Santosha- Contentment

One of the reasons I love writing this blog is when I don't know what to write about I read an inspiring article or book to ignite my creative process. I just reread Joy Story by Sally Klempton. She identifies four types of joy. In a previous blog I talked about sukha which is the fleeting type of joy that comes from external sources. Sukha comes from sensual pleasure or outside circumstance. There is nothing wrong with enjoying it. The problem comes when we become attached to getting it and to avoiding pain. This creates suffering.
The spiritual antidote to eternally chasing after sukha is called santosha. Santosha means contentment. I have often been scared of contentment because I imagined it to be a cross between resignation and being brain dead. She speaks of contentment as being OK with what you have, and accepting what you are without needing anything extra to be OK. Phillip Moffitt in his book Dancing with Life talks about the suffering caused by craving to become what you are not. That craving can be wholesome in that it allows us to change and grow. When we become attached to the outcome and drive ourselves with obsessive self-improvement much suffering is created. Santosha is saying I am enough as I am. My life is enough as it is. That doesn't mean we don't still want to change and grow. Rather this yearning for growth comes from knowing we are OK as we are. It seems to me that really getting the idea of santosha would mean I could move from identifying as "one who does and gets" to "one who is grateful and rests." If I could more fully embrace santosha I could more easily read a novel lying on my back on my living room floor with my legs up the wall. Contentment has never been my strong suit. I often focus on what is missing. That leads to dissatisfaction. Then I can be critical of myself for being so dissatisfied. I would like to cultivate a santosha practice. Sally Klemptom says that opening to contentment means ,"giving up striving for what is out of reach, stop expecting more of life than what it can give us, let go of mental patterns that destroy our satisfaction like comparing our skills, character, possessions and inner attainments to others." I'd like to notice when I am dissatisfied without judging myself and bring myself back to the place inside of me that accepts and loves myself as I am. That sounds a lot more satisfying than focusing on what's missing. Satisfaction or contentment can come from accepting the smallest things as being just as they are. In the article she ends with talking about a friend of hers who is out of work and how every day he does his part to find a job and then lets go and trusts in the universe which allows him to find the place of calm inside of himself. He does the practice of breathing in "Trust "and breathing out "Trust." I recommend it.