Ordinary is Best

We must be willing to be completely ordinary people, 

which means accepting ourselves as we are without trying to become greater, purer, more spiritual, more insightful.  

If we can accept our imperfections as they are, quite ordinarily, then we can use them as part of the path.  But if we try to get rid of our imperfections, then they will be enemies, obstacles, on the road to our "self improvement." 

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche 

I love Baptiste Power Yoga.  I went to Level One Teacher training with Baron Baptiste this August.  Hanging on the wall in front of him, in enormous letters so that Baron could always see it was a poster saying:

I am a concern for looking good. 

I thought that was pretty bold.  It seems to me that we are either unconscious about wanting to look good, or assuming it is important to look good.  In these cases, our egos are in charge.  If you're thinking, "no, not me, I don't care about what people think," I suggest you consider that you care that people think you don't care what people think.  I suggest that you are as ordinary as the rest of us. Just like the rest of us, you have a personality/ego that wants to look good.  This is not a personal deficiency; it is a characteristic of being human.  

What I love about Baron's sign is that it turns the whole ego "problem" on its head.  There is no problem.  There is no need to try to get over wanting to look good.  There is an ordinary concern for looking good that we can see when it arises.  That's all.   

I saw these ordinary moments today:  

1. I made my nephew an ice cream cake this morning.  Earlier this week I let my daughter talk me into buying the mega-stuff Oreos for the crust rather than the plain ones.  As I was smushing the Oreos into the bottom of the pan, it seemed like there was a shortage of cookie and an excess of cream.  "I should have followed my instincts and gotten the plain Oreos. I'm an irresponsible aunt."
2. My daughter pointed out how crabby I was acting this afternoon. I thought about going ballistic yelling, "are you kidding me?!?  Want to see crabby? You haven't seen anything yet!!!" I thought I would probably get more help with dinner if I used that approach and that pissed me off.  
3. My brother said he and his family are going to my sister's this weekend.  Nobody invited me.  "What is wrong with me?" I thought.  

Ordinary experience at its best. 

We're getting free here, people! Freedom from being anything other than who we are.  Freedom is the name of the game.  Freedom is the path!