Simplify and Enjoy.
There are 2 phrases that have “come home with me” from the retreat with Ajahn Sucitto. I say it that way because it definitely feels like these phrases have somehow actively connected with me — taken up residence in my mind/heart/body — in some way that feels….deeply lasting…indelible. Like a psychic tattoo! But deeper and more transformative than that.
One of the phrases is: Simplify and Enjoy. (The other is: Venerate and Serve, but that’s for another post.)
Sucitto was talking about samadhi practice (concentration, unification of mind) when the phrase Simplify and Enjoy first “stepped through the door.”
“Samadhi is really about simplicity. Simplifying. Cut to the chase. Trim off the discursiveness — the “ifs” and “ands” and “buts” and “maybes” — get to the point; stay with it; get focused. And enjoy. Samadhi is simplification that enables us to more fully enjoy and deepen into what we’re experiencing.”
And there was a certain “ah-ha” quality in hearing that as a way to approach and understand practice. But it was more than that, too. I somehow got, in a very profound way, that the intention to Simplify and Enjoy…..is the way I want to live my life.
***
(image from Cheap Hotels, by Daisann McLane)