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I think that “Having It All” is a recipe for unhappiness. In most cases it can’t be done. And if it is done, it is not sustainable. In the words of the Dhammapada:
If you are filled with desire
Your sorrows swell
Like the grass after the rain.But if you subdue desire
Your sorrows fall from you
Like drops of water from a lotus flower.
An All-But-Abandoned Park in Santa Monica
This was for me a day of taking stock and meditating. It all started with a fortune cookie I received at lunch from Siam Chan: “You can only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
When I got home, I decided to take a walk to a little park at 26th Street and Broadway in Santa Monica. I grabbed my copy of Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha and set out. It’s a nice little park which is all but abandoned on weekends. (On weekdays, the surrounding office buildings are crowded with folk.)
Arriving there, I grabbed a chair and started to read. As usual, Buddha hit the nail on the head:
And yet it is not good conduct That helps you on the way, Nor ritual, nor book learning, Nor withdrawal into the self, Nor deep meditation. None of these confers mastery or joy. O seeker! Rely on nothing Until you want nothing.
Again and again, it is he stifling of desire that is the key:
Death overtakes the man
Who gathers flowers
When with distracted mind and
thirsty senses
He searches vainly for happiness
In the pleasures of the world.
Death fetches him away
As a flood carries off a sleeping village.
Gautama Buddha
The following is a section from the Shambhala Pocket Classics edition of Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha as translated by Thomas Byrom. It is called “The Master.”
At the end of the way The master finds freedom From desire and sorrow— Freedom without bounds. Those who awaken Never rest in one place. Like swans, they rise And leave the lake. On the air they rise And fly an invisible course, Gathering nothing, storing nothing. Their food is knowledge. They live upon emptiness. They have seen how to break free. Who can follow them? Only the master. Such is his purity. Like a bird, He rises on the limitless air And flies an invisible course. He wishes for nothing. His food is knowledge. He lives upon emptiness. He has broken free. He is the charioteer. He has tamed his horses, Pride and the senses. Even the gods admire him. Yielding like the earth, Joyous and clear like the lake, Still as a stone at the door, He is free from life and death. His thoughts are still. His words are still. His work is stillness. He sees his freedom and is free. The master surrenders his beliefs. He sees beyond the end and the beginning. He cuts all ties. He gives up all his desires. He resists all temptations. And he rises. And wherever he lives, In the city or in the country, In the valley or in the hills, There is great joy. Even in the empty forest He finds joy Because he wants nothing.
Tarnmoor 
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