As life’s journey comes to end, fare thee well
Alot has happened within our group of friends in the course of a few months, in what I have always thought of as a more or less staid and simple life in our small city. Among some reasons for jubilation, a few perplexing situations, family feuds and unexpected illnesses, something which jolted many of us out of a sense of somnolence was the sudden and tragic loss of a dear friend. He was the fabled one to look adversity in the eye and dare it to strike him. He was the one, brimming with joie de vivre that herded us all to many a holiday together and he was the one that flippantly called me from the airport on his last journey.
As the news of his accident and subsequent death devastated his wife and family, a pall of gloom and disbelief settled over us all and we tried to think of ways to help our bereaved friend cope with this sudden, shattering, life altering situation. The bland, oft repeated ‘time is a big healer’ suddenly took on enormous import while we gathered around her, with no words to console the enormity of her loss.
As a young student, I would study Buddha’s eight-fold path to enlightenment and puzzled at the concept of nirvana. Innocently, I wondered why on earth would anyone not want to be reborn. I found Buddha’s idea of the ultimate desire for paradise a little confounding, considering how I imagined the rest of my life with a loving partner and family, a lucrative career, travel, fun and my share of indulgences and gratifications.
In my state of unsophistication and unworldliness, I swear I literally thumbed my nose at the idea of praying to God for enlightenment because I was raring to go, wanting to being born again and again to enjoy the pleasures that I imagined this life on earth promises.
Time is also the best teacher and leveller. I understand that so well today when I am past the age of declaring that I still have another half of my life to live.
So if you can recognise it, life is suffering and the ultimate goal is to attain an end to the suffering.
But having been born, we have to accept the good with the bad, the happy with the sad and fortune and hardship with equanimity.
Is there any one rule to live the perfect life? I think not. Do we enjoy today and the future be damned? Do we tread cautiously and forgo small pleasures? Do we give ourselves wholly to God and prayer? Do we live vicariously as if there is no tomorrow? Do I forgive easily and be thought of as a fool or hold on to grudges to satisfy societies’ sense of right and wrong?
Search me, I still have no answers!
All we can do today and in the future is to be grateful for the bounty the Almighty has bestowed and pray that He will grant us strength and fortitude when the time comes to test us.
BUT HAVING BEEN BORN, WE HAVE TO ACCEPT THE GOOD WITH THE BAD, THE HAPPY WITH THE SAD