Forever Man* and the Forever Mayfly** {*77.0 years – **24 hours}
Whenever I can, I often start off my stories with a quote. I know I have favored both the Buddha and Albert Einstein in the past. I often think both those guys ended up pretty much in the same spiritual place, approaching life’s truth from seriously, opposite sides.
The Buddha was looking for the big picture answers. He wanted to find what joins us all together. He felt tremendous suffering wherever he went. It pretty much had to do with how we can’t accept the impermanence of all things, including our lives. We grasp for most anything to disprove the transient nature of absolutely everything. I am not so sure I go along with his idea that enlightenment awaits many of us who see the sad folly of pursuing these manufactured ghosts. However, if you think I am going to argue with him, you can kiss my butt.
I was drawn to the Big Man, sometime in my early thirties. The stories I learned when I was young, having to do with growing up and what that’s like, made it sound very appealing. Damnit, I wanted to be a grown up. Well, I did fall off the cliff of my dreams and face planted in to a shattered world.
It was like the Deck of Importance got reshuffled. I was pulling one card at a time, each one taking me to the next. It seemed like all these disparate pieces were coming together, completing my hand. I started thinking about my life in ways I never had before. I can’t leave out ten years of therapy, marking the deck not so subtly.
The rest of my life no longer felt like a concept to me. It started feeling like I was disrespecting this gift. The Buddha nailed it for me. I am not a book reader and never have been, but I found a book store on 14th St, a tie dye wonderland. I actually read a few Zen books, including Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, a reorientation of how we engage the world and our place in it. I began my meditation dance with stillness back then, too.
Somewhere, buried in all the rhetoric of the Buddha that I carry, is the idea that you should never lose sight of the fact that your time here is limited, a euphemism for “you gonna die”. No, it is not meant to send you into a labyrinth of depression, rather it hopefully changes your view of the landscape you see every day. It’s this kind of mind time-out, not even a mili-second, totally undetectable. It’s like a passive filter that your entire world passes through.
A long time ago, I remember seeing an old b&w photograph of Albert Einstein on the Hopi Reservation and it really stuck with me. What the hell was this scientist doing there? With my years of living in that part of the world and even visiting the Hopi, I’ll bet he found their creation legends fascinating. I started looking for quotes from him for my stories, beginning years ago. His laser light of a mind rocketed him to the same damn truths the Buddha found, after sitting for seven years under the Bodhi Tree.
The heart of the Buddha and the mind of Einstein intersect at the truth of our spiritual nature. Now, it gets kind of interesting here. Very often we lie to ourselves, because the truth is too painful. The majority of us will not gracefully accept that if all goes well, we got 77.0 years. There is no damn magic here either. It’s cold, but it’s true
Shit, imagine if you’re the damn Mayfly? If there is such a thing as karma, what could you have done to deserve that? However, it doesn’t think about only having one lousy day to buzz around. For that matter, as far as I know, we are the only ones, who even think about this. Many animals sense when they are dying and they often go off by themselves, but the reaction is engendered by their bodies, not their thoughts.
I could be beating around the bush a little and the reason is simple. The subject of our mortality does not set off fireworks, accompanied by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It’s Nina Simone, baby. Yes, I am purposely sucking you into this story. Actually, I think it is more like a lament, if you ask me.
I need you to work with me a little here. I promise, it won’t be hard. Imagine if all of us truly understood that our time here is limited? How could it make sense to hurt someone else? Would it change what is truly important to us? If we really understood the idea of limitations, would we treat the planet’s resources differently? What a wonderful world it would be!
What do you think happens to you when you die? The fact that we have no idea is what drives a lot of us nuts. I certainly wonder about the hereafter. What the hell’s after here is very complicated, no matter who you talk to.You’ll get a lot of opinions about what comes next.
On a purely individual basis, if you can embrace this whole mortality business as best you can, I think it makes the moments ever so slightly richer. Beginnings and endings and beginnings are the stuff of life. You don’t have to dwell on them to find your own rhythm with it all.
I tell you, if I was sitting at a table with Einstein and the Buddha, you know damn well what I’m going to want to talk about first. OK, second, because I will want their autographs. I am not stupid.