Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: it's the little things in life...

  1. #1

    it's the little things in life...

    all of us, no matter our faith, or lack of strive to find a state in which we can be at ease, and find solace...

    when it comes to the Buddhist path, all sects, and traditions hold the core belief that it is through questioning, and thinking with the end goal of being free from the need to think, but to know and understand...

    some teach that enlightenment can only come to those who work hard at it, other claim that it can never be reached in this life, others hold it as something you must never " strive for" so much as just be....

    but what about those little things, those brief moments in all our lives that, all too often are over before we know it... Sitting and watching a sun set with a loved one, or alone...the micro second after accomplishing a major goal, the throws of post orgasmic silence with one who is part of you...even the scent of freshly cut grass on a spring morning, or opening a new box of crayons, or watching the first breaths of your child, or feeling their heart beat against yours as they sleep on your chest....

    in these moments, not a thought goes through our mind, only a feeling...and that feeling telling us that at that very very second, there is no other place we need to be, no other place we want to go, nothing to think of to ruin that very moment in time....

    is that not in itself a small but powerful moment, a moment when everything in the universe is just right, a moment of enlightenment?

    Too often people dwell on things beyond their control, or allow things that are illusions, or temporary, or controllable stand in their way as an obstruction, something that looms in the way of them being able to look past it, or move away from it, to cut them off from the thought that they could ever have a happy moment... yes this falls under the " why me" ideas of suffering, but away from the Buddhist noble truths, or the precepts...to the element that makes all of us human...

    perhaps we do need to take more time to look, and hear, feel, touch and taste those little moments, to reflect on how they shape who we are, and the joy and euphoric perfection they made us feel, and appreciate them a little more.



    yes this is what I cook up in my mind while doing menial tasks like dishes.

  2. #2

    Re: it's the little things in life...

    Thank you, Aikoku Tora, I enjoyed reading your post.

    And so very true.

  3. #3

    Re: it's the little things in life...

    Thank you, It's just something that comes to me now and then, how so many of us overlook those little things, and focus strictly on things that " seem" bigger and automatically make them more valid than those moments in which the very fabric of who we are are formed...

    sure a blue giant star may be bigger, and brighter than a neutron star, and easier to spot from a distance... but the blue giant also only lives a few million years before burning itself out, while a neutron star lives in the trillions of years, and has a density thousands of times greater..

    abit of a sci-dork metaphor I know ops:


    the stress of having a tight month is only temporary, eventually that check comes in, and you can be caught up...sure it may repeat next month, but it too will end, and there are ways one can work around it...it's temporary, fixable, it's not something that should define who you are, or create unnecessary suffering, as we know letting it consume you does nothing to help yourself, nor those around you, and can just create a cascade of compiling problems to further add to that...

    waking up and feeling that crisp, defused lightened, silent first fall day, and just...living that moment with no thoughts, only a brief moment of being can last eternity in memory and heart even if the moment is less than a breath in time.

    I personally feel that those moments far overpower these juggernauts of day to day living...yes they may be fewer, or less obvious than " the big things" but simply being, or trying to be mindful of every moment seems to bring that clarity to me...and as we all know... the loudest voice in a room is not necessarily the one actually saying anything..

  4. #4

    Re: it's the little things in life...

    sorry for bumping this.. considering the more recent topic to mull and debate over I dug up from the endless depths of the " webber-net" I feel this to be a nice breath of fresh air, and a chance to let go

  5. #5

    Re: it's the little things in life...

    Reminds me of that Japanese idea "Yugen":
    Kamo no Chômei, the author of the well-known Hôjôki (An Account of my Hut, 1212), also wrote about poetry and considered yûgen to be a primary concern of the poetry of his time. He offers the following as a characerization of yûgen: “It is like an autumn evening under a colorless expanse of silent sky. Somehow, as if for some reason that we should be able to recall, tears well uncontrollably.”
    http://www.seop.leeds.ac.uk/entries/...-aesthetics/#5
    Yugen is like watching a freighter pass by and wondering where it is going, wishing you might be on it ...

Similar Threads

  1. Things are different now
    By JohnsonCM in forum Archive of Older Threads
    Replies: 28
    Last Post: 11-15-2011, 07:37 PM
  2. Things to do when you're about to die...
    By Hans in forum Archive of Older Threads
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 06-26-2010, 01:02 AM
  3. Sitting With Various...Things (and Non-Things)
    By Shonin in forum Archive of Older Threads
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 10-18-2009, 09:29 PM
  4. 20 Things Zen will not do.
    By Myoshin in forum Archive of Older Threads
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 04-08-2009, 10:58 AM
  5. Practicing many things
    By will in forum Archive of Older Threads
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 06-02-2008, 02:26 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •