Stink of Garbage
The odd part is, I don’t do anything about it. I’m not cleaning it up. I’m only resisting it in my head.
Today I tried something different. Instead of avoiding, I allowed myself to smell it. Reality, as it is. And I noticed—it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. The wind shifts, the nose adjusts, and often there’s hardly any smell at all.
That’s when it struck me: most suffering comes not from the thing itself, but from our resistance to it. We live in imagination more than in reality. By fighting what is, we double our pain. By accepting, we cut it in half.
Garbage is just garbage. But the same applies to traffic, to noise, to heat, even to the uncomfortable moments in life. The mind wants to avert, but often it’s that very aversion that makes life harder.
Sometimes the lighter path is not escape, but acceptance.
Not saying don't be ambitious, not saying don't try, etc - just saying that once you've reached a level of not having to worry about essentials (food, clothing, housing, water, etc) with enough "headroom" to also have fun in life, do you really need more? Will you be happier with more? Really happier? Or will you just get a short burst of happiness, followed by hollowness as you realise that no matter how much you earn, you can blow all of it on crap.