Life is Short
'Brief is the life of men
The wise man should not take delight therein.
Let him act as if his head were burning
For there is no way whereby death comes not.' --Samyutta Nikaya(Buddhist Scriputre) I:108
"Think of your many years of procrastination; how repeatedly granted you were of further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then , to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again." -- Meditations of Marcus Aurelius II:4
"Why are we here? What are we doing here?", these were the first two questions that arose in my mind as i read my first 'Spiritual' book . I was 13 years old when i read it. Unlike many of you , that spiritual book was 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking. It was , to be frank with you, the first book i had actually read. I mean i had read comics before and i was forced to read my School textbooks. but this was the first book which i picked up and read out of a shear innocent curiosity and interest.
A Brief History of Time is a book about the universe, its vastness , and man's humble effort to conquer it through his laws and equations.It is not so much that it is a spiritual book in the conventional sense, but i did have a very powerful spiritual experience by reading it. It was through this book that i was introduced to a powerful meditation . As i was reading about the far outer reaches of space and this universe whose size has only been able to be introduced to us through this book, I couldn't help but be filled with awe and wonder.
I started imagining our position in space, i look at my house slowly i started zooming out until i could see my whole block,then my city then my state, then my country and then earth , the solar system and so on and so forth .... until a point when earth was not even visible anymore.Then a startling revelation occurred to me...
Our 'lifestory' was all so small,All our problems seemed soo trivial and unimportant.
This little existence of ours is nothing compared to the immense timescale with which things happen in the universe.
"Letting go all else, cling to the following truths. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant: all the rest of his life is either past and gone,or not yet revealed.This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth; and little , too, is the succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one long dead and gone." -- Meditations of Marcus Aurelius III:10
"The water drop on the lotus leaf trembles.
So too if life, precious and unstable.
Know it to be in the grip of disease and anxiety,
and smitten with sorrow." -- Bhaja Govindam of Sri Shankara [Verse 4]
"Who are you? Who am I? Who is my mother, and who is my father?Reflect on this.
You will then realize that the world and its cares are but the cares and anxieties of a dream, and you will be able then to free yourself from that dream." -- Bhaja Govindam of Sri Shankara [verse 23]
--Feel free to leave your valuable comments on this post
-- If you have come across more verses which deal with the above theme please let me know, and i will add it to this post. I always try to incorporate (relatively unknown)materials from all forms of philosophies, religions, and practices to make these themes universally appealing.
3:27 PM |
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