“A lifetime is not what is between
the moments of birth and death.
A lifetime is one moment
Between my two little breaths.
The present, the here, the now,
That’s all the life I get.
I live each moment in full,
In kindness, in peace, without regret.”
Chade Meng, Taoist poet
From Life Positive:
The greatest truths are simplest. Profound insights lurk in everyday occurrences. To discover them we need not trek to mountaintops or explore caves, but just open our ways of seeing by being aware that in the ordinary lies the extraordinary. Like nectar in a flower or oil in the infinitesimal mustard.
I recently came across a simple stone bench in a manicured garden. It rested on bricks that functioned as its support. Its naturalness fascinated me, a stark contrast to the contrived perfection around it. Its utter simplicity and un-self-consciousness seemed intrinsic. Its essence permeated its entire being and the stone seemed aware and alive to the presence within it. The stone celebrated its ordinariness. Something stirred within me. In contrast, unlike the stone I camouflage myself through wearing myriad masks that distance me from my Essence and thereby from others too.
Paradoxically, as we move into a state of awareness and begin to peel away our lifetimes of masking, life becomes simpler and joyful. Benjamin Hoff in The Tao of Pooh writes about the wisdom of learning from ordinary everyday events and occurrences that have hidden messages for our souls – the P’u or the Principle of the Uncarved Block.
In light of the fact that ancient poet Rumi turns 802 this week, a poem from Rumi:
What is justice?
Giving water to trees.
What is injustice?
To give water to thorns.
Justice consists in bestowing
bounty in its proper place,
not on every root that will
absorb water.
