When are you Going to Die? How are you Going to Live?
How many times do we need to be reminded of how impermanent life is and how precious every moment we live is?
What will impel us to drink directly from the wellspring of life?
The other day I posted about a beloved friend, Dan, who passed beyond the veil and onward into his infinite journey on the boundless ocean.
Many would say that his journey ended too soon and when I stop to think about him part of me (the heart of me) agrees, but this is exactly how this mysterious thing of this life works.
In the end we can’t be too young, too this, too that, too anything, because there is a greater mystery at play.
It appears that we are both the player and played in this grand cosmic soup game of life.
God or Machine or Something in between?
Whilst I subscribe to an aspect of the notion that Nick Cave sapiently sang “I don’t believe in an interventionist god,” I don’t believe the apophantic statement made by Father John Misty (Josh Tillman) that “we’re just random matter suspended in the dark.”
There seems to a superconscious energy permeating all of existence.
Constantly, consistently inconsistent in its perfection, magnificent in its tumultuousness and indomitable graciousness,
this life is an incredible gift to be revered with every inhalation and received with quotidian gratitude.
Dangerous Assumptions
A long and fruitful life is what we assume we’ll get (and hope we’ll get) so we kind of squander the hours of our days as if we are going to live forever, but none of us know when we’re actually going to die as we somnambulantly wander through our work week.
Whatever it is that keeps us balanced in this fragile homeostasis is incredibly miraculous!
Yet when the scales tip against our favour and come closer to drawing our last breath we realise how much time and life-energy we’ve wasted on mundane and trivial things.
This understanding alone can lead to wonderful realisations and life changing transformation, especially with the way we utilise the hours of our days, or more importantly, how we appreciate each minute.
Wisdom of a wise stranger
I met a jovial 82 year old man a week or so ago and when I asked him how he was he vivaciously replied, “I’m breathing another glorious breath! I’m alive! It’s miraculous! Every day that I’m breathing I’m grateful to be alive!”
Normally, when I ask people how they are, they doll out the same reply, “Not bad,” (to which I normally reply, “well, that’s better than bad” which usually elicits a smile) so when I heard this man say these words I was immediately uplifted. Actually, I was relieved.
The Song of Life
This precious heart has only so many beats within this song of life before the last drum roll will precipitate the coadunation back into the symphony of the universe.
But it’s not so much the numbers of beats we have that’s important, is it ?
We all know that it’s more the quality of each beat and the depth of each rhythm that counts.
The Great Remembering
Sometime after our dramatic entry into the world during our early childhood, the memory of the incredible magnificence of the nature and essence of what we can hardly believe we truly are is forgotten entirely.
Yet even in our somnambulant state there is a stirring inside that grows into a deep longing for even a glimpse of remembrance.
A taste of freedom.
And those of us fortunate enough to have experienced glimpses of this great remembrance, we become seekers on a path to break through the seductive walls of illusion, referred to as Maya in India’s Hindu culture, to be free.
Our heart knows that our spirit longs for liberation.
It wants to express itself far beyond the limited parameters set by the status quo.
A great wise sage once said that it’s not about becoming who we are, but more poignantly, unbecoming who we are not.
Untangling the tentacles of indoctrination that act as blinkers to reality.
Sit there.
Breathe.
Let the masks fall.
"Don't Just do something... Sit there!"
That's the title of my second album.
That is the metaphorical blue pill or red pill that is mistakenly spoken of in merely political terms by many who call themselves ‘woke’, yet it’s far more profound than that.
So what will trigger you to shed the comfort-zone-skin that society has placed upon you to lull you into a noctambulist stupor?
What will inspire you to pull down the masks you wear that you think are ‘you’ and radiate your true essence?
What will tickle that ebullient, radiant being inside of your meat-suit to shake off the shackles and live each moment to the fullest?
Will you wait for personal cataclysm to come first to push you out of your comfort zone?
Or will you start the process of initiation yourself?
My friend from long ago has just passed, perhaps too soon, and I will never be able to have philosophical chats with him again, but his actual passing has reawakened a passionate power within me and I hope that it triggers something deep within you as you read these words.
May you appreciate each breath as if it will be your last, yet dream like you will live forever and take action as if you are a god. For who knows, maybe you are…?
Blissful blessings and smiles
in joy
Nathan
NK
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The bucket of life,
is given to all who are born into this world.
