The Essence of Life
Throughout my lifetime, I have always been drawn to the teachings of the East. As a young novice student of Okinawan Karate I was initially introduced to Eastern thought and philosophy. Many years later I would find myself drawn to Taoism and Buddhism. Always, over many years, what I was ultimately seeking was the essence of life. What could be considered the way or ultimate truth?
Recently, I was listening to a Shaolin Master. In simplest terms, he captured it for me. Somehow, in simplest Taoist / Buddhist language, he so clearly articulated the essence of life. Each one of us comes into this lifetime as a soul taking on human incarnation. In our own story of details, we take on parents, circumstances, a culture and a life into which we are born. From the moment we enter the world, we begin taking on layers which are added onto us as to who we are and how the world is. These largely come from the people and culture around us, those outside of us who in many cases do not know their own true essence, are giving us the messages about who we are and how this life works. This is in addition to the many, many lifetimes of learning and circumstances we have already lived and are bringing into this incarnation.
In this life, we begin the process of adding to, accumulating those things and people and situations we have been taught will make a good life, a happy life. And yet no matter what we add, no matter what we achieve, no matter what we accumulate, the home, the career, the education, the status, the spouse, the family….all of these things will eventually be lost, whether by death or by other circumstances.
In my life, I can see this cycle repeating itself over and over again, multiple time in multiple chapters. I have been to the highest peaks and the lowest valleys. I have been in the greatest of circumstances and living situations and I have been bankrupt. I have had several career highs at the top of my game and then looked back as those have been completely gone. I have had the wife and family, only to see this vanish. I have had the romantic loves, only to see that nothing stays. I have had more money than i knew what to do with in the bank and I have been months behind, struggling to keep the lights on and put food on the table. It is a continuous up and down cycle, like breathing in and out, or the cycles of nature, the seasons in which everything flourishes, then dies off in the mist of the freezing cold temperatures.
Perhaps we have done this in many lifetimes after many lifetimes, watching it all come, then watching it all go away. And so we begin to look at this pattern, this cycle of life, perhaps this cycle of lifetime after lifetime, and we then begin to ask the question, what is at the essence of all things that is not changing, that will never die? What is it that is at the core, our truest essence, that remains and is still and calm and stable amidst the ever changing tide, the waves which come in and then go out again, the seasons which produce beauty and color, and the seasons which are dark and cold and solitary.
What is the Essence of Life, over lifetime after lifetime, beyond that which is temporal in this realm of duality an impermanence?
To discover this core essence within is the Essence of Life and offers a calm, confident, peaceful core of existence that resides in a realm transcendent of the pain and suffering and loss we experience in this lifetime after lifetime of human form.
Zen and Ink Journals represents hundreds of hours of writing over the past decade, sometimes from a train in remote China or a coffee shop in Kyoto, a hammock in Costa Rica or a simple cabin on a mountain in Boquete, Panama.
Zen and Ink Journals is a simple offering of words in the hope of inspiring others to a simpler, more mindful way of life in these chaotic times. I invite you join me each month on the journey for a glimpse of the larger world, reflections on living more simply and quietly amidst the chaos of our modern world.
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Zen and Ink was born over a decade ago out of my own personal journey to find peace and tranquility amidst the ever-increasing chaos of our modern world. In the last ten years, the pace of our modern world has only accelerated and we have moved further out of sync with nature and the rhythm of our souls. Zen and Ink offers a quiet space for anyone along their journey seeking more balance and Zen in their daily lives.
Zen and Ink provides an oasis for those who are drawn to a slower and simpler way of life; to provide a portal for awakening, tools and resources that many will find useful in their own quest to find the Zen which is already there and always within and around each of us.