At Ease?

At Ease

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

Ryokan, The Enlightened Heart, an Anthology of Sacred Poetry

Hmmm... what an enticing picture. Reminds me of the 'perfect plan' that Gus constructs in David James Duncan's The River Why - living in his self-sufficient little hermit cottage in the woods fishing for 8 hours a day. I often wish I was less driven and 'responsible' and ambitious and could just 'be'. Let the world take care of itself.
Some wise fellow at Quaker meeting in Canberra last week said this:

"The most dangerous people in the world are those who claim to know what is wrong with the world and how to fix it".

Hmm. I'm challenged by how to balance Ryokan and this wise Quakers' thoughts with the calling I seem to have that encourages me to change/save/enlighten myself/society/the world.
E B White seems to capture my struggle:

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

E B White, Planning the Day, Notes and Comment, the New Yorker