“For little children the day lasts forever, everything is new, fascinating and fresh, time is infinite. As we get older things aren’t fresh anymore, they’re all stale. We’ve done things so many times we don’t even notice doing them anymore. And the next thing we know is that we’re old and dying. And we think: ‘What happened to life?’ We miss not only the difficult things but also the good things!
The Buddha said being mindful is the one way to liberation. He didn’t say ‘this is one of those things you can do if you’ve got time’. The one path to liberation is to become aware, wake up. Then we become more conscious, more present, more aware, also our mind begins to clear up of itself. And we experience things almost as if for the first time: fresh, clear, clean, and without having to always make judgements, just experiencing things as they are. And that in itself sheds a whole different light on what our lives are about.”
Excerpt from: At the heart of life
Afbeelding: Spring rehearsal, Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky