Today
4 years ago
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The cycle of life
One moment an insect is sitting on a branch and the next instant a bird eats it up. The insect’s life force is dramatically and instantly transformed into the bird’s. An earthworm crawls on the footpath and is trodden by a foot. This time the transformation is slower and subtler, as it turns into dust and seeps into the earth to be transformed into grass, trees, and fruits. In nature, every instant is one of transformation, of creation-destruction-creation. Only the form changes, but the essence remains the same. Watching this we accept it calmly and tranquilly as the cycle of life.
Yet when it is the turn of someone loved and close to us to die, we put up the greatest resistance to this fundamental truth, we react dramatically with grief, we withdraw into denial, so strongly do we hold on to the illusion of life. The same also happens with relationships to people, places, and jobs. Even if we know that it is time to move on, that the purpose of a relationship is over, even if it brings more pain than comfort, so attached are we to the familiar, so unwilling are we of getting out of our comfort zone, so afraid are we of facing the unknown that we cling on. Letting go is the hardest thing to do and yet it is the one thing that can truly liberate us, free us to be ourselves, help us find out true selves.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain
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Yes, you are right in so many ways. When we stand aside as mere witness, its so much more easier to take events in stride. That’s another way of looking at detachment. If only we could be a witness to ourselves and events surrounding us, life would become so much more easier and simpler. But the greatest difficulty is not that we cannot detach ourselves from what we like external to us but rather the fact that we cannot get detached from our own individuality! We cling to our individuality, come what may. Its me, mine and I all the time. My thought, my life, my God, my truth, my love; everything linked to this individuality. If only we could lose this individuality and become one with the divine. The divine is just not in us but extends to all that is. I am not just me but all that is. If I am divine and everything is divine then where is this individuality? True freedom is in getting rid of this individuality to expand and become one with the divine, the infinity.
ReplyDeleteWe hold on to the memory, because it sometimes brings us comfort. We let go, when we are ready. We can never forct it.
ReplyDeleteT