I see so many people walking through life in pain. Regretting past actions, wishing “this” or “that” had never happened to them, blaming their parents or ex-lovers or God or life for damaging them or abandoning them or any number of atrocities. I see how much pain this causes. Pain. “Life is pain, get used to it,” Gena Davis says to her daughter in The Long Kiss Goodnight. But, is it? Does it have to be? Why are children seemingly so happy, no matter what their circumstances, yet almost every single adolescent and adult you see walks around lost in thought, with a sad look or angry scowl across his/her face?
All Buddhist teachings go back to one very simple thing: Be here now. There only is this present moment. Nothing else exists. The past is already gone. The future is yet to arrive. The only moment that truly exists is here. Now. Yet most of us are not living in it. When you are out in the world, if you look at people’s faces, you will notice that almost every single person you look at is lost in his or her own mind. Functioning on autopilot. Not “here” at all. The people we truly admire. The ones we gravitate to. The ones that exude a certain power…that make us want to bask in their warmth, these people are present. You can literally see the life force shining through them. Whether they know it or not, they are wide-open doorways to the Divine. They glow.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock by ERainbow
