakening:

Sometimes we take our sittings so seriously. We think in terms of "my progress," shortsighted to the gathering power of awareness and the universe in which progress is happening. We lose sight of the joy of our growth. But the expansiveness which comes with understanding creates a lightness that sees beyond all our self-centered attempts to overcome the imagined self.

When we're "working hard on ourselves," we sometimes push away our easy mind, our happiness at being on the path in the first place. We lose the sense of our absurdity which can serve as a balance to the seriousness of our practice. When we lose that openness to the cosmic humor of it all, we lose perspective. We become like the rooster who thinks his crowing makes the sun come up each morning. We think it is "me" beating "the ego" rather than appreciating the universe coming home to itself. The whole melodrama of our attempts at capturing freedom benefits greatly by the balance a well-developed sense of the absurd allows the mind. Indeed it is said that the angels can fly 'cause they take themselves lightly. A bit of aerodynamics it is well for all of us to remember.

I often coach myself by saying, "It doesn't matter; it doesn't matter," about whatever I might be taking too seriously. And it really doesn't - whatever it is. Think in terms of the big picture. Only the grasping ego thinks that impermanent things matter.