“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”
~ Buddha
It’s another hot and hazy morning here in the VI. After sitting for quite a while in my usual spot, I decided to go up to my pool deck and shoot the sunrise from a different perspective ….
It brought me back to thinking about one of the most important lessons in Buddhism: The concept of Anatta, or no-self. It is said that once this concept is fully grasped, the aspirant begins to move quickly along the path. As there is no abiding self to ever defend, we begin to identify with peace in the present moment. Our actions become rooted in the here and now.
It’s been said: “The man who gets off the train, having read the newspaper, is not the same man who got on the train.”
More often than not, we tend to look for consistency in our life. But this is all just an illusion.
After I finished with my sunrise meditation, I checked my pool chemicals. They’ve been out of wack, and I’ve been working on correcting this. I checked the chemicals, as they are today. Not as they were yesterday, or a week ago, but just today. Sure, I’m looking for some pattern here, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. The formula for correction is based in the present moment. With this, one cannot argue.
This flows easily into the second of the Buddha’s laws of being, or marks of existence: Impermanence or Anicca. The only constant we have is change. (The third mark is dukka, or suffering).
How would life change for us if we applied these teachings to our relationships, looking at the people in our lives as they truly stand before us, not as they were yesterday, or a year ago? Are we able to discern the subtle changes that go on with each other, moment by moment, day by day, week by week ….?
Can we grow with change, instead of identifying with our need for consistency, identifying with a self, a time and place, that no longer exists?
—
Jidda Krishnamurti was asked by a student: Why aren’t we allowed to remember our former lives? Our evolution would be much easier …
“Would it?” he replies …
“We could avoid mistakes,” continues the student ….
“What do you mean by former life? The life of yesterday, twenty-four hours ago?” asks Krishnamurti.
“The last incarnation,” replies the student.
“Which is a hundred years ago? How would it make life easier?” Asks Krishnamurti …
“We would understand better,” insists his student …
To which Krishnamurti counters:
“Please follow it step by step – you would have the memory of what you did or did not do, of what you suffered a hundred years ago, which is exactly the same as yesterday.”
“Yesterday you did many things which you like or regret, which caused you pain, despair and sorrow. There is the memory of all that.”
“And you have the memory of a thousand years, which is essentially the same as yesterday.”
“Why call that reincarnation, and not the incarnation of yesterday, which is being born today.”
“You see, we don’t like that because we think we are extraordinary beings, or we have time to grow, to become, to reincarnate. What it is that reincarnates you, you have never looked at – which is your memory.”
“There is nothing sacred or holy about it. Your memory of yesterday is being born today in what you are doing; the yesterday is controlling what you are doing today. And a thousand years of memories is operating through yesterday and through today.”
“So there is constant incarnation of the past.”
“Don’t think this is a clever way out of it, an explanation.”
“When one sees the importance of memory, and the utter futility of it, then one will never talk about reincarnation.”
—-
“What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.”
~Buddha
“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
~ Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching
