IMPERMANENCE

Everything around us is in the process of decay, including us. Entropy is relentless. Being in the moment is easy to say - difficult to do.

“One day the people came to the master & asked: 'How can you be so happy in a world of such impermanence where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness & death.' The master held up a glass & said. Someone gave me this glass & I really like this glass. It holds my water admirably & glistens in the sunlight. One day the wind may blow it off the shelf or my elbow may knock it off the table. I know this glass is already broken so I enjoy it incredibly.” Achaan Chah Subato

Tibetan Buddhists fashion these exquisite, intricate sand paintings that take them months, and then destroy them to remind them of the principle of impermanence. We need to bear this in mind during these times of Fast Fashion which the planet cannot sustain and which also hampers our spiritual life.

Keep to the source of living waters.
Do not think to store in cisterns; they will break and crumble and the water will be lost.
Cup your hands and drink deeply and often and you will have health and joy.

 The only things we take with us when we pass over to the other side are our experiences which determine our karma. Karma will be determined by the choices we make. 

“We are all climbing toward the summit of our hearts’ desires. Should the other climber steal your sack and your purse and wax fat on the one and heavy on the other, you should pity him. The climbing will be harder for his flesh and the burden will make his way longer. And should you in your leanness see his flesh puffing upward, help him in a step, it will add to your swiftness.” Unknown

We need to keep it simple - attend to our needs and not out wants.

“Wants, needs & necessities have different characteristics. It is the want that is our enemy, not the need & necessity.” Sri Swami Rama

It helps to look (at the oversimplified;) 

Laws of Three - of Survival

We can live for Three minutes without oxygen

Three days without water

Three weeks without food

Three months without human company

I have spent several periods of time with the San Bushmen of the Kalahari who seemed to be a lot happier that I was even though the time I spent with them were the some of the best moments of my life. They, compared to us in the West, have very litttle and survived on what nature has to give. As hunter-gatherers most of their food came from foraging. Meat and honey were luxuries. Originally before they lost their habitat they were nomadic and would eat themselves out of one particular area and then move to the next allowing the one they left to restore itself. They had no abilities to store anything and lived entirely in the moment. Water in the Kalahari was scarce and they lived off the moisture that certain tubers or melons provided and sometimes sucked water retained in tree hollows and sip wells in the sand. They used to be free and their pantry was the wilderness before civilization came along. They could walk out into the wild with a tiny backpack comprising a skin bag containing a sipping straw, a rudimentary bow and poisoned arrows. a fire stick and its base and most important of  all a digging stick for foraging. With this simple technology and their incredible survival skills they have survived for eons. The San are the original people. We all have Bushman DNA in our chromosomes. 

So in reality all we really need are; shelter, water, food, energy to run our technology (fire for them) and each other. We need to remember that; "Everything is given on loan..."  Rev

At end end of the day we are here for the sake of Self - the big Self not the small self of the Ego and its Desirous Attachment - its attachment to the object of our desire. Its ok to have things but not if they have us.

 "Give up owning things and being somebody. Quit existing." Rumi

We might think of the San as merely existing but they had much more leisure time than we in the West have. This and the purity of their existence, with nature as their teacher, enabled them to have profound spiritual and healing abilties which they needed to survive in such harsh circumstances. Their shamans could attain advanced levels of consciousness; divine with "bones" trance dance, obtain non-local information from the "Field" and even shape shift. We have too much stuff in the way. To me they felt far more Self-realized than I was in spite of my yoga practice and struggles with my spiritual path.

I have learned for myself that the less I have the more free I become. Every time I downsize I feel better. I highly recommend doing a house/life clearing. Go through all your stuff and divide it into three components. 

The things that you really need and that are essential.

Anything you dont need or havent looked at in the last few years. Get rid of those.

The things you are unsure of. Put them in boxes or containers and store them somewhere. If you have not looked at any of that stuff in a few years get rid of it too.

At the end of the day when we pass over to the other side beyond the veil between worlds any attachment to stuff, loved ones or work will hamper our passage and could even lead to us being stuck between the worlds and being earth bound. We need to be able to go into an existential free fall without fear and without attachment to any Thing. We will have to let go and surrender completely.