I heard a beautiful story that will help enrich your life if you care to heed the sentiments of its wisdom………read on to hear the wise words of the hermit!
The man in question considered himself to be doing ‘important work’. His job? Meditation. That’s it, contemplating life 247! Most of us would baulk at the prospect, however, the gentleman in question agreed to temporarily leave his solitary life to host a question and answer session for an invited audience.
After all the usual suspects – How do you manage without sex? What’s it like living alone? How do you get food? – he offered this pearl of wisdom.
People needed to view their lives as an ever changing river. Behind them was the water already travelled, there was the part of the river in which they currently bathed, and the part through which they were about to travel.
Throughout we invite people into our river – read here ‘life’ – they spend time with us and, whilst many stay a long time – friends / relations / lovers – very little is permanent, and people move on for a host of reasons. However, whether they are in the ‘now’ or in the ‘past’, people who have entered our lives – for better or worse – still form part of our river. It’s how we chose to travel and view the waterway that is important.
The hermit continued: “Behind you there are many experiences but how you choose to remember them is up to you. Will you remember the bad experiences, the bitter challenges, the fights, the bad relationships, or will you remember the good times, the positives that left you with a feeling of well being? Your choice.
“May I suggest that you remember the good things so that the water behind you is not left polluted with shattered dreams, lost hopes or a sense of failure? Take from your life the good things, those moments that added to it.
“Ahead of you is the water yet to be travelled but, right now, you don’t know what lies ahead so why not wait until you get there before judging it? If you think too much about what ‘might’ be there – and you may well be wrong – then you live in a life of ‘what ifs’. You plan for what might, or might not, happen, but you continually plan for the unknown.
“Where does that leave the ‘now’, the part of the river in which you bathe today? Well, if you overly concern yourself with the negatives of the past – those experiences that have polluted the water behind you – or the water that lies ahead – the unknown – then you will probably be too busy to enjoy the ‘now’, those people and experiences that currently bring love, joy or happiness into your life today.”
The moral? Simple really. Live in the NOW, seek to fill the river behind with positive thoughts – not negative – but don’t live so far into the future that you fail to see the beautiful world, people and experiences that exist around you today.
If that’s what comes from 247 meditation then our hermit friend needs to get back to work for his job is, indeed, important to the survival of mankind.
Something to think about in this post, Phil) thanks a lot for posting!
I do agree that living in the moment called “now” is one of the most important things to practice in everyday life. This post reminds me of saying: “Happiness is not the station you arrive at, but a matter of travelling”.
However, if there are absolutely no “what-ifs”, one might experience a lack of planning and basic forecasting – including basic forecasting on the basis of past experience, i.e. of what has already been a part of life river…
The tricky thing here is to maintain a balance: 1. Don’t be scared about the unknown future 2. Enjoy the moment called now 3. Don’t forget the lessons learned and try to avoid mistakes in the future. But again – no fear and no hesitation.
Thanks Alex. Alternative views always welcome!