Homer Simpson Knows Best
Personally I’m a huge Simpsons fan and my favorite character is Homer. He is utterly stupid, yet you can’t help but love him. For all his mistakes Homer has a great attitude towards life. No matter how badly he screws up, he always finds a way to triumph. In fact there are many things we can learn from Homer. Homer does not think much, that much is clear. If only we could think as little as Homer does, life would be much less complicated for us. Too much thinking is like a sickness. Most people identify with their thoughts, but in truth we are not our thoughts. We are spirit, or higher self. This spirit or higher self is the part of us that is one with God. It is who we really are. It contains all knowledge and wisdom. It is infinitely intelligent.
By thinking too much and not cultivating stillness in consciousness, we don’t tap into spirit and infinite intelligence. Instead we are constantly thinking. We are always plotting, analyzing, judging, etc. As long as our heads are filled with noise, we shut out our higher selves, and therefor don’t tap into it’s infinite wisdom. So how do we remedy this ‘sickness’, this constant noise that is going on inside or heads? There are many ways, but the best one I know of is meditation. Also it helps to practice non-judgement. By constantly judging we also create inner noise. So stop analyzing, interpreting and judging for a few hours a day, and see what happens. Meditation should be done for 15-20 minutes twice a day. Just sit still with your eyes closed and focus on your breathing, or find someone to teach you if that is what you’d like.
To come back to Homer Simpson, he actually says a very important thing. If we only rely on our devices and ‘try our best’, we ultimately fail. By surrendering to your higher self you allow an intelligence infinitely greater than your intellect to take over. In Zen tradition there is a a principle called ‘do less and accomplish more’. This is no different from living in a state of surrender. It means that the less you rely on your ego and intellect, and the more you surrender to infinite intelligence, the easier life becomes. This is also called the law of least effort. Too often we try to control things and have it all our way, when in fact the universe always knows best and all we need to do is go with the flow. Of course this doesn’t mean thought is useless. Lets just say it’s overrated…
great post, once again!
Thanks Ioana