🕊️ I Found It There

August 04, 2025

TWO-MINUTE MONK
Ancient wisdom for modern life, every Monday.

🧘 Monk Thought

“I searched for my Self
until I grew weary,
but no one, I know now,
reaches the hidden knowledge by means of effort.
Then, absorbed in ‘Thou art This,’
I found the place of wine.”

— Lalla (14th century)

💡 Monk Light

Lalla walked away from her husband, family, and caste expectations to live as a wandering mystic.

She searched. Hard.

Fasted. Wandered. Doubted.

And then she stopped trying.

Stopped striving to find something distant.

That’s when it opened, not by effort but by release.

Her words remind us:

Sometimes the door only opens when we stop rattling it.

Lalla (also known as Lal Ded) was a 14th-century Kashmiri mystic and poet. She spoke in short, vivid verses called vakhs: earthy, ecstatic and filled with the fire of direct experience.

👣 Monk Move

Today, let go of one thing you’ve been straining to control: an outcome, a thought, a judgment.

Say quietly:

“I found it there.”

And rest in what already is.

🔐 The Monk Vault is now open.
You can find all the previous posts by the Two-Minute Monk in the Vault. The weekly post from the Monk will always be free but at some point in the future, I will create a small subscription of no more than £2 per month to access the Vault to see previous posts and get extra material. For now, though, the Vault remains open and free. Enjoy!