More than enough ?

How do we know when we have enough of anything ?

I'm not talking about satiation here - such as having too many drinks, too much ice cream or too many pairs of shoes, like Imelda Marcos. How much is too much when it comes to things like food or consumer goods, time spent working for a living, or finding ways to be happier in our lives by seeking out lifestyle gurus and religions ? Is life really all about reaching out for the next best thing (be it nirvana or nike trainers) rather than appreciating what we have at our own feet ?

I'm 58 now and can't be bothered to compete anymore, so I think I have found a soul mate in The Times journalist John Naish.

His recent book "Enough: breaking free from the world of more" was just what I needed to read. He champions the importance of setting limitations on our personal desires - what he calls developing a sense of "enough". A halt sign in the "my way" code I reckon.

Here's a quote from his book about the true value of friendship:

"The world of more tells us that the most important things in our lives are the consumer items that we don't yet have in our lives. But in truth our most valuable possessions can't be bought or sold, according to a survey of 10,000 Britons who were asked to rate their level of happiness and answer questions on their wealth, health and social relations....

According to research conducted by Nattavudh Powdthavee at the London Institute of Education, here are the things we value most, together with how much they are worth:

• Seeing friends and relatives most days is worth the equivalent of a pay rise of £63,833 a year.
• Chating to neighbours frequently makes us as happy as if we had been handed a £37,000 increase.
• Getting married is the same as an extra £50,000 in the pay packet (and that's after the cost of the wedding).
• Excellent health pips all of them, coming in at £300,000 a year."

Don't you just hate it when intangibles like happiness are given a monetary value ? But then again, maybe we do need to take a long hard look at what really matters most to us.

Enough said.

Enough: Breaking free from the world of more (2008) by John Naish is published by Hodder & Stoughton.

On Taking Ourselves Lightly

"G.K Chesterton once said that, because they take themselves lightly, angels can fly. One sees so many faces dulled by a seriousness which, if it were born of grief, would be understandable. But the kind of seriousness which drags man down to the earth and kills the life of the spirit is not the child of sorrow but a sort of play-acting in which the player is deceived into identifying himself with his part.

There is a seriousness in the play of children, but even this is different, for the child is aware that it is only playing and its seriousness is an indirect form of fun. But this seriousness becomes a vice in the adult because he makes a religion of the game, so identifying himself with his part or position that he fears to lose it.

This is especially so when the unenlightened man attains to any degree of responsibility: he develops a heaviness of touch, a lack of abandon, a stiffness which indicates that he is using his dignity as stilts to keep his head above adversity. His trouble is that instead of playing his part, his part plays him and makes him the laughing stock of all who see through his guise.

The message of eastern wisdom is that the forms of life are maya [play] and therefore profoundly lacking in seriousness from the viewpoint of reality. For the world of form and illusion, which the majority take to be the real world, is none other than the play of the Spirit - or as Hindus have called it, the Dance of Shiva. He is enlightened who joins in the play knowing it as play, for man sufferes only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

Thus, man only becomes man when he loses the gods' sense of levity. For the gods (or Buddhas, or what you will) are simply our own innermost essence and this could shatter the universe to nothingness in a moment if it willed. But it does not and it keeps the worlds moving for the divine purpose of play because, like a musician, it is a creator and delights in the fashioning of a rhythm and a melody. To play with it is, therefore, not a duty but a joy and he who does not see it as a joy can neither do nor understand it."


"Become What You Are" (1995)
Alan Watts

Now that I am older

Now that I am older, I've discovered a few things...

I started out with nothing - and I still have most of it.

My wild oats have turned into prunes and All-Bran.

I finally got my head together but now my body is falling apart.

If all is not lost, then where is it ?

It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.

These days I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter - I go somewhere to get something and then wonder what I'm here after.

If you're reading this do let me know as I may have forgotten to post it!
Dennis