I’ve got good news for you . . . You are dying.
Knowing you are dying, that today could be, may be, will be the last day of your life is the GREATEST tool to living a healthy happy life ever conceived.
When death is imminent, does it matter what people think of you? The answer is only yes if you happen to care about those people. The rest?
When death is imminent, will you wish you had more time with family? or friends?
When death is imminent, will you worry about what your crappy boss thinks about your work? Will you wish you would have made a move sooner in your job?
When death is imminent, will you wish you hadn’t lingered so long in a crappy relationship? Will you wish you would have done more in your own life? Got that pilot’s license? Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro? Written a screenplay?
Resident pimp-daddy, Steve Jobs once said, “If today is the day I will die, would I go and do what I am about to do?” If that answer is “no” it’s obvious you need to make a change.
Make no mistake about it . . . You.Are.Dying. You will not live forever.
In Zen Buddhism, teachers use kōans to challenge students minds and open their world up to questions and answers not previously thought. I have one for you:
Imagine a cliff. And on the edge of that cliff is a tree, with branches pouring over the side. You are hanging from a branch right over the crevasse by your teeth, with your hands and feet tied behind you. There is a man underneath the tree asking a simple question,
“What is 2 + 2?”
If you do not answer, the man below is prepared to kill you in a most horrible way. However if you do answer, you will surely plummet to your death.
How do you stay alive?
August 14th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
you stay alive by accepting death. only in acceptance can we truely be who we are. i have realized for several years now that 100% of those that breathe will die some day. so because of that i make sure everyday, or every other day, to call my family and say hi and that i love them. i should do this more with my friends but they usually get a call once a week at least. banky you should start a religion so that i may hear (and share!) more spirital revelations with you. i also need to work on the whole what people think about me bit. i need to be more of who i am.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
[...] was with that in mind that I came across Banky’s post that said: I’ve got good news for you . . . You are [...]
August 16th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
This would be a time when acrobatics training would come in handy. At the circus I’ve seen incredible feats performed by acrobats hanging by their teeth in mid-air. I should hope that if I find myself in a scenario like the one that you mentioned, that I would be able to channel my inner trapeze artists and use inertia and what-not to propel myself back over to the right side of the cliff, hoping that the person below was satisfied that I used my fingers to signal the correct answer to his question.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Leigh Ann,
Even though you are the only person to take a shot at the Kobayashi Maru, you engineered the most creative answer I’ve heard.
Nicely done, my dear!
August 19th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I thought you might be interested in the newly published Open Source Spirituality Manifesto if you have not seen it before. It is found at http://www.integrativespirituality.org/postnuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=283
Please copy and paste into your browser if the link doesn’t work.
The manifesto is interesting in that it contains not only the history of open source spirituality, but a comprehensive discussion of what it is and as well as what are its key operational and administrative principles…
Sincerely,
Eva