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The first few pages of Life Sorted, free to read here. If they reach you, the rest of the book is waiting.
Opening: An Anchor in a Busy Life
I was once told a story by a monk about the dung beetle.
Dung beetles play a critical role in Australia’s grazing ecosystem. They roll revolting piles of cow poo into many small balls, which they then bury into the soil. They spend their lives up to their eyeballs in poop, working with the manure all day long, rolling it, pushing it and ultimately trying to get rid of it. Do you sometimes feel your day is often spent just pushing excrement uphill?
If you are the dung beetle, you have no appreciation of the world outside the poo. The dung beetle is not aware of the wonders surrounding him, away from the dung.
This can be an analogy for our lives. If you are living your life in an unfocused, disorganised, unaware way, then it can feel like you are in the poo all the time. Possibly you, or your parents, or your partner, or your friends, have a glimpse of what life could be like for you if only you got your life sorted.
That is what this book is for. To still the busy mind and help you learn techniques that get your life together.
It is not a religious book, though it borrows from many religious traditions. It is not a productivity book, though you will be more productive when you have finished. It is not a self-help book of the kind that promises you a new life in thirty days, though I do believe you can change your life in three weeks if you are willing.
It is a kitchen-table guide. I imagine the two of us sitting across from each other with a cuppa. I imagine you tired - or anxious, or grieving, or just tired of being tired - and I imagine talking with you, gently, about what I have learned in nearly fifty years of meditation practice and over thirty years of teaching it.
What I have learned is this: a quiet mind is not the result of a quiet life. A quiet mind is a skill. You can build it the way you build any other skill - a little each day, in the place where you already are, with the time you already have. You do not need a monastery, a mountain or a free weekend. You need a chair, a few minutes and a willingness to start.
That is what these eight sessions will give you.
The course is designed to be completed over eight weeks - one session a week, the audio practice every day, the small daily exercises woven into your normal routine. You will end up with a quieter, clearer mind, a calmer body, a tidier life and a way of meeting whatever the world throws at you next. I know this because I have watched it happen, in classroom after classroom, for decades.
I have watched it happen in students with phobias, in students with ADHD, in students recovering from grief, in upper school kids drowning in their lockers and in a travelling salesman with a back seat that he described as a tip!
It also happened to me.
Be patient and resolute. Just keep persevering.
Now - let’s put the kettle on.
Robinanne Lavelle