Two things became clear to me this morning during my practice. One of which is that I may becoming out of touch with some people. While certainly I may becoming more in-touch with others, I don’t think that being out of touch with any other being is wholesome or beneficial.
I can see that this sense of disconnect stems from where I am on my path, which is based on so many factors. My age, studies, meditation, and certainly experiences have all placed me squarely where I am today. And there is no way that all others could possibly be at this same place with me. But this does not mean that anyone is above or below me either. We are all simply travelers, and while on different paths and different locations on the journey, we share the common bond of dissatisfactory sense conditions (dukkha) and a pursuit of happiness in once sense or another.
I am out of time in understanding these realities because the truth is that we only have this moment. None of us ever thinking that today is our last, but in truth it is. If we are alive tomorrow, that will not be the same person that looks back at you in the mirror today. That person is dead and gone, and only a perverted memory lingers. Who I am, what am, and what tomorrow will bring, are all a useless waste of our minds.
As I sat and meditated, I understood that the in and the out breath are truly everything. We are born into this World with that first life-giving breath, and exit this life with a final exhale. We could not cling to that first breath or stay as a child, neither can we cling to that last breath and avoid our own demise. With every attempt to subjugate either of these, we only create more dissatisfactory mental states for ourselves. Putting us more and more out of touch and out of time.
The more I am able to understand these things, the more that I become free of the shackles that restrain me from greater understanding. That is with each ounce of energy we expel toward clinging, grasping or avoiding, we completely miss the celebration of this very moment. The “aha moment” that we all can share right now and instantly get in touch.
