Live five miles deep.

     Ever hear the saying, You're a million miles wide but only one inch deep? Isn't that the case with a lot of people today? With the internet there is so much exposure to information that people do know an awful lot of stuff. But is it working for them?

     Then there is the flip side of the coin: the overly intellectual people. They're not satisfied with Beethoven's 9th symphony performed by your local orchestra. No, it has to be by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan (and preferably the performance of May 17th, 1956).
     So are those people deep?
     I don't think so. Deep is what's in your soul.
     Think of your life as an ocean. In fact, think that you're the entire ocean. The thing is you can choose to abide anywhere in that ocean. On the surface the wind is blowing, the waves are rocking, boats are cutting across it. All kinds of busyness is going on there. But down deep is a different story. Down deep is a very different story. Think of how still and peaceful it is at five miles deep. Does it matter what's going on at the surface when you're abiding at five miles deep?
     Oh, you can glance up there at the surface to see what's going on.You may even go up there for a while to check things out or attend to something. But hang at five miles deep. At five miles deep, nothing can touch you. You're not going to be rocked by the waves or buffeted by the wind or annoyed by the incessant buzzing of jet skis cutting endlessly across the surface. Let them do what they want up there.
     At five miles deep, peace and grounding and stability is where you abide. Even a hurricane at the surface can't touch you there.
     So resist the temptations of the shallow life. The teasers of the TV News ("Arsenic found in drinking water. More at ten." The blandishments of websites. ('Lindsay Lohan wows in curvy dress.') The phony depth  of intellectualism.
     This from the poet Rumi:

'Ibn Khafif, life is short. Use the portion that's left to deepen yourself.'

     Deepen yourself and live at five miles deep.