Write 28 Days is over but I continue to want to notice things in varied ways, to give attention to the world around me.
I listened to the last guided meditation in Sharon Salzberg’s Real Happiness Meditation Challenge, and want to share some of it here. It seems more important than ever to remember our connection to all things.
“As alone and cut off as we sometimes may feel, the reality, the truth of our existence is that we’re all connected. If you go out and look at a tree there’s a way of seeing it as a single solid entity. There’s a way of looking at that tree and sensing the earth which has nurtured it, and all of the things that affect that tree. Reflect on this way of seeing for a moment. We can look at the tree and sense the rainfall and everything that affects the quality of that rain. The air, and the sun, and the moon. Perhaps all the people who have stewarded the plot of land the tree’s growing on, perhaps centuries of that. If you go out and look at a tree, you can also sense all of these relationships, influences, interactions, connections that make up the tree.
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“Who grew the food that you’ve eaten so far today? Who transported it? How many creatures of the earth were involved in that food? Who made the clothes that you’re wearing or built the building that you’re sitting in? Our own lives are so connected. None of us really exist apart, independent.”