My reflections inevitably always come back to death. After all, how can we ignore the fact that everything we're experiencing right now (from our body, to our mind, to our favorite sensory enjoyment) is all temporary? Yet somehow we go on living each day like death will never come.
The other evening I was out taking my daughter for a walk. I could see giant, flat screen TVs in almost every window that we passed. I saw people pulling into their parking spots and dredging into their homes, most likely coming home from a long day of work. It got me thinking about how, as human beings, we waste so much time doing absolutely nothing of importance or meaning. We wake up, get ready for work, work all day, drive home and watch TV. Some people crack open a beer or drink a glass or wine to dull the harsh reality of living a repetitive, unfulfilling life, just to get by and make it through to the next day.
Then I thought to myself, "But if this is considered "wasting time", then how should human beings be spending their time? What is really important and meaningful?" The reply that came into my mind was "spiritual pursuits". Well, what does that even mean? Praying? Reading scriptures? Talking about God and the soul with others? Sure, maybe all of those things. Somehow, some way, directing our thoughts and consciousness towards our life beyond this material reality that we're experiencing.
Maybe it's because we never think about dying that we don't consider spiritual life or spiritual pursuits important. Unfortunately, just because we ignore it, the reality of death won't go away. Our physical body is born to die. It's dying at every moment. Every day we take another step towards its demise. And yet how do we spend our time preparing for that moment?
There are of course many schools of thought about what happens after death. It takes faith to accept any one of them, because really we can't verify any of the claims. All we know for certain is that death is inevitable and that this life is temporary. That should be enough to push us towards trying to find out some kind of answers...but ironically we end up going on with our daily life and concerns like we'll be here forever.
2 comments:
IMHO life seems too long. Don't get me wrong. I value the time--although I waste much of it. But take for example the life of many great, well-known spiritualists...from the time of Lord Chaitanya and even Jesus Christ. Life expectancies were shorter + Jesus himself died in his early 30's (I think), albeit not by natural cause. It seems easier to for fired up youth to get all religious crazy but then we keep living. Like...for a long time. To sustain it all when nothing is happening is hard. Does this make any sense? Maybe more suitable for a real conversation. Anyway...
I get what you're saying: it's easy to be "fired up" and zealous when you're young and care free. The challenge then is to maintain that level of enthusiasm and dedication throughout the remainder of your life...with your kids, bills, etc. Guess we should have died young in a rock'in kirtan! ;^)
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