sunday: august 02nd

"impermanence is what gives life meaning and should also give us urgency in going out and experiencing all that there is to experience. If we live as if there is infinite time with all these impermanent things, then that’s how we experience real loss and regret."
- Matthew Ward

we live through many obstacles and hardships in our live yet most of us don't realise how those exact experiences are what carve you into what you are. there is nothing wrong with a little heartbreak, or a sad event, see it as a part of life. 

i see this recurring problem with everything around us, the need for there to be an end point. the very frail attempt at trying to make imaginative visual flowcharts about the circle of life? it is pointless. we look for a point to everything. this train of thought started when I realised that a lot of people think of meditation as a process to an end goal and that is something I strongly disagreed with. the very act of meditation arises from being mindful, and being mindful is by understanding about the here and now. i then realised that this goes about for a lot of things, and the problem with this very alarming yet common way of thinking is that you literally do not enjoy life.

there are countless articles on people regretting how they spent their life while on their deathbed. stop reading and think about that for a while. imagine living for decades and regretting the only thing you had. you don't know what's coming after death, you could just cease to exist. there is no point to life, we have to stop trying to put everything we see around us into weak definitions restricted by language, communication and concepts we simply cannot fathom. nature, the world and the universe are humongous. we cannot make sense of it and any attempt at it is simply pointless. life is now. if there has to be a 'point' to life, it is the literal here and now. processes of our existence don't lead to anything. 

"Life isn’t about the final destination. It’s about the journey. If there’s a detour along the way to achieving your goal, then enjoy it. Lean into that detour. Don’t get upset because it wasn’t what you expected."
- Matthew Ward

stop fighting against what the world throws at you, whether it be emotional turmoil or just repeated failures. learn from it, embrace it and move on. 

'be like the water' is a line i'll never forget. i closely connect it with this other quote i read when i was reading up on zen philosophy (i think), it said: 'nature moves slow but accomplishes the tasks it's set out to do'

be like the water.