The most fascinating thing about mindfulness practice, I find, is that it invites us to look at things just the way they are. Mindfulness never tries to shroud the truth or sugarcoat reality, and always explains life as it is.
Being alive means that we are aging, we are decaying, and we will cease to exist some day. Living in this world means that everything and everyone around us is subject to change. And because every single action has an impact, we are entirely responsible for the consequences of our own actions.
Sounds pretty serious and sobering, indeed. And knowing the human’s penchant for escaping from uncomfortable realities and avoiding what we don’t like, it certainly takes strong intention and great courage to confront and recognise these inevitable truths of life.
We don’t have to like them, really; we just need to accept that they are indisputable truths. This doesn’t mean that we should fall into despair and despondency over what we cannot control. With this acceptance and embracing of life as it is comes the inspiration to see clearly, and the motivation to live more thoughtfully and wisely.
In this Take A Pause session recorded on 20 October 2024, the TAP community practiced not looking away from reality, and bravely contemplated the Five Remembrances of the Upajjhatthana Sutta (Subjects for Contemplation):
I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape having ill health.
I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature of change. I cannot escape being separated from them.
My actions are my closest companions. I am of the beneficiary of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.
These five bare facts serve to remind us not to take life for granted and to use every moment of our time to live more mindfully and wholesomely.
At the end of the session, a few members shared that this was a particularly difficult practice, and at the same time an empowering one. We were reminded not to take life for granted, and to make the most of every moment we have to live meaningfully.
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