Today is Spiritual day.
What are you fretting about lately?
Lack of money? Time? Not enough contacts? Losing someone or something important to you? Jealous of how good the neighbor looks? Feel slighted by someone? Embarrassed at something you said or did? Whatever it is, chances are you’re looking ahead to enjoying one of your favorite distractions to relieve the pressure.
Whether it’s that Latte or adult beverage, the movie, video game or running out for that shopping spree or spa, many of us seem to be constantly looking for ways to distract ourselves from the stresses of our often-out-of-control lives.
This weekend in San Fransicso, some 4,500 people came seeking relief at a two-day teaching offered by the Dalai Lama. Everyone was hoping for magical words from him to somehow relieve their pressures and pains. Me too.
Over two days, he gave many suggestions, some of which felt familiar, some of which I did not understand. There was one suggestion however, that I have not been able to get out of my mind. When you are overly obsessed and pre-occupied with the affairs of your life, said the Dalai Lama, do this:
“Reflect on the impermanence of this life.”
I immediately pictured myself dead. Sobering. With that image fresh in mind, I wondered, “What would matter to me if I knew had 12 months left, starting with today? That is, what if I knew for sure that my last day on earth would be April 27, 2008?”
What would I spend my time doing? What would matter and what wouldn’t? Whom would I spend time with, and whom not?
Have you, like me, gotten so tangled up in the minutiae of life that only a sobering wake up call forces us to let the drivel fall away, and to fixate on the ideas, the beliefs, the people and things that matter most to us?
“Reflect on the impermanence of this life.”
It puts things in perspective, think?
This is not only sobering but rather freeing. If there is anything a person should be doing it is something they consider fun although not from a sick point of view, such as taking drugs or harming another, but really fun from the point of view that it is uplifting to them or those around them.
All other actions are wasted actions.
Great Blog:)
Bruce Meyers
I belong to a Real Life Group at my church and we’ve been studying the book “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. He has spent 10 years studying previous writings on Heaven, as well as doing an extensive study of what the Bible says about it. This book or study really puts the subject into perspective.
Tonight I just returned from seeing a drama at our church called “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames”. The drama was to start at 7:00 and when I got there at 6:30 our parking lots and our sanctuary were pretty much already full and people starting to go into the overflow room. Our church is only 2 years old in a little community of Burnet, TX. Tonight about 75 people thought about the impermanence of life and decided it made a difference to them.
It was awesome to see people coming to a decision that will make a difference for the rest of their lives.
JUDY MARSHALL
http://www.judyann.networkmarketingcentral.com
This is a very good topic for me right now. Starting in April, I seem to live by my busy calender.
Since this means throwing two kids baseball and softball games on top of school and work, I was feeling a little stressed.
Thanks for the reminder.
Brenda Bunney
http://MLMSuccessBunney.com
http://BrendaBunneyMLM.com
brendab@brightok.net
Me…I would spend more time with my family.
Love my beautiful wife Michelle….
Throw more football with my sons Steven & Michael…
Take my daughter…Victoria to the zoo.
I thought thats what I would do when I came home to work…now I find myself working more…playing less. Hmmm. It is Sunday…I should not be sitting at this computer. Time to go snuggle with my wife.
Be Well Everyone!!
Matthew Adams
http://www.sozomax.com/matthew
Isn’t the Dalai Lama wonderful?
Kim, it is so true – and I love that you have posted about this.
I had the privilege of being with 18,000 people here in Vancouver in September, for a half a day with the Dalai Lama. Also, Vancouver has a Dalai Lama Peace Center being built.
The Parliament has officially given the Dalai Lama Canadian citizenship.
Diana
How few of us realize our mortality, how short our time is on this planet earth, and our real priorities.
This came through one day on one of those ‘e-mail pass arounds’ and I have it framed and on the wall of my office:
“Work like you don’t need the money — love like you’ve never been hurt — and dance like you do when nobody’s watching.”
It’s why I love living in Greece, the people here work to live rather than live to work. Maybe that’s what motivates us NMers, think?
Venetta
Kim,
Thanks for posting that. I really needed that message right now. Perfect timing for me.
Wish I could have been there. I’ve been reading a lot of Buddhist writings lately and am finding them very helpful.
Alan Watts said that Buddhism is more like psychotherapy than religion. I’ve found that to be true.
It is the impermanence of life that makes life so sweet. Loving people, really hearing what they say, giving our attention fully to someone else, “seeking first to understand before seeking to be understood”, as Stephen Covey says so brilliantly in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People…these are why I cherish the moments and do what I do. It’s a journey, not a destination. I love the Dalai Lama, Kim! So glad you were able to be in his presence…and that you shared the wisdom wealth with us, as you always do. “Doing the things that matter most”….life is fleeting. Good reminder. As we go and do and act, we also have to be, breathe and reflect. Make our moments count. We don’t know how many of them we have left.
Kim,
Did you mean to use the word antidote or anechdot? Just curious… antidote is a
1. A remedy or other agent used to neutralize or counteract the effects of a poison.
2. An agent that relieves or counteracts: jogging as an antidote to nervous tension.
While an anechdot is a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical.
I suppose that for the Dali’s story you could use either but it appears that anechdot would be the better word to use.
I enjoy your comments and find them enlighting.
Thank you, don’t mean to be picky – just wondering which word you really wanted to use…
DMM
Everything is indeed temporary, more or less. Mortality is part of life. So maybe that’s cause to celebrate right now, feel grateful, and create the best possible future, is what I think. Just because I’m going to die, doesn’t mean I’m going to cut out everyone except my family and pre-existing best friends and go round with a long face doing Important Things all the time till it happens. It matters what I do and who I hang out with because I’m living not because I’m dying. And because everything is temporary.
