It’s a cloudy Sunday afternoon and here I am, in my place, doing what I’m doing as the Earth ball on which we exist spins through space at an incredible speed.
My life, this mind’s current incarnation, has been a rich one, full of conventional highs and lows; I’m now sitting in my 65-year-old body, the recent recipient of two artificial hips.
Currently, things are good but changing, always changing, and isn’t it the change of things that introduces us — or sometimes throws us — into our greatest challenges?
***
The impermanence of all things is one of the core “must remember” notions of Buddhist practice.
And with the awareness of impermanence, for those fearless enough to accept it, emerges a “no complaining” rule.
That’s right, no complaining.
No “what if’s” “why me’s” or “if only’s” — spoken or unspoken are justified — nor would they have any air to breathe in the Dharma-infused mind if they were to surface.
***
Consider the freedom of existence in an actuality where complaining is simply no longer relevant . . .
Where we do not complain that impermanence is manifesting all around us, without our choice, preference, consent, approval or support;
Where there is no complaining about the unpredictable nature of depended-upon people and things, or about how the dirt and dust of the years interferes with the smooth workings of our bodies;
Where there is no complaining that death is approaching, regardless of how many miles we run each week, organic vegetables we eat, how long ago it was when we quit smoking cigarettes or when we single-handedly began saving the world.
Our complaints becoming nothing more than tears that have run their course.
***
It’s an actuality wherein huge amounts of precious time and energy are saved by reduced interest in the drama(s) of complaining.
And what do we do with this bounty of time and energy? To what is it applied?
We prepare for what is to come in our next moments by being the wisest, most compassionate, confident, kind and patient person we can. We maintain this course regardless of what is occurring around us . . . in fact, we do it because of what is occurring around us.
The means of this preparation? Simply put, by learning about who and what we authentically are . . . and are not. By aggregating genuine self-knowledge.
The Buddhist curriculum offers teachings, practices, and meditations that bring about the most empowering of insights . . . arising from awareness of who we are and how we most beneficially – and most happily – fit into the ongoing swirl of existence of which we are a participant.
It is awareness in which self-centered complaints have no relevance.
~If this resonates, neither grief or a broken heart, or fear, precludes you from participating.