Winning feels great…

Until it doesn’t.

We live with the Law of Gravity here—what goes up, must and will come down.

Similarly, there is the Law of Inverse Gravity—what comes down, must and will go up.

We have day and we have night.

We have winter and we have summer.

Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose.

The two, seemingly opposed poles are in an endless dance with one another. It is impossible to stay fixed in either or (which should come as good news to some).

The ego, in innocence, not wanting to understand the grander Way of Things, uses effort to both stay high in winning or stay low in so called losing.

Yes—some people want to be depressed, just as some people want to be the champion of forever.

While the ego will enjoy some short-term success relative to the achievement of its wishes, the energy supply of personal willpower and effort is combustible and does not regenerate on its own. More becomes needed.

More work, more hiding, more substances, more playing it safe, more risk, more reward.

If the push of the ego continues, accident will befall us. Injury. Disease. Various breakdowns and slip ups.

At this point, an opening is created. Ideally, the sting of the accident is such that it prompts us to turn the search light within and investigate the inner causes of our problematic behaviour.

We will either see, in lighthearted fashion, the folly of our ways and make the appropriate adjustment, or we will push even harder to “get over it” and resume the status quo.

Pushing even hard to get back into the winning-losing — i.e., happy-sad — flow will, at some point down the line, create an even greater accident. And another, and another after that.

Until, we finally get the joke that many are starting to get.

The choice between winning and losing is not an actual choice. Both roads lead to misery, eventually. Who really wants that?

We are left, then, with the one and only choiceless choice—to surrender, or not.

That is—to give in, or to push. To be ourselves, or to be our egos.

It is a choiceless choice because nobody wants to suffer indefinitely. At some point, every one of us will turn.

To turn means to let go of our effort, willpower, and thinking of what is best for us.

It means to give into the moment and align with what is true for us—right here and now.

It means to stop considering consequences and act without expectation. Just because.

This path of simplicity brings the greatest reward or “win” of them all.

Causeless and abiding peace, love, and joy.

Who doesn’t want that?