Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Time



Time is a slippery slippery thing. It passes by so fast, that most of the time you don't even notice it and it's already gone. Especially when you are having fun. 

There are so many examples of this phenomena. We (most probably) all remember the times when we were teenagers and wanted to stay out late. Your mum would tell you "9pm the latest, & I mean it!!! not a second more, otherwise you are grounded for the rest of the week (fair enough if this was happening on Thursday night) slash month (somewhat excessive if you asked me)!" And so when you saw the time has passed and you were gonna be late, you would simply turn the time back. At least the one on your wrist watch! Yes mum, I know you are reading this. Yes mum, I know you knew. No mum, we didn't think you couldn't put one and one together. We just truly believed you would believe that this was the right time and not the one the kitchen clock showed. Excuse us and our ignorance (or innocence???), we were not as clever as Marie-Antoinette who hired help and changed all of the clocks in her little heaven of guilty pleasures that was Petit Trianon but also at her king's castle... 

Yes, time flies when you are having fun. Or doing something new and exciting. Or when you are out with your friends on a "work" night (as in "school" night in the younger version) & you find after all this time that you still have one more thing to tell or to hear! But it's already time to go home and get some most needed sleep for the next day (if it hasn't begun already!). Or when you have a lunch break at work and you get into a conversation with your colleagues about a passionate subject that could be never ending. But once again - the time (this is where/when you are supposed to be employed and responsible) pulls you back into the reality and sends you immediately forwards... 

Sometimes, but this doesn't happen often, time is slow. You can literally feel it's weight. Yes yes, I know you all know what I'm talking about. That happens when you are tired and the only thing you dream of is being comfortably tugged under your bed linen. It happens when you are bored but you just cannot come out with anything exciting to do, nor you have the energy for it. It also happens when you don't have enough work to do and you just drag your feet behind you waiting for the clock to be on the right number. Or (and this is a tough one) when you know that your loved one (who doesn't live in the same city or even the same country) is supposed to come and visit you during the weekend or at the end of the month. Or when it is your turn to take vacation. In 27 days and 28 nights and counting! Oh yes, that's when the time decides to show you it is right there! And it's all happening in a very slow motion. Relaxed mode.

So do I see the time pass by? Most of the time I don't (I said most of the time!). I'm too busy having fun, chatting with friends, helping those in need, discovering new places, reading great books, watching interesting movies, spending time with the family when given the time, working (is it still work if I'm having fun), cooking all day long and so much more... Do you see the time pass by? Whichever the answer, it is of no importance. Because even if you do or don't, you are creating memories, collecting souvenirs and making your life full & worth the while. And you'll remember the moments. You'll remember the discussions. You'll remember the emotions. You'll remember the weather, the place and even the smell. And then, just then, you will know exactly where the time went. Because at the end of it - it's the outcome that counts.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Life

Last month, a very dear friend of mine passed away. He was 38, had an amazing wife and four beautiful children. It happened suddenly and it left us all in a great shock. Until the moment he passed away, he was kind, generous, full of life. And I would like to dedicate this post to him and to life (because it got me all thinking) but mostly because he will be missed madly.

As it always happens when one leaves this world for another one - the earth does not stop spinning, and "life" takes over, it just simply continues as if nothing happened at all. But it did. And so it is up to us to see how well and how fast we are going to "bounce" back. It is not an easy task for we are overwhelmed with sadness and pain. I, for instance, threw myself into Juliette's life by helping her with the children. Some would say I went from my day work to my night job. It surely didn't feel like work to me, but I admit - it required lot of energy. Which I was glad to share with my friend's blood and flesh.

I try to keep happiness, love, calmness and serenity in my heart, body and mind but when somebody so young and vibrant with life leaves, it shakes me in every way possible. Those who bump into me in the subway or in the bus from time to time can tell you they always see me with a book in my hands. Recently I started reading a book about Fundamentals of Buddhism. And this is what I have learned.

The concept of the eternity of life cannot be readily understood however hard we try to look at it. If we wish to analyze the state in which life continues after physical death, we must first grasp what life really is. Have you ever asked yourself what life was? I surely haven't done that in the deepest way possible. The basics you learn when you are a child are that we are born, we live and we die. There are still no scientific methods with which to grasp the essential quality of life itself.

I always liked to think that there was life after death. But maybe I was looking at it from the wrong angle (slightly). As I was reading through different chapters of the book, I came upon the one that talks about the "being and essence". It says that after death, life does not go somewhere else, nor does it continue its existence as a "soul". A single life is ultimately one with universal life, which means that it extends throughout the universe. Our life is not confined to our body but exists within our body and beyond - in infinite expansion. I liked that a lot. And so, there I was - instantly comforted in my grief, and as simply as that the hottest pain left my heart.

Death is only a temporary discontinuance of the functions that make up and maintain an individual life, but it is not the extinction of life itself. Because the functions of an individual life are discontinued, it ceases to exist as a separate and independent organism, and instead life in the state we call death fuses into the environment and the universe and unites with them. Rather, even while alive, a life continues on eternally with its own unique personality in perfect fusion with the universe. The merging of an individual life with the universe is like the subsiding of a wave in the sea. Death becomes the merging of the individual and the universal. When a life is united with the universe, it is but one cycle in a chain of a continual existence extending from the infinite past to the eternal future.

In Buddhist thought, the spiritual functions of perception or discernment are classified into nine - nine consciousnesses. Without going into every one and each of them (first of all, they are complex and second of all - I admit to not understanding them fully just yet), the seventh consciousness is the one of power of thinking and pondering. One reflects upon the way of his or her existence and the meaning of phenomena associated with his or her daily living, and behaves accordingly. It is related to self-cognition, and it discerns the inner spiritual world.

When a person becomes excited, the heart beats faster than usual. Nobody can say they have never experienced such thing! Profound suffering or anguish causes one's life force to weaken, while a life rich with vitality refreshes both body and mind. Accordingly, delicate changes in one's mental or emotion state emerge to the surface and are reflected in one's facial expressions, or some other part of the body and they become discernible. And so, I'm going to close this post with these words: Let the love, peace and light enter your body, your mind, your heart. Let it make you strong and beautiful inside and out. And don't forget to share it with those in need.