“You are the Eternal Music.”*
Life is real.
Reality wins.
We know it’s temporary.
We know it’s ALL temporary.
We know WE’RE ALL temporary.
As the Buddhists practice,
We know these bodies,
Our bodies are fragile.
We know they will come,
And they will go.
We know the people we love,
The things we care for,
The children we raise,
The parents who raised us,
We know we are all passing through.
We understand impermanence.
And then—something happens.
And then,
Something changes.
Someone we love gets diagnosed.
Someone we love dies.
And the knowing,
The understanding
Dives deeper,
Deep inside our hearts.
This new visceral understanding
Of impermanence
Breaks our hearts open.
Impermanence.
The state,
The fact
Of only lasting
For
A
Limited
Period
Of
Time.
~~~
Buddha tells us:
Has the nature of ceasing,
That does
Say it all,
Doesn’t it?
It seems being alive, we must work contradictorily to this statement.
We must forge on.
And forget.
Our essential nature,
That we are born
To die.
~~~
And here is Guthema the poet, with a beautiful and needed reframe. Truly, dear folks, I so needed to hear this today, in this very moment. I am blessed to share it with you:
to realize that
you are not the one
who is getting older or
younger –
You are not the one who
dies or who is born.
This is because you are
not the body.
That is not what you are.
Instead you are the
space on which
the body manifests itself.
You are the eternal
music.
Speaking of eternal music, David Newman, beloved kirtan leader, chanter, teacher, community organizer, husband and father is that music. Five weeks after receiving his diagnosis, David died on April 18.
He initiated the Stay Strong Project and released this video in 2011. Luminaries from the world of kirtan** joined him for this heart-filled, energizing prayer. One hundred per cent of its proceeds were dedicated to Global Green.
As you listen to Stay Strong, I dare you to not dance yourself round and round, and perhaps notice a tiny trickle of tear or two:
~~~
Dear Friends,
What are we to do?
How are we to make
Sense of this fragile
Life of ours?
I choose kindness.
I choose practice.
I choose possibility.
I choose myself.
I choose community.
I choose healing.
I choose loving.
I choose surrender.
Care to join me?
May our time together
Benefit all beings,
Aruni
P.S.
I might sound strong and boisterously alive.
Yes…and…
I am also terrified and anxious.
All true—
All sacred—
All, inevitable.
~~~
*Title from the poem by Guthema Roba.
** Stay Strong Project
Mira Newman Shantara
Krishna Das Guara Vani
Wah Govinda and Radna
Jai Uttal Saul David Raye
Donna De Lory Bob Wisdom
Shannon Gannen Brenda McMorrow
Snatam Kaur C.C. White
Seane Corn Radhanath Swami
Shyam Das Phillippo Franchini
Sean Johnson Suzanne Sterling
Dave Stringer Kirtan Rabbi
Tony Khalife