"If you suffer it is not because things are impermanent.
It is because you believe things are permanent"
Nietzsche says," haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself".
We are all in haste...so distraction becomes the answer. We'd rather slip away into social media or anything equally numbing than deliberately face the "big" questions in life. "Why are we here?" Or even the fact that life is short and it will end someday. These thoughts can get scary and painfully urgent _ addressing them would be like opting for an existential crisis.
The truth is that we are desperate for a sense of autonomy, a feeling that we're in charge and in control. When we allow ourselves we realise that life is like a bar of soap, bubble-like, ever dwindling and dissolving and being washed away in the vast tide.
The house I call mine, the loved ones that colour my life, the possessions that surround me....all just visiting my life. My goals and challenges, even the flowers I just bought will crumble in a little while leaving a gentle, pleasant, transient sensory recollection. Memory.
Eckhart Tolle is ever so right, "The only thing we ever have is the present moment." Only the now is here. In this moment everything exists. And everything is impermanent. I can be anywhere in the universe right now. In my head. In this moment. In the past. In the future. In my blindness or in seeing. And it's temporary. It will change. It will move on.
Thich Nhat Hanh points out, "We may not experience a tremendous loss when a flower dies. We expect it to. We know it is impermanent."
So, at the beginning of 2016, I deeply cherish all that surrounds me. I have gratitude for the gift of feeling and being able to experience this life and all the prickly, beautiful, empty, moving, changing forces. Now. Because I choose so.
Happy New Year!
Until next time!
It is because you believe things are permanent"
Nietzsche says," haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself".
We are all in haste...so distraction becomes the answer. We'd rather slip away into social media or anything equally numbing than deliberately face the "big" questions in life. "Why are we here?" Or even the fact that life is short and it will end someday. These thoughts can get scary and painfully urgent _ addressing them would be like opting for an existential crisis.
The truth is that we are desperate for a sense of autonomy, a feeling that we're in charge and in control. When we allow ourselves we realise that life is like a bar of soap, bubble-like, ever dwindling and dissolving and being washed away in the vast tide.
The house I call mine, the loved ones that colour my life, the possessions that surround me....all just visiting my life. My goals and challenges, even the flowers I just bought will crumble in a little while leaving a gentle, pleasant, transient sensory recollection. Memory.
Eckhart Tolle is ever so right, "The only thing we ever have is the present moment." Only the now is here. In this moment everything exists. And everything is impermanent. I can be anywhere in the universe right now. In my head. In this moment. In the past. In the future. In my blindness or in seeing. And it's temporary. It will change. It will move on.
Thich Nhat Hanh points out, "We may not experience a tremendous loss when a flower dies. We expect it to. We know it is impermanent."
So, at the beginning of 2016, I deeply cherish all that surrounds me. I have gratitude for the gift of feeling and being able to experience this life and all the prickly, beautiful, empty, moving, changing forces. Now. Because I choose so.
Happy New Year!
Until next time!
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