It all adds up!

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience

with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own

imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them

- every day begin the task anew.

-Saint Francis de Sales

In a village on the Blue Mountain in India, the local bank had 

a very neighborly arrangement for collecting funds from the villagers. 

Poor villagers have very little to save, only a few copper

pennies at most. To encourage them to deposit even these few

pennies every day, the bank employed a boy with a bicycle to

go into the village to their homes, collect their few

coppers, and enter the total in their account. 

In meditation it is the same: when the Eternal Self comes, we can

say, "We are no great saint, but a few times today we

have tried to be patient. A few times today we have tried to

put our family first. A few times today we have resisted

some little craving for personal satisfaction." 

This is how most of us are going to make progress for a long

time: a few pennies here, a few pennies there, collected

every day. But in these innumerable little acts of

selflessness lies spiritual growth, which over a long period

can transform every one of us into a loving person. To quote

the bank advertisement, "It all adds up."-Sri Easwaran

In the environment in which I live, sometimes it seems that one must do something grand or profound to make an impression, or to achieve some sort of notoriety. In my former way of life, I can recall thinking that one's life was not of much worth unless you had a reputation for doing great and notable things...for being noticed by the public, by being interviewed or featured in the newspaper. 

This is such a worldly way of thought...indicative of an ego that stretches and yearns for esteem, and affection.

But now I recognize that a life of worth is lived in the way Sri Easwaran alludes to in his little thought I shared above. Seeking selflessness cannot help but be a blessing to others...this is by definition what selflessness requires...and blessing to others is the organic yield or the fruit of that path of selflessness. 

The path of selflessness is the path of surrender..."not my will, but Your will be done"(This is the Lord's Prayer- the other prayer is the Disciple's prayer...)

In the kenotic way of Jesus the Christ, the path of surrender of the self or ego is the Way I believe He desires us for us to live our lives. 

It all adds up.