Today, I find that I view my life in a totally different light than when I was in my 20’s, 30’s, or 40’s. So much of what I believed to be critical to my well-being and happiness, no longer matters. Personally speaking, I was never inclined towards material acquisitions or physical comforts and laid greater emphasis on relationships and self development. As it turns out, most of my notions have proved to be erroneous or misguided. These notions and beliefs were mostly based on the “do’s and don’ts” taught by family and society and on what they thought or deemed as important for success and life in general. So, crucial growing up years were spent in learning things that are just superficial measurements of success in life; and hence, cannot impart the sense of wholehearted fulfillment and peace that we desire. We move from one acquisition to another in the hope that “this is it” only to discover at the end that we have just collected a whole lot of clutter and baggage, and quite tragically we forget that in the process we are losing precious time. We overlook the most important aspect of our life on this planet, our mortality. We forget that we come with an expiry date and have limited time, that each passing moment is bringing us closer to our death.
The vastness and all-encompassing nature of this topic led me to contemplate deeply on the message of impermanence and what lies beyond impermanence and death. Two things we can say about death is that one it is absolutely certain we will die, and two it is uncertain when and how we will die. Perhaps the reason we fear death is because we do not know who we are, having derived our identity all along by physical material props…..name, body, family, home, job, etc……these fragile and transient supports become our security …..we feel we are safely ensconced, but when death comes we find ourselves lost and bewildered, in terrifyingly unfamiliar surroundings….something like waking up alone in a foreign country with no knowledge of the land or language, no money, no contacts, no passport, nothing. Death has shattered our marvelously convincing illusion and we have no clue of any deeper reality……a higher state of consciousness……or have a spiritual practice that leads us to an insightful and ultimate realization that all of us are part of a great Divine continuum and the delicate balance in the cosmos of which we are a mere speck of dust ….a blink of light …… a whiff of air …… and it is all over.
Meditation on the higher purpose of life, on the basic nature of existence, on the essence of spirituality thereby gaining a maturity in thought process and actions is a humble way I have started my journey…..let us see where this dimension leads.