TIME IS THE TRUE CURRENCY OF LIFE: How We Simplified Our Lives to Attain Time Freedom
Peaceful Days On Still Mountain Focused On Being Present, Finding Joy and Using Our Days For Important Things
THE DAWNING LIGHT —Daily Journal Of Positive and Inspiring Writing
Volume 8, Issue Number 954 for Tuesday, May 21st, 2024
STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES SECTION # 61 Stories by Chinmayan about our life in pursuit of simple living, our own spiritual path and our service to the world in a small meditation center in the mountains
All images in this issue courtesy of Pixabay, except as noted.
Peaceful Days On Still Mountain
The sun is slowly sinking behind the mountains, as I sit in my writing studio aboard our tiny house.
At this moment, as this perfect spring day draws to a close, it is unmitigated joy to look out the window at the wide fields suffused by golden light and feel utterly content and peaceful.
All this week we have been working in the gardens and on the grounds here each morning until it became too hot to work…and then using the rest of each day to rest and do things we enjoy.
I have had very productive writing, prayer and meditation sessions, while Ani has been steadily working on things dear to heart.
Now that the long languorous spring days are here, we are able to expand the scope of our lives beyond being confined by intense storms of this past winter to our tiny house.
Instead of being cooped up inside all the time, we are finally free to go for walks, take frequent meditation breaks in our favorite spots on this magical land and gradually attend to work at a restful pace.
We Realized Our Lives Were Being Wasted
Over the past two years, we have completed shifted our lives from being busy people constantly on the go doing things in the outside world to consciously choosing to let go of almost all of those pursuits as we have simplified our lives.
This proved to be much harder than it sounds due to of my lifelong belief that working hard every day is what a good and responsible man has to do to respect himself.
It's hard to change ways of living and seeing life that have been defining me for nearly 60 years…but we have done it in a step-by-step process because we recognized that though we were constantly busy, we were missing so much of the important things of life.
I can still remember the moment we looked at each other and both knew it was time to make changes in order to take care of ourselves and no longer put off focusing on the things that really matter.
I am grateful to us for having the wisdom, courage and grit to make those changes.
Creating A Simple Life Is Not Simple Or Easy
Creating a simple life is not as simple as it seems. In fact, its downright challenging.
It involves recognizing that we were carrying all kind of beliefs, obligations, relationships and things that we had outgrown and no longer need or want.
We have been steadily freeing ourselves from the extraneous ever since.
The further we get in the process of simplifying and reprioritizing, the more we are able to see that still needs to be done.
One major difference that we have already made come true is that we no longer pressure ourselves over anything.
That is a huge change and major relief…though we still have a long list of things that need to be done here to further simplify and free ourselves…we know they will all be accomplished “in due course” in the right time and right way…
We gave up stressing over our long “to do” list anymore.
Photo Credit: Nyima Fitzmaurice
Time Is Our Most Precious Non Renewable Resource
Now, the highest priority is living in the present moment, taking care of our real heart and soul needs, and enjoying our lives and time together.
We recognized that time is the true currency of life.
Before we made these big shifts, our time was already committed for weeks and months into the future to things that, when we attained our new perspective, we realized were not really important.
We were slaves to our work schedule, to financial obligations and our to do lists.
Once we saw we needed and wanted and were committed to changing, we saw that our first goal was to attain “time freedom.”
We discussed what we needed to do and change to achieve having complete choice and control over how we use our precious time.
We made a flow chart to plot our course to “time freedom” and fiercely and steadily implemented it.
Now, through implementing our plan over the past two years, we have achieved having complete control over our days and nights.
This step has unlocked so much good for us that we would never have had if we had kept going with our old busy lives.
We Have No Regrets Except For Not Making These Changes Sooner
It has proved so crucial to our healing, our personal growth and to the blossoming of our deep love relationship that our only regrets is that we didn’t take those steps years ago.
But “better late than never” and “there is no time like the present.”
Now we are living life on our terms and focusing on the truly important things.
Now, we are free to focus on our individual prayer and meditation practices and on the real work we were born to do.
I am finally working full time on writing, editing, polishing and publishing “The Dawning Light.”
We now are focusing on preparing to reopen our Still Mountain Dharma Center for public in person and on line programs…as well as setting up our Video Production studio for editing and publishing the videos we have already filmed…as well as the new ones we plan to make.
If we need to simply sit and enjoy the sunset together or make a great meal to share or take a long prayer bath or work through something that is coming up to be healed, then we take the time we need without feeling guilty about it as we would have in the “old days”.
The beautiful thing is…we are now living our best life that keeps on getting more blessed and graceful by the day.
We are achieving higher and higher levels off communication, love and alignment than I believed were impossible before we made these shifts.
I count myself and us as the most fortunate people on the planet because we have learned how to enjoy ourselves through living each and every moment present and mindful, peaceful and joyous. We are beyond being happy, living each day savored to the fullest, knowing with certainty that “The best is yet ahead.”
Original Revelations and Calligraphy by Chinmayan
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Lotus Buddha in the Meditation Garden at Still Mountain Dharma Center
“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When God is the center and focus of my life, everything else falls into it’s rightful place.”
—Chinmayan
“It is never too early to start communing with the Divine through prayer”
—Yeshe Gyamtso
From our hearts to yours…
Never miss a chance to tell your beloved that you love them and why and what they mean to you…
You never know when we may get another chance in this wild and beautiful world!