Alan Watts- The Real You

You're breathing
The wind is blowing
The trees are waving
Your nerves are tingling

The individual and the universe
Are inseparable
But the curious thing is
Very few people are aware of it

Everything in nature
Depends on everything else
So it's interconnected

We confuse ourselves as living organisms which are one with this whole universe
With something we call our personality
And what is our personality?

And our fundamental self is not something just inside the skin
It's everything around us with which we connect

When you look out of your eyes
At nature happening out there
You're looking at you
That's the real you-
The you that goes on of itself

Now listen

It's absolutely necessary
That we let go of ourselves- and it can't be done,
Not by anything that we call doing it, acting, willing,
Or even just accepting things

It seems that the human being
Really has a very simple kind of mind
Nature is wiggly
Everything wiggles
And all this wiggliness is too complicated

What did you do Yesterday?

This is an interesting question that is deeper than it seems. The answer one gives is a clear insight to whether they are on the path to enlightenment or blinded by the materialistic world. Most people will answer with a brief description of the previous day's events, a list of this and that's. A list of description void of any real meaning. These type of replies are from superficial minds, an afterthought of an answer.

So many people are trying to live life that they forget to actually live life. They're always thinking about what needs to be done and what has been done, they fail to see the world in the present moment. So busy with life, they forget life. They are living a mechanical life because they have become mechanical people. Void of any true feeling or emotion. Completely detached and separated from the world.

For those who are aware and awake, the world appears vastly different to them. Instead of a list of things done, they have a meaningful basket of soulful experiences. For instance, an enlightened woman standing on a corner waiting for the light to change will close her eyes to feel the breeze dance and caress her hair while listening to the music of a bird nearby. Or marvel at the beginnings of a glorious sunset instead of worrying about the traffic.

Trying to explain enlightenment would be like me telling you to go out and catch a cloud, it cannot be done. This is the same problem with describing enlightenment. It cannot be grasp by the thinking mind, only by the feeling heart. This is the key to knowing how to live life. Learn to go through your day with your heart instead of your mind. Take your mind off the senseless nonsensical nonsense of what you think is important and get re-connected to the world that you are apart of.

Within enlightenment is the joy of knowing the interconnectedness of all things and the awareness of the collective conscious of divine intelligence. Learn to look at life with eyes of appreciation for the creative nature of our world. Stop being mechanical and start being human. For what you will see will be yourself, open your eyes and recognize this aspect of your life.

So when someone ask you what you did yesterday, you'll have the answer, the one from your heart. Live life!

Meditations on Death

There is a sorrowful, introspective melancholy in feeling the decline of one's self in the physical sense. As the realization of Time taking from us our very essence of being in bits and pieces while taking us closer to our date with death. There is a bitterness more painful than death in the last rays of daylight, in the knowing that night is fast approaching to take its claim.

Time who started out as our friend, our welcomed companion has become an insidious foe and being so ever playful in his torment upon us as he rushes us to that date. Time, so cruel, has robbed us of our youth while leaving us with nothing but memories and even that, he has decided to take from us as well.

Compounding the pain is the feeling of being cheated at every turn, at being cheated at every level of your being and your soul. The thought of being diminished in your humanity, knowing the promise of dust to dust isn't just a myth but your fate. Is this not a most sobering frighting reality to face?

Maybe, maybe not, it depends on where you are in relation to knowing your authentic self. Within your authentic self is the knowing that this is all an illusion, a temporary state of dreaming that you will awake from. It is all impermanent. By placing your trust, faith, dignity and happiness in the knowledge that you are an eternal being simply having a dream, there is no pain or sorrow. To be able to detach yourself from the illusion with the awakening to the divine love is the path to peace in troubled times. You can never perish, you can never be apart from the divine source, you can never be separated from the universal consciousness. All you can do is awake from this dream. Death is only an awakening.

So live life to the fullest! Be delighted in the magnificence of being alive! Cherish every moment as it may be your last. Stay in peace. Leave no moment wasted. Celebrate life! Live without regret. Only in living a fulfilled life can one embrace death with a smile. You will not be able to embrace your date with Death that time will bring until you have learn to live life to the fullest. So live life!