Daniel@NMC
My website
“Fuel savings & a cleaner exhaust, as on TV”
We are told by God to live as if we never know if this is our last day or not. We really do not know.
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For waht is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4:14
There is a lot more to life than work. The bigger question is what about after we die?
Nancy Carlson @NMC
http://www.perfectmombusiness.com
It’s a great way to look at life, because it is true. Life is very short in the big scheme of things and is impermanent. A perspective that is rational is that if one has life and enough health to function and be productive in some capacity, then one really does not have much to complain about. All challenges can be overcome from that position of strength, that is all that is needed to make progress.
All the best,
Glennjaffas@prepaidlegal.com
““Reflect on the impermanence of this life.”
The Dalai Lama
The picturing of myself dead has never inspired me to do more. I think because I get a different message from this quote. I don’t see it as an attempt to invoke fear of loss of opportunity in people.
He says reflect on the impermanence of this life. I take from that, this particular body living this particular lifetime. Not that I only have one life to ever live and so I have to make the most of it since we only get ‘one shot.’
What inspires me is that I feel eager to experience more. More love, more peace, more happiness, more challenge, more success, more learning, more connection with others, more of all of the impermanence of this life, because everything is constantly changing, as am I.
I know I will die one day (the current plan is at 92, in a comfy bed with those I love most by my side:) but I do not fear death, as I know I am eternal. Not to say I’m something special because we are all eternal beings, currenly having a human experience.
Tracy
About me
The flip side of the same coin is “focus on your immortal being”. Both of these foci can lead to the same place.
It stuck me the other day that efficiency (i.e. getting a lot done in a little time) has no meaning if you focus on your eternal characteristics. So what if I “waste” an hour in eternity? It has no meaning. Hours are limitless from an eternal perspective.
When I start to lose my focus on efficiency, I can focus on the more important things.
WOW ! How thought provocing.
My mother died from a stroke at 49 years old. So as I got older my health dictated my life, fear is a great motivating factor. I may have gone to far to the other side but I think he is aboslutely correct. No one’s final words will be “I should Have worked more hours” But that is the reason we work in the Networkmarketing industry.
Mary
Thanks all for your good thoughts…
Dwight: Yes, I did mean antidote. As in: “An agent that relieves or counteracts: jogging as an antidote to nervous tension.”
Reflecting on the the impermanence of one’s life does a lot more to relieve the stresses of life’s affairs than an adult beverage, because for most people, that thought helps sort out what’s important and what’s not – what’s worth worrying about and what isn’t…
It’s somewhat like the wake-up call so many feel they got after that first heart attack…it changes how they see the same people, issues and priorities that were in their lives before the near death experience. That wake up call too, is an antidote to the stresses of life because suddenly, you change your perceptions of the importance (or lack thereof) for many of them.
Barry – yes, I agree Buddhism is more like psychotherapy than a religion – one of its advantages is that it offers help to anyone of any religion, and embraces and respects all religions. Pretty rare attitude for a ‘religion’ – most of which are intolerant of all other religions…So that’s an enlightening way to look at it. Thanks. Oh – I’ve taken several teachings with Alan Watts…
I was just wondering if it is a big factor in how important it is to realize that very few things “in this life” are permanent. It seems that the things that you can take to the bank not to change are those things that are inside us. It can be honesty, integrity, ability to overcome and many other traits, which can only be squashed by our own actions. You are born with and can go to the grave with these traits. The things you can’t depend on are jobs, homes, relationships and all things outside our own control. These are the things most people desire to be an anchor for them and it turns out they float about aimless, being blown by this and that wind when all along it should have been they that steered their own destiny. I am not saying that our free agency cannot be taken from us for this life, but when we leave, we take with us the rudder that will guide us through eternity.
Kim,
Thank you, I love the post! I am a huge christian fan of the Dalai Lama! I have read many of his teachings and find empowerment and thought behind each one. I would love to have been in attendance with all of you in SF. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You are awesome and I LOVE YOUR BLOG!
Anne Johnson
http://www.candlesbydesigns.com
When I was 34 I had a near death experience which was just a bit more frightening than meeting my former mother in law for the first time. However, much like the aforementioned meeting, the experience resulted in ‘forced reflection’.
Now I market a product that helps people relieve the stresses of lifes affairs, like I still experience, and “reflect on the impermanence of this life”.
Okay…so my product doesn’t really do this, but just think how valuable a product would be if it served to continually remind us of the “impermanence of life”.
Yes some of us in the healthcare field may reflect on a daily basis after seeing horrific things happen to other people, and some may be blessed enough to incorporate this reflection into their daily routines.
However, some folks may still need to become customers of the company that markets “Heart Attack in a Can” to ‘get it’ on a daily basis. None of us of course that read Kim’s blog…like I mean…other people we know. 🙂
Yours,
“Saving lives one breast at a time”
Ed MacDonald
http://www.breastcancerkit.networkmarketingcentral.com
What is it that keeps us from remembering this on a day-to-day basis? I too, was in a car accident when I was 21 and while I walked away practically unscathed, my passenger died. For a while it was easy to remember the impermanence of life and to keep things in perspective, yet over the last 14 years it has gotten harder.
It seems with every tragedy there comes this brief reminder and then slowly it dissipates.
I suppose it goes to our natural tendency as humans to focus on those things that truly are inconsequential in the face of just how impermanent life is.
Laura
Boston, MA