When a butterfly lands on your arm, it is so light you may not notice it. If a bird settles on your shoulder, it is heavier than the butterfly, but still very light. And yet I tell you, the whole world and everything in it is lighter than these.
Not one particle of the world is bound, but every atom of it is free and buoyant, playful in its movements, and ready to act with alacrity to whatever the moment may demand. Everything is light and free but the human mind, which is burdened by many cares. The world itself is without care. It has no cause for concern. It simply is what it is and does what it does.
The sages have taught that you can join with this freedom by cultivating detachment, equanimity, or a stoical attitude—by holding yourself at arm’s length from attachments and entanglements. Just the opposite is true. The path of desire that leads you on the long journey of your soul is the only way that you can become as light as a butterfly and as free and brisk as a bird.
This makes no sense before you do it. But once you have tasted it, you will know that it is true. This is the sum of all essential wisdom. Everything else is a way of talking yourself out of who you really are.
[art: Martin Johnson Head, 1865]