Pema Chödrön writes and talks about stuff like Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness. I saw this quote over at Integral Options Café, and it really gets at the core of so many of my issues these days:
The average human being thinks that happiness lies in stability, in tying up all the loose ends and having things under control. But actually, happiness lies in being able to relax with our true condition, which is basically fleeting, dynamic, fluid, not in any way solid, not in any way permanent. It’s transient by nature.
Hi Bob
“fleeting, dynamic, fluid, not in any way solid, not in any way permanent. It’s transient by nature.”
Today, as I was walking past the public toilets in my hometown, I think I had my first ever actual experience of acceptance & recognition that I am actually going to die. I mean we all know this in a cognitive sense, but we don’t really live like we are actually continuously aware of the inevitability of our own death – we tuck the thought into the back pocket of our daily-life-heads and forget about it, probably because we don’t like what that looks like!
Anyway, today’s little inner opening was new, different, it made me smile! I was projecting forward to another November day say 60 years from now when the sky will probably look pretty similar and maybe the toilets wil still even be there! But I won’t. Well well,….
And my next thought was, “Wow you really haven’t got long then have you? Better get on with what you really want to be doing then…”
Oh, OK. Better tidy up my music room and get to grips with that audio software. :-)
James
Great to hear from you James. “Getting on with what you really want to be doing then…” — This is where I reside these days, what I’m constantly thinking about. Interesting things are bubbling up…