If you are looking for inspirations – here it is… Little nuggets of words from the wise to bring about more awareness – for this life you live. Words are gems – Finding words to be more of a pick-me-up than any cup of caffeine … for the classroom, for your laptop, for family, friends and students … little reminders to get out of the auto-pilot living.
Thich Nhat Hanh … I love him. His grace, his words, his actions … his teachings. Children and adults, all can gain so much from his teachings. When we learn to live with mindfulness, we can truly engage in life and take in all this Universe has to offer – In fact, you are that Universe – mind and body, at the cellular level, deep down to every pore of your skin.
“Our greatest fear is that when we die we will become nothing. Many of us believe that our entire existence is only a life span beginning the moment we are born or conceived and ending the moment we die. We believe that we are born from nothing and when we die we become nothing. And so we are filled with fear of annihilation.
The Buddha has a very different understanding of our existence. It is the understanding that birth and death are notions. They are not real. The fact that we think they are true makes a powerful illusion that causes our suffering. The Buddha taught that there is no birth; there is no death; there is no coming; there is no going; there is no same; there is no different; there is no permanent self; there is no annihilation. We only think there is.
When we understand that we cannot be destroyed, we are liberated from fear. It is a great relief.
We can enjoy life and appreciate it in a new way.
Thich… we understand what you are saying in the above quote but can’t help the feeling of annihilation should you leave your body – the feeling of impending parting, the farewell, it’s the clinging we do faced with the “final” sayonara, adios, au revoir, good bye. Are you saying there’s no finality to death? It’s just a bad dream? Is clinging foolish and bad? But we just don’t want you to die. I know you think “88” is an auspicious number and all – we still need you here – I really learned so much from your question and answer sessions. Is this some kind of test to see if we really get it? I would like to learn more from you. Praying you are on the mend, healing so you can live on.
Please live and heal. Sending you love and healing prayers tonight. Day and Night. This reminds me of the time when I lost my father … even though in the end he expressed his wishes to die and end the suffering – how do we honor such a request. We want to cling on and do everything to intervene so that the ultimate departure not take place. Yet everyone has the right to live and die with dignity.
Stripped of dignity, life is not worth living – but as my mother would say, it’s not up to us to decide the time – but by the same divine powers, the miracle that graced this world with you in the first place. The same miracle that brings you here is the same miracle that takes you away … we do not determine and control our fate … and that’s why it’s a … miracle. Miracles at the beginning and the end (and hopefully many in-between should we live in awareness) to be celebrated.
