Greetings and welcome to I Am Sufficient, my new blog on sufficiency.  If you come to this site via www. sufficiencyeconomics.ca, welcome again.  This site deals more generally and perhaps more esoterically with the topic of sufficiency.

This topic interests me deeply and I beleive the awareness of this state of being promises great happiness and abundance.   Please join me in discussing the relevance and scope of this subject and in expanding the awareness for all.

The term sufficiency describes a state of being, in which there is an awareness of completeness.  It is an awareness of the self as fully whole, conscious that nothing or nobody can add or take that away from you.  It is the foundation for happiness and indeed for all states of mind and it is also the foundation for free choice.  As such, it is an important concept that has implications for all that we do.  Unfortunately, it is rarely talked about by metaphysicians, philosophers or psychologists.

The reason I became interested in the concept is that I believe the exploration and development sufficiency may be integral to human happiness, to sustainable development and perhaps even to our survival.

If sufficiency is indeed a fundamental type of awareness, the development of which is important to our well-being, it is worth exploring.

My thoughts on sufficiency  are by no means complete or perhaps even coherent but your thoughts may be, so join in and submit your input and  I will respond as best I can.

I would like to start off the discussion of this first post with my own question:

How would you define sufficiency?

Knowing our sufficiency is the easiest and perhaps the hardest thing in the world that we mortals can realize in our life time.  It is easiest thing, because we are indeed already sufficient and we just need to wake up to it.  It is hardest thing, because we are trapped in the illusion of insufficiency.  We can remove part of this illusion through reason but reason will only get us so far.  Ultimately, sufficiency is a known or a felt  from the heart, the centre of our consciousness.  That knowing or feeling is much easier to realize if we able to breath deeply and consciously, because breathing as such gets us out of our heads and into our hearts and tunes us in to our beingness, which is essentially the same thing as sufficiency.

Fear is perhaps one of the most powerful and prevelant emotions we feel, particularly theses days as we see uncertainty everywher.  Fear is not a bad emotion, it often protects from harm but it can sometimes be so overwhelming that we let it rule our lives, stressing us into sickness and even death.

Fear is rooted in the perception that we can somehow be hurt or diminished.  While this may be true from a temporary or superficial level, it is false from an essential or spiritual level.  We are infinite, indestructible beings that cannot be diminised even in the slightest way.   Knowing this is the same as knowing our sufficiency.  This knowing can pull us out of our fears and bring sanity, calm and peace to our daily lives.  Get in touch with your sufficiency on a regular basis and watch your fears subside and your joy expand.

Change is a constant in our lives.  It is all around us – we age, relationships begin and they end, the seasons change, the economy grows and shrinks, etc..  As much as we know this, we generally don’t like it.  We prefer that things stay the same…at least the things we like.   Indeed, we fear that change is often for the worse, because it takes us into the unknown.

Knowing that we are sufficient can help us deal with change.  It give us confidence to cope with whatever comes our way, knowing that our essence cannot be diminished.  With this perspective in mind we don’t have to fear change.  Indeed, we can see change as a means to expanding our perspective of existence.  Change is therefore a doorway to expansion.  Embrace it and explore it the way you would, a wonderful present.

Awareness of our sufficiency is realized by using our talents and abilities.  By doing so we gain confidence in our capabilities and thereby our ability to command our lives and our choices.    What often holds us back from using our talents and abilities and thereby our awareness of our sufficiency is fear, particularly fear of failure.  We fear failing or being seen as a failure and so we give up before we even attempt an effort or we give up if we don’t achieve “perfection” on the first try.  And yet failure should not be a reason to forgo using our talents and abilities.  You can not fail in using your talents and abilities.  You may fail to win public approval for your efforts but so what.  Leading our lives based on fickle public opinion is a recipe for schizophrenia.  Failure is an illusion and fear of public opinion is simply misguided.

What does sufficiency mean?  Is it a sense of “enoughness” or something more than that?  Many in the sufficiency debate believe that it is a sense of enoughness.  This perspective seems to be driven by a reaction to modern day hyper-consumption or greed, which has left many feeling unfulfilled and depressed.  Others in the sufficiency debate believe that sufficiency means more than “enoughness” – namely that it connotes a sense of abundance.

So which definition is correct?  I believe that both have merit but that they describe different aspects of human nature.  Enoughness is correct in the sense that it implies that human nature needs more than simply a material fix; indeed, because it is mostly spiritual, it needs less materialism and more spirituality.

At the same time “enoughness” doesn’t seem to be enough.  If sufficiency is to reflect our spiritual nature, surely it must reflect the limitlessness or abundance of that nature.  If this is the case, sufficiency might be defined as “more than enough”.

Sufficiency is a state of being wherein one has a sense or awareness of completeness.  Integral to this sense of completeness is an awareness of the power of choice.   This awareness is a knowing that you have the power to choose how to react in any circumstance.  This power is really the only power we have in existence and it is at the same time the most powerful tool in the world.

We really have no power over others unless they choose to give it to us.  We only have the power to direct our own lives through our own choices.  Modest as this sounds, this is an extremely powerful tool, since choice drives action and action drives achievement.

In terms of a social goal, we have said in the past that if you want to build sufficiency, you need to invest in people’s talents and abilities.  This is still the case because it gets us to choice.  Investing in people’s talents and abilities helps people realize their ability to help themselves and at the same time makes people aware that they have a multitude of choices to choose from.  So sufficiency development is ultimately about investing in the capacity of people to choose for themselves what their destiny will be.  What could be a more appropriate goal?

We live in a society where judgement is the norm.  From the time we are born through to our death we judge and are judged constantly.  Indeed, we are so accustomed to judgement that when there is an absence of judgement in our lives we  feel lost.  Our mind is addicted to judging, to sizing up, to boxing in all that we see and experience.   However, as normal as judgement seems, it is often a hinderance to the discovery of our sufficiency.

Judgements of the self and others usually result from feelings of being lesser or greater than and these feelings are inconsistent with feelings of sufficiency.  Sufficiency is a state of being wherein there is a feeling of completeness.  In this state there is no greater or lesser than, only that which is.  Therefore, to reach a sense of sufficiency requires that we observe without judgement or better simply appreciate what is in front of us.

Sufficiency is beingness. It is an awareness that nothing is lacking in the self or one’s environment and therefore leads to recognition of what is.   If you can view existence without judgement or qualification and appreciate it in its completeness, you can perceive beingness.  This “isness” is the foundation of existence. It is existence with out condition.  It  is just existence, plain and simple.   This awareness is important, because it supports individuals in their choices towards enlightenment. If you realize that nothing is lacking, that everything is complete and whole, it tends to lead to choices that do not judge or harm others or your environment. It tends to lead to choices of pure appreciation or love.