Dear Friends,<\/p>\n
As we pay attention to our breath, we can start to notice that each breath has a beginning, middle, and end. As we pay attention to sensations in the body, we can also notice how they too have a\u00a0beginning, middle, and end. Thoughts, emotions, difficulties, pleasantness – have a beginning, middle, and end. Your favorite tea mug, your job, even the sun.<\/p>\n
Bhante Gunaratana reminds us, “everything that exists has three moments: a rising moment, a living or peaking moment, and a moment of cessation.”<\/p>\n
And so to with life… And rather than that being some kind of bummer,\u00a0I find that remembering this helps me get less fussed about the “small stuff” and opens my heart to greater compassion and caring.<\/p>\n
Here’s a reflection that I try to recall each day:<\/p>\n
The Five Remembrances<\/strong><\/p>\n
I am of the nature to grow old.
\nThere is no way to escape growing old.<\/p>\nI am of the nature to have ill health.
\nThere is no way to escape ill health.<\/p>\nI am of the nature to die.
\nThere is no way to escape death.<\/p>\nAll that is dear to me and everyone I love\u00a0are the nature to change.
\nThere is no way to escape\u00a0being separated from them.<\/p>\nMy actions are my only true belongings.
\nI cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
\nMy actions are the ground upon which I stand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn regard to this reflection, Thich Nhat Hahn says, “The Five Remembrances help us make friends with our fears of growing old, getting sick, being abandoned, and dying. They are also a bell of mindfulness that can help us appreciate deeply the wonders of life that are available hear and now.”<\/p>\n
BJ Miller has a powerful TED Talk, titled, What really matters at the end of life<\/a>. From his experience, he says, “you can always find a shock of beauty or meaning in what life you have left,” and then advises, “If we love such moments ferociously, then maybe we can learn to live well — not in spite of death, but because of it.”<\/p>\n
With gentle wishes,
\nAndrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Friends, As we pay attention to our breath, we can start to notice that each breath has a beginning, middle, and end. As we pay attention to sensations in the body, we can also notice how they too have a\u00a0beginning, middle, and end. Thoughts, emotions, difficulties, pleasantness – have a beginning, middle, and end. Your favorite tea\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[102],"tags":[126,125,106,127,103,34],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2018","tag-bj-miller","tag-death","tag-first-foundation","tag-five-remembrances","tag-henepola-gunaratana","tag-thich-nhat-hanh"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}