Two mind-blowing lessons for today’s life.
My grandfather had so much fire inside that he could illuminate the darkest life with the light of his words.
He was the most awakened person I have ever met.
People called him, as a joke, “Bird’s Eye Guru” because he had an analytical view of reality. — And because he always looked sideways at your cards when you played poker with him 🙂
He did not consider himself a Guru.
He said that to be a Guru, you had to know more about marketing than about apples. And he didn’t know a shit about propaganda. His spiritual guides were the trees, his most loyal friends were the animals, and his farm was the only Asrham he knew.
He also used to say, “Don’t believe someone who claims to live in harmony with nature and doesn’t know how to milk a cow or grow good lettuce from the ground.”
He was right.
Many of today’s gurus tell us about being in tune with the universe, but they only know how to be in tune with their smartphones and brokers.
My grandfather could attract his animals with a different whistle for each one. He could tell if it was going to rain by the behavior of the birds and also find underground water in the middle of nowhere just by using a tree branch.
He grew up in a remote village of less than 2000 inhabitants. There, he learned everything he needed to live in the here and now at a level of depth that few people can understand.
At his side, “time” passed in slow motion.
I close my eyes, and I can still see the specks of dust dancing through the cracks in the blinds when he woke me up to go with him to collect firewood in the morning.
I can remember the conversations; they are tattooed on my soul.
I remember his smell of leather and tobacco. I remember his eyes, blue like a cloudless sky, that had seen the horrors of war and hunger and still kept a certain innocence and a desire… a desire to live life to the last breath.
And so he lived.
I remember once, he said to me, “Grandson, I’m dying, and I don’t want to.” He was 90 and still had the same will to live as an eight-year-old boy.
He would teach you how to live, walking.
He always said, “There is no better school than the country path, my boy. No better medicine than nature. If you are sad, it makes you happy. And the more you walk, the more you escape your pain.”
I walked a lot with him throughout my life, and in those walks, as a peripatetic philosopher, he shared with me reflections and tools that have helped me get out of almost any adverse situation.
Let me share two of those lessons with you.
On Abundance
“In life it is not enough to do things. You have to do them with love. Action and knowledge are only half the task. The other half is the intention with which you load your actions.” — My grandfather.
For my grandfather, passion was the key to life. “Everything is love,” he used to say. And I laughed because I thought he was being corny.
He taught me the power of the heart, asking me a strange question every day we walked together in the countryside.
“Have you seen the fox?” and each time, I answered him, “No, where is the fox?”
One day, he told me, “To see the fox, first the fox has to dwell in your heart so that your head does not stop yearning to find him. And only then will your eyes find the fox”.
And so it happened. I ended up seeing the fox.
But, above all, I learned to see with my heart so that my mind would redirect my eyes to what my desire longed for.
There is no better way to get what you want.
Lesson: You have to look for your fox in your heart (money, romantic partner, dream job) and fall in love with your fox until your fox dwells in your head, and your head directs your eyes to it.
On living a good life
“Being grateful and forgiving is like eating and shitting. The former feeds you and the latter discharges you but both are necessary for the soul.” — My grandfather.
For my grandfather, being grateful was a way of life. He always smiled (even when he took out his dentures).
He knew that the quality of life is directly proportional to the ability to be grateful for what you have.
He always reminded me, “If you spend the day being thankful for what you have, you run out of time to ache for what you don’t.”
And he was right.
On the other hand, my grandfather strongly advocated not acting on impulse. He always used his walks to distance himself from the pain. To calm the waters so he could think clearly.
He didn’t engage in pointless arguments if one of his children gave him disgust. Or in unnecessary reproaches. He would take his cane and hat and walk in the fields, sometimes alone, sometimes with the sheep.
He could spend the whole day away from home. But whenever he returned, he would call the person who had upset him to find solutions and avoid reproach or conflict.
For my grandfather, the secret of friendship and good coexistence lay in forgiving quickly the offenses of loved ones. And he knew what he was talking about as he was the father of eight children.
He had grown up during the civil war and lived through 40 years of military dictatorship. He knew that envy, misunderstandings, and hatred were something that simmered in families. When resentment erupted, there was no turning back, and old quarrels could contaminate the hearts of entire generations with evil.
Lesson: You must be grateful for what you have because they are the tools with which you will get what you long for.
And you also have to learn to distance yourself from offenses. And not to decide in the heat of the moment, things that have to be meditated in the cold.
But above all, you must learn to forgive quickly because hatred boils your blood and can ruin your life in a second with a simple burst of anger.
These two lessons have helped me to have an abundant and reasonably happy life. I hope they will help you too.
A virtual hug
AG
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