when you need to simplify

I've been over-complicating lately. We all do this, and to some extent I think it's a natural cycle. The ego loves complexity. The more complex the better. I've begun to think that a lot of the complexity and categorizing in certain schools of Buddhist methodology are aimed at keeping the ego completely enthralled with detail so that realization can come in the back door, so to speak.

Maybe it just takes both. Complexity evokes simplicity.

Here are some quotes for times when you just need to simplify and stop all the mental seeking:

From the introduction to ACIM:

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.

•   •   •

This one I found in someone's signature line on a lucid dreaming message board, so I have no attribution for it, but I love it:

It's okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

•   •   •

From Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced state."

To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons—we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.

•   •   •

From a Dzogchen text:
I am so simple that you cannot understand me. I am so close to you that you cannot see me.

•   •   •

And again from ACIM—one of my favorites from the Workbook:

He speaks from nearer than your heart to you. His voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He.

Comments

[Don White]

When I first encountered, "One problem, one solution" I was like, "You're kidding!". I always had a hard time boiling things down to their simpler forms, but that line, though I believed it, was hard for me to grasp. Now I see that everything always comes back, waaay back, to that.

[Simon]

I've read that one before, about it being okay in the end. Always loved it. Coming back to things like these is something I would benefit from. Keep it simple, more often.

[Aileen]

Back in college one of my computer science professors got so tired of our turning in programs that were way too complex, he made t-shirts for everyone with the word: KISS, "Keep it Simple, Stupid." Another favorite is "Less is more."

I think you're right though that it's the simplicity beyond the complexity that is helpful. It's the ability to synthesize. You've been through the complexity and now you finally get what simple means!