Today, while hiking in mountains (again no camera on me, only my phone, hence a lousy photo) with a friend, thinking about the quality of the time in my life, the question arose within me about what makes a certain moment in life a precious one. How do I evaluate whether a certain moment of my life was/is precious or not?
Locating the most valuable moments of my life is easy. Deep insights into the nature of my existence and various awakenings into the presence of now, that kept occurring in the wild meditative period of my life about 20 years ago – these moment were absolutely crucial and they are still here, with me. Being there when my kids got born, to participate in this miracle of life… Precious beyond words. All the aha moments of my life. All the magical moments of pure contact with others. Lying with my wife in bed, in tight embrace, feeling completely loved and accepted. The moments when I have managed to provide some support to somebody and was honoured to witness the sparks ignite in their eyes…
Now, when I think of these many precious moments, I can see the pattern. I believe I evaluate a moment of my life as a precious when it is either about:
- a full – and when I say full I mean full – presence here and now. When the mind stops, when the time stops, when all that can fall off actually falls off and the only thing that remains is… well, nothing, emptiness, just this…
- an open contact with another being, absolutely open, nothing in between. The flow, the connection, the union.
- the feeling that I have contributed to somebody’s life being more beautiful. When I see them shine. When I see them smile. When I feel they are taking my hand and that I have helped some needs of theirs being met. And when I feel this is meaningful to them. I guess I could also say that in these moments I feel I have given love and that this love was indeed needed and accepted. And I melt.
So, I guess, it is the presence, the openness and the free giving.
Just as simple as that.
If I start focusing my life around these three crucial attributes, I believe I should soon find myself living a very very precious life.
This feels very weird: suddenly the question of the meaning of life seems so frightenly simple and easy.
the meaning life sure does sound simple & easy after that but the thing is that you could only get here after being through all that…compared to that I can only read and maybe take a note or too but even the reader will only be able to understand after he goes through the experience…
great post…as usual…
Comment by utp — December 21, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
‘Helping make someone’s life more beautiful.’
YES. I love this post. It speaks to me; thank you for sharing, Robert.
Comment by Hayden Tompkins — December 22, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
UTP & Hayden – thanks, my friends. Feels good to know my post has touched somebody out there.
Comment by Robert — December 23, 2008 @ 12:42 am
Robert. Maybe the meaning of life really is as simple as this. When everything else is stripped away then all that’s essential is presence, sharing with another soul and making life more beautiful. I love it! Not saying it’s easy, but it does seem a reachable philosophy and way of life. I can relate to those precious moments you describe and what a wonderful goal to have a life FULL of them. Thanks for the reminder of the essence of living. Ian
Comment by ianpeatey — December 23, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Just had a thought! If you’ve discovered the meaning of life, does it mean you won’t blog any more? If that’s the case … then
‘No.. it’s far more complex than that! Keep on searching buddy!’
Comment by ianpeatey — December 23, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
For me, the most precious times of my life are those moments when I realise that being rich is being able to enjoy life to the extent that having unlimited funds or power wouldn’t improve the experience. Like sitting around a campfire with friends or just about any time I spend with my wife.
Even just looking up at the sky.
Just to be, without feeling the need for anything else.
Comment by razzbuffnik — December 25, 2008 @ 1:15 am
Ian – I guess I will never stop searching for the meaning. And I believe I will never find a rational one, since I don’t believe there’s any. So I guess I’ll just keep polluting the cyberspace with this blog of mine. And I agree, though it is not easy, it certainly does seem, as you say, a reachable way of life.
Razz – …having unlimited funds or power wouldn’t improve the experience… What a beautiful expression, my friend, I totally love it. Thanks, mate, thanks a lot for this.
Comment by Robert — December 25, 2008 @ 11:38 pm