perfect day

What does it take to make a perfect day?

I'm high on a hillside in Himachal Pradesh, in the foothills of the Himalaya. I on one of the old goat herders paths, not used at this time of year. I feel wonderfully alone up here, and it's a beautiful late afternoon. The sun has perhaps half an hour or a little more until it sets and there's barely a breath of wind. I can hear the voices of villagers talking, across the valley, a kilometre away. It sounds as if they are almost next door, the air is so still. And there is not a cloud in the sky. It's been like this all day. It feels like a perfect day. And I'm wondering, what does it take for this feeling to come, this feeling of today being perfect?

Of course the environment helps a lot: a beautiful mountain scenery here, the wooded hillsides, the pure mountain streams. It's beautiful. And this sunny cloudless day has certainly contributed. But looking inside, I see there is much more to this perfect day than these outer circumstances.

I feel a deep calmness within me, helped by a wonderful solitude. There's no one here for me to impress, no one to socialise with, nobody that I need worry about. I can relax in this deep aloneness. From this comes a great tranquility.

And looking inside again, I see also there is this feeling of not having anything to achieve, not having anywhere to go. Yes, I walk on these beautiful mountain paths, but I'm not trying to get anywhere. There is no goal. And with no goal in mind, it becomes so easy to enjoy all the little treasures that are around me: the way the sunlight is glinting on the leaves of the trees, the odd buzz of a fly, distant calls of birds, the slight trembling in some of the blades of grass near me, despite there being no wind, the lichen on the rocks, the higgledy piggledy beauty of the fallen leaves – all around me there is treasure. And having nothing to achieve, allows me to appreciate this treasure chest.

Looking inside once more, I delve even deeper into my being, still with the question, what does it take to make a perfect day? And now I'm sensing this deep harmony, a harmony between the inner and the outer. My being is resonating with the nature that is around me. And in that harmony, in that resonance, a sense of separation begins to melt. And for a moment at least, the inner and the outer are not two.

Yes, here in this oneness of being is what it takes to make a perfect day.