Week 9: Our life is slipping away

“What is his journey about? No one can tell us. It is up to us to find out for ourselves. If we recognize that we are on a journey, one that we share with all living beings we can look into that journey and learn from it. But most of the time, we are so caught up with everyday hassles that we lose track of our life. It is too threatening to look at the big picture, so we hole up in our concerns of the moment. We are afraid to look beyond that; instead, we keep busy and avoid the whole issue. Meanwhile, our life is slipping away.” Judith L. Leif*

How are you today, how’s your body and heart? And in this very moment? Where’s your breath — in-breath cool and outbreath warm and the turning point in between? Reflecting on this this day, or yesterday, ask: How often have I stopped my Doing, and Worrying, and Running-around — and simply sat, or stood, and laid still? Deliberately still, without an agenda, not looking for anything, simply opening my awareness to the unknown?

What keeps you from dropping everything right now, to turn off the gadgets, rest your tools, and go quiet? Can you see the sky somewhere? What’s its colour, its texture, its light and darkness? What else do you see? Is there a plant or a tree within easy access? Please walk right up to it, near enough to see details of leaves, bark, and branches. Remain here for a good two minutes. Be still and see! Notice your own breath and that of the world around you. And then, without trying to make anything happen — notice the breath within your breath.

May you be free from fear, my friend.

Lief, Judith L. Making friends with death: a Buddhist guide to encountering mortality. Shambhala, 2001, p. 5.