Question: “Dear Prem, in your Lockdown talks about ‘consequences from actions’”—I knew I was going to get something on that—“you say that it’s in that moment called now....” And that, yeah, the moment called “now” is where all actions take place. That’s it; that’s the bottom end of that. “Please help me understand, how can I make my life more successful and simpler by just choosing the right action and avoiding the wrong ones?”
Prem: Look, your life is simple. This is how it is. Now, you have brought in all the little bits and pieces that make it complicated. The process of making this happen is taking away, is a process of subtraction, not addition. What am I talking about? All right, so you’ve got a white shirt. You’ve got a white shirt—you realize it’s dirty. How do you clean the white shirt? Do you go out and buy “cleanliness” in a bottle and pour it over the white shirt? No. You go and you buy detergent which removes the dirt. The cleanliness is already there—but it is being masked by the dirt. When you take away the dirt, the cleanliness comes right back. That’s how it is in life, too. We make things very complicated; we like it. You know, “This is how it is; this is how it is; this is how it is.” And the next thing you know, there is so much noise between the ears that you can’t even hear yourself. So the process of making life more enjoyable, making life more simple is a process of subtraction, not addition. It’s not—but we’re so used to adding things, you know; we’re so used to adding things that we are like, “Okay, I have to add enjoyment to my life now.” No, life is actually very enjoyable just as it is. And if you don’t find it enjoyable, it is because you have brought in all this dirt called “complication,” all these ideas, all these pictures that you have in your little camera that are just pumping away, picture after picture after picture after picture. Take all that away—and there you have it. And that’s how it is. So, the “right thing, wrong thing”—give yourself a break; you know, give yourself a break. Do that, please. Take it easy. One step at a time: life, one day at a time. Tackle life exactly as it comes to you—meaning “one day at a time.” Keep things simple. Keep things fluid. Be that tree that knows how to sway in the wind and not break in the wind—and you will have a great time, believe me.
