The simple act of reflecting,
the simple act of pausing to consider,
to reason, can have an impact.

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and Howard Cutler, MD
The Art of Happiness at Work¹

I

Arlu read aloud, "If we really look at what's creating our happiness, it's not the meal,
the vista, or the new watch; it's actually the temporary power these objects have to keep us
from wanting anything else."¹

"Oh my!" she thought as she looked up from the book. She turns back and re-read the sentence
and then on... "For a brief moment, we've stopped wanting anything other than what we have.
Another way to say this is
that we have given up trying to change our experience.
We are consumed by our enjoyment of the.... They just happen to be the key
that unlocked the door to desirelessness in that moment."

"Oh my," she thought, "Tuco would love this!"
She began a note.

Tuco read Arlu's note, "This prominent Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk² says it's as if
each of us had a basement in our mind in which we'd stored hundreds of movies.
Most people replay those same movies over and over again in their minds:
movies about how things should change to make us happy, about who is to blame
for our pain, about what's wrong with our life. The astounding thing is that the more
we replay each movie, the more the events in our life
begin to resemble the plot of that movie."

"Well," Tuco thought, "Arlu is in deep this time. Where'd she find this book?
Money? Spiritual and Finance?" Tuco shuddered and looked out across the spring desert.
Palo Verde bursting with yellow while wildflowers climb the hill near him.
What more is there?

Rabbits peer out of prickly pear patches, hop out, nibble, hop back.
Hmm, he thought,
there seems to be a movie plot in the rabbit's habits.
In mine too?

Nothing lulls and inebriates like money,
when you have a lot,
the world seems a better place than it actually is.

by Chekhov¹

II

Tuco wrote back, "Idealism is a setup for disillusionment.
There's nothing wrong with idealism,
but it can't really deliver the truth, because it's an idea about the truth."³
That'll have her ruminating for a week, he thought, then slowly smiled.

He remembered the Chinese proverb,
"No amount of money can make others
speak well of you behind your back."¹

He'd picked up the book Arlu quoted and was reading about "your money mask."
And the quote of David Whyte,
"There is a huge part of you that will do anything to survive.
You're never going to eliminate it - you must just be able to understand that
it's actually trying to have you survive to the next generation.
But you also have an immortal soul, which has more freedom than that too."

He wasn't sure what was meant by the money mask.
The parts with different wills to survive was familiar,
as was another quote of the Dalai Lama,
"Your future and your fortune depend on your neighbor.
This is more evident today than ever before."¹

After dinner, he turned to writing Arlu,
"What we desire may come to pass or not.
What we do then becomes the key to our future.
Whether desire is received or not, there is, at best
the temporary power these desires have to keep us
from wanting anything else."

"It is not about wanting or not wanting.
It is about reflecting, being in the moment,
burning, experiencing that moment fully
then turning to the next."

"The struggle is to simply be alive in the moment.
Not consumed by it
nor consuming it.
Just alive and there.
Not wanting
what isn't present in the moment."

He folded the note,
slipped it in the envelope,
sealed it shut,
affixed the postage.
Then, as an after thought, he wrote on the envelope,
"The seeker is the sought."°
Saddled his horse,
climbed up
and headed for the rural post office,
its time to buy some groceries
and send this note to Arlu.

And consider those that are trying to change their experience.
He thought about this, concluded that
"We each hear and see
what we ourselves see and hear."