28 October 2020
"When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end. A wave can be compared with other waves, and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lower, longer lasting or less long lasting. But if we look more deeply, we see that a wave is made of water. While living the life of a wave, the wave also lives the life of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. It would think, 'Someday I will have to die. This period of time is my life span, and when I arrive at the shore, I will return to nonbeing.'
These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish. A wave can be recognized by signs -- beginning or ending, high or low, beautiful or ugly. In the world of the wave, the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad as she falls. She may think, 'I am high!' or 'I am low!' and develop superiority or inferiority complexes, but in the world of the water there are no signs, and when the wave touches her true nature -- which is water -- all of her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death,"
- Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation. New York: Broadway Books, 1999, pp. 124-125.
Temperature today stands at 52 degrees F. The sky is clear and there is but a light breeze blowing. I have thrown on a sweat shirt and a down vest and I am sitting outside at the outdoor table. It is covered in a blue tarp in anticipation of a harsh winter. The cat stands at the glass slider looking wistfully at the outside that she is so sure she wants to explore.
These days the world is agog, mad with news of potential political change. Signs festoon every lawn in the neighborhoods I traverse, mostly saying hooray and vote for our side. The airwaves are filled with the latest bon mots from various candidates and their surrogates. So much of what is being said really hasn’t much to do with the harshness of life encountered by the average person living through the throes of this pandemic.
Some days we have to stop focusing on our lives as waves. Some days when the ginned-up madness proves too much we much refocus our mind to an acceptance of our being an integral and inseparable part of the ocean. Today it was eight birds sitting out on and in my fountain that returned my focus to the whole cloth of this short span we have here. A walk out among the multi-colored leaf quilted lawns of my neighborhood drew me away from the cacophony of the moment.
Make a moment of peace for yourself today. Make it a moment of unconditional peace. Feel the air around you. See the things that nature is presenting right now. Unplug from the demands of modern electronic and get focused on an hour in the natural world. Life is short and the world does not wait for us.
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