A stirring inner debate about life or death is the subject of a famous monologue in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The question ( I paraphrase) is whether it’s better in the mind to bear the challenges of life or decide to escape those challenges by dying to them. Every day we have a choice to be or not to be, not in the way that Hamlet agonized over his life, but in our choice to be who we really are, or to try to be an image of who we think we should be. We are love expressed moment by moment in the world. The “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” are illusions, ” a sea of troubles” that will wash away in time. Hamlet painstakingly lists all those illusions that cause us to suffer (again I paraphrase): oppression, pride, unrequited love, corruption, unmerited credit, unsatisfying work, and delays of the legal system. All of these “slings and arrows” are invitations to believe that life is a threat instead of the opportunity to be fully alive in the present moment with Spirit. Our being-ness is not a question to be debated. We are spiritual beings expressing love in a conditional universe. We are not human doings, but human beings. Choose to be peacefully present in the Now.
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nine principles for joy 
Loved the Blog for Tuesday! It gives pause, remember to be in the Now. Remembering we are Human – Be – ings is Powerful! For no matter how much “doing” we do we will never complete everything we desire. We are expanding and therefore continuing with no ending we are BEING. Love the reminder!
How right you are and what a simple yet complicated challenge it is to just be. Doing is so much more engrained in our current culture….idle hands and so on… Thank you for this wonderful post and now I will learn to sit in contemplation.
I started meditation classes in 2008 at a deeper level than I had ever experienced; attending a meditation center three times a week and occasionally in a sitting and walking weekend meditation retreat several times a year; in addition to practicing in my home more than once a day and while driving my car. What I’ve come to be aware of over time is that I am to live, more often than not, through a meditative state, a continuous practice of quieting the mind. I should choose to practice from moment to moment living, moving, and having my being through the stilled silence of my mind. By focusing on my breath I have found when I arise from meditation and resume my life activities, living seems easier. There is something very revealing as I allow those “slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune” to just pass through my mind without attachment, without judgment, and without inquiry that ushers a natural flow of my life activities. An intuitive spirit speaks during meditation and says, ‘The Lord is in its holy temple, let all the earth be quiet. That I may know that my body is the temple of God and that I Am an expression of God.’ I paraphrase that message to say, the Law of my Life, the Divine Being that I Am, is present within us always. However, stillness, quietness, control of earthly thoughts, emotions, and experiences awakens our awareness to our divinity. It is a moment to moment practice to overcome our habitual relationship allowing our minds to control us. Thanks, Ellie, for allowing me this space to share and remind myself of who I Am in truth.
I am grateful for the experience of peace in the present moment. I allow thoughts to come and go, and just be with the moments.
The moment is the most powerful place we can ever access. Inhale Compassion for Self, Exhale Gratitude for the ALL in all. 🙂