An ice cold glass of lemonade with a little paper umbrella; the sound of a gentle surf; a hammock under the shade of trees, a good book to read. Island time living…
When was the last time you spent 24 hours blissfully and joyfully living your life? A 24 hour day without stress, anxiety, fear, anger, agitation, irritation or our self-imposed “to do” list?
Isn’t it odd? For something as precious as this very life we have, we rarely live a day of being content. Judging from the bombardment of social, television and internet media it isn’t just you and me, but most everyone we know.
In our seemingly over-committed lives we can’t even imagine living a life of Island Time. Even when we retire from a job, we think every day will be like a ‘Saturday,’ but will it? Won’t we bring the same mindset – a mindset that demands to occupy our time with stuff to do and then feeling guilty for not completing our daily “to do list?”
Siddhartha Gautama lived his early years in numbing luxury. He then lived years as an ascetic, with deprivations so severe he nearly died. When he awakened to the realities of this life, he taught us the Middle Path. I think of this Middle Path as both Island Time and Amida Buddha Time.
Warren Buffet, a financially successful person said “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything." Saying ‘no’ is something our frenetic culture abhors. We each need to decide what we say ‘no’ to. We each need to decide what, for us, defines success.
Is it getting caught in the acquisition of material objects, being an “important person” or trying to change the world? Can we become so busy, that as Thomas Merton said over 50 years ago that “our activism neutralizes our work for peace?”
“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”
This short poem in the Seattle Times (1/29/61) speaks to what we lose sight of when we live this way:
“Sometimes I pompously question life
And ask what its problems mean.
While hundreds of exquisite little joys
Lie under my eyes unseen.”
Hundreds of exquisite little joys lie under my eyes unseen… This, to me, is where Amida Buddha Time and Island Time are one. When we entrust, accept or acknowledge that we are embraced by life, by Amida Buddha, never to be let go of regardless of our bonbuness we can begin to live life with wisdom and compassion, a life of Island Time.
We can relax into this awareness of life, an awareness that puts all the messy problems of living life as a human into perspective. This awareness frees us from our ego self. The ego self that demands to create even more mountains that we then needlessly have to struggle to tear down.
Life is not easy. We suffer birth, illness, old age and death. We know this truth. We know causes and conditions, some we have control over and others not, make each one of us unique in our experience of this life.
Amida Buddha and the concept of being embraced liberate us from a bondage we impose on ourselves. This does not mean the realities of this life disappear. They never will. What it does mean is we can live life unburdened with our ego-self controlling us. We can find wisdom and compassion not only for others, but more importantly, for our own self.
We can begin to live life in Island Time, the Middle Path way, now.
Namo Amida Butsu.
In Gassho,
Rev. Anita
rev.anita.cbt@outlook.com
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