How important am I? On the cosmic scale, not at all. What I need to learn is that even on the microscopic scale, I am not important at all. This is difficult to understand. "I am not important!" Who says that? No one can say that without a little loss of self-esteem. I am starting to think if one can say "I am not important!" without losing any self-esteem, then, one has found the secret to happiness.
It seems to be a choice in everything we do moment to moment in our lives. When performing any activity, we must make a choice. How important am I? How important are my feelings? If we choose to make ourselves important and attach our feelings to the result of activities, then, we are bound to controlled by our activities. Instead, if we choose to say, "I am not important" and "my feelings are not important", then, we become detached with the work we are performing or its results. Suddenly, the work we are performing need not satisfy us, success does not come from the success of the activity we perform. I think that is the secret to happiness.
I would like to apply this secret to my work and life everyday this year. I have meditated on and off over many years after first reading Jon Kabat Zinn way back. At first, I found it very easy, then, at some point, I simply lost interest. I should have kept it up. I think this realization I had today about my importance (or the lack thereof) is the core of meditation. One goal of meditation is to disconnect the material world from the soul, to disconnect the outside from the inside. I think answering the question "How important am I?" and asking it over and over again in the context of activities we perform is an important self-aligning, self-correcting mechanism to get happier moment after moment.
Wish me luck. I wish you luck.
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