Choice...
I write this with my own family in mind.
One of my own has been given a short time to live. Terminal illness needs decisions, and at the best of times, decisions about dying are confronting.
I offer the following,
with utmost respect:
Choice...
Choosing "what is"
leads to true happiness.
Our usual state is to want things to be different,
different to what they really are.
To think that when,
"this or that" changes, then things will be great.
If only I wasn't so thin,
so fat, so tall, so short,
so old, so sick.
Then of course,
I would be happy.
We spend most of our lives waiting to be happy,
waiting for something,
or some one, to help us. Then one day,
in a moment,
it's over.
We are never truly happy.
Choosing to be with the moment, to be with
"what is,"
is real happiness.
Staying with the reality of the moment is true happiness.
A person that is indecisive, not sure,
can't make decisions, thinks everything and everyone is wrong,
no luck, and is always unhappy, that's their choice for now.
Maybe they will choose something else tomorrow, but right now, that is who they are.
That's fine,
if that's what they feel comfortable with.
We choose who,
and how we are,
right now.
We also choose our situation.
Most of us don't think
"I'll wake up tomorrow feeling depressed."
We may be dead tomorrow, so why not enjoy every breath, and choose to be with our life,
as it is, right now.
So Chung Tzu's wife died and the next day he was visited by Tzu Chia,
who found Chung Tzu in his bathtub banging the sides and singing loudly.
"How can you be singing at a time like this,
your wife just died and your happy?"
"Ah" Chung Tzu said,
"her life was like the four seasons, and one cannot change the seasons."
"We can't change
"what is" to happen."
"She lived in the summer of her life, and left her mortal coil in the winter."
"I was sad for a moment, and then decided I should not live in a state of
"what if," my wife would have preferred me to live in "what is".
"I am happy."
Of course, before any transformation can happen,
we must firstly empty the mind of our suffering.
We must let go of the shackles and choose
"what is" in our lives.
I too am happy.
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
