I found an unusual article written\u00a0by a reporter for Reuter\u2019s Daily News. A few minutes before noon, a trio of\u00a0Buddhist monks in their orange and red garb were headed to the Golden Arches.\u00a0Not the gateway to heaven. They were on a break from the work they had been\u00a0doing as they causally strolled through the swinging doors of a MacDonald\u2019s\u00a0fast food restaurant. No sacred chants or meditations. They simply paid for their\u00a0food and sat down in a booth, laughing and munching their quarter-pounder\u00a0extra-value meals. When they were finished eating, they walked down the street\u00a0and got back to work.<\/p>\n
They were performing an ancient\u00a0Tibetan ritual called \u201csand painting,\u201d a striking illustration of the transient\u00a0and impermanent nature of life. For about a week, a number of monks sit cross
legged on the floor in a meditative state and pour brilliantly colored crushed\u00a0marble into one end of a copper funnel-like instrument. Then they tap the\u00a0marble sand out the other end, forming intricate designs they call a mandala.\u00a0(sacred essence) Throughout the process, they silently thank the local spirits\u00a0and focus on world peace, healing and transformation. When it\u2019s finished, they sweep
their hands through the beautiful mandala in long circular strokes, destroying\u00a0the design and demonstrating the concept of impermanence.<\/p>\n
The idea that everything changes\u00a0and nothing lasts forever is at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. In the East, young\u00a0children are taught to accept the transient nature of the physical body as soon\u00a0as they are old enough to understand. I was in the streets of Bali when a
funeral procession walked by. The children were dashing in and out and ducking under\u00a0the body that was being transported, laughing and chasing each other.<\/p>\n
Here in the West, when a child asks\u00a0about the meaning of death, the common answer is \u201cYou\u2019re too young to be\u00a0thinking about such things.\u201d Or \u201cit won\u2019t happen for a long time.\u201d I had a\u00a0great aunt who was as close to me as a mother. I was six when she died and I
pleaded with my parents to take me with them to her funeral. They said it was no\u00a0place for a child, and they left. I watched the car drive up the street and I\u00a0felt devastated. Not only because Ruth had died but also because I was being\u00a0left out.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard all kinds of theories\u00a0and beliefs about leaving this earth. But whatever we believe or envision or\u00a0hope, it falls under the category of something we can\u2019t understand and we never\u00a0will. All we know is that it is inevitable. No matter how much we work out, eat
cleanly and exercise our brains, we can\u2019t escape the inescapable. No matter how\u00a0much we doctor our faces and bodies so we look younger, we can\u2019t change the\u00a0final outcome. On his deathbed, someone asked ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates,\u00a0how to find wisdom. He said, \u201cPractice dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spiritual teacher of mine said, \u201cDying\u00a0is perfectly safe. Everyone is doing it. It isn\u2019t tragic. It\u2019s inevitable.\u201d As\u00a0part of a dynamic system, not a stagnant one, impermanence is nothing unusual.\u00a0Every tree, blade of grass, insect and human being is changing, moment to
moment. We don\u2019t have to like it but we need to find a way to accept it. Mark\u00a0Twain said, \u201cI\u2019m all for progress. It\u2019s change that I object to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Living life to the fullest and\u00a0having gratitude is only relevant because we have an expiration date. If we\u00a0didn\u2019t, we might put things off indefinitely. An expiration date encourages us\u00a0to do things now. To appreciate. To see the good instead of complaining. To forgive
sooner rather than later. To offer help. To treat each other with respect and\u00a0appreciation. Most importantly, it encourages us to be mindful, to work at\u00a0being completely present in each moment.<\/p>\n
Change can show up in the most\u00a0mundane ways. I was living with a boyfriend, William, and our duvet cover was worn\u00a0out. I went to the store, bought a new one and brought it home. We were fitting\u00a0the duvet into the new cover when Will stopped. \u201cThis isn\u2019t gonna work,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean? It fits\u00a0perfectly,\u201d I said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same size as the other one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will shook his head. \u201cIt isn\u2019t\u00a0going to work,\u201d he repeated. He disliked change so much, he couldn\u2019t tolerate a\u00a0new duvet cover. I had to talk him through it.<\/p>\n
I wonder, why isn\u2019t being old considered\u00a0as valid and important as being young? You never see a child embarrassed to be\u00a0young. So why should anyone be embarrassed to be old? When I was in my early\u00a0twenties, my friends and I lived by the credo, \u201cNever trust anyone over\u00a0thirty.\u201d So what do we do now? Does that mean we shouldn\u2019t trust ourselves?<\/p>\n
One of my fondest memories is going\u00a0to see Timothy Leary, a psychologist and strong advocate of psychedelic drugs.\u00a0It was 1996, a few months before he died and he was shirtless, wearing a tie
and speeding around his house in a wheelchair. He told me that he had ordered a\u00a0sensory deprivation tank so he could practice dying. I don\u2019t embrace it the way\u00a0he did, but I try to be present when the topic comes up and hope I can find the\u00a0courage to face it head on when it arrives in my court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I found an unusual article written\u00a0by a reporter for Reuter\u2019s Daily News. A few minutes before noon, a trio of\u00a0Buddhist monks in their orange and red garb were headed to the Golden Arches.\u00a0Not the gateway to heaven. They were on a break from the work they had been\u00a0doing as they causally strolled through the swinging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2643,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642\/revisions\/2643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}