The length of one's life
is determined by how much water one's bucket holds.
Upon your brith,
your bucket is at its fullest,
and with each passing moment,
it slowly begins to empty.
All but one out of a thousand,
shall go through life,
but not truly live it,
until they see that what remains in the bucket,
is only but a drop.
You can be the one out of one thousand who lives life while your bucket is full.
Do not wait to live tomorrow,
when you can live today,
for tomorrow,
your bucket may run dry.
I really like this. It's left me speechless but I would like for you to know that, a perfect stranger connects to your words, strong words.
It humbles me to know that my words touched you.
There is serious weight in this post. Life is temporal and no one decides when to die except God. Yet everyone must die.
Really enjoyed this... thanks for sharing.
My dad and I were talking a few weeks ago and we got pretty deep, and he said he believes that from the day we're born, we have a specific number of days we're going to exist in this journey here. I don't believe that, necessarily, but it's interesting how many different perspectives exist in the world. He lives every day like it's his last , so it works for him. I'd never close my mind to the possibility of that being true.
I believe each of us here to complete many missions, to grow spiritually. to better master the lessons we failed to master in past lifetimes. I believe there are "soul families" and that every single person in our lives are part of the family and we're learning together.
For instance, you and I , would have known each other already before in a past life, and that's why you seem familiar to me, and maybe vice versa. Thping on my phone again .. hand getting tired, I could talk forever about my beliefs. Not many in my life share them .. they haven't remembered yet.
Anyway, I loved this post and I hope it gets people thinking. I so much agree with that last thought. Resteemed because important. ❤️
A very inspirational post! Our time here is precious and spending quality time with loved ones is a blessing. The notion of "unbecoming who we are not" is an ideal to strive for! Thank you!
I truly love it when people share deep meaningful thoughts that are worthy of serious contemplation. It helps those of us who are simply too busy or preoccupied with ourselves to stop and think for a moment. This is one such example, Nathan, and I thank you ever so much for laying it all out the way you did. The fact that you did so has inspired me to add my own thoughts in kind, for whatever they may be worth.
For a myriad of reasons, both in the here and now, and in our potential afterlife, as imaginative as we may or may not be, it is most wise to have reverence for and embrace the plausibility of a spiritual realm beyond that which our mortal minds can possibly comprehend. There are far greater risks in not doing so, and zero rewards - on either side of the two plausible realms.
Maintaining a well-grounded sense of perspective, gratitude, and appreciation as Nathan so eloquently describes, is a most brilliant strategy to adopt throughout the entirety one’s life.
When the Going Get’s Tough…
It’s all rather easy to accomplish when everything is generally going well, however, when tragedy strikes as it most assuredly will throughout our lifetimes, and most certainly with our very last breath, our ability to cope under such inevitable levels of duress is going to be determined by how successful each of us were in preparing ourselves fully through nurturing our self-directed perspectives and beliefs within the realms of all such enlightenment.
The more enlightened we are able to become through such pensive discourse, self-discovery, faith, and contemplation, the better we are likely to deal with all facets of life and death - replete with all of its beauty, joy, sorrow, and pain.
Perhaps, in doing so, if another spiritual realm indeed exists to which we shall embark after this life eludes us; such enlightenment will make these inevitable transitions far easier to transcend and orders of magnitude more beautiful than they otherwise might be.
Thank you for sparking these thoughts, Nathan. Much love, brother!
That was very well written!
I'm getting to that age where contemplating the void happens more often than it used to, that time when we realize that we are not, in fact, immortal, and life becomes more precious rather than just taken for granted.
I think, my friend, all the previous replies say it all: you feel emotions, touch mysteries, create words and change hearts together with your beloved friend, Dan.
All that needs be said is: Thank you, Nathan, for being and sharing the life loving person you are :-) <3
I often contemplate why people are they way they are. Obsessed with their cell phones, glued to their tv's, having the most recent cars that just came out. Stuck on material things that mean nothing.
And I came to realize that people are lacking so much to their lives. True meanings that are right in front of them yet they cannot see it. Every day, from day to day, children are spending hours enclosed in 4 walls at school then go home and do the same thing. Tv, games, tablets is now their escape.
Time flying by without remembering what happened the day before. Technology has such a strong hold on us, keeping us from connecting to the very people we live with, making it harder for people to live life to the fullest, keeping the curtains closed.
If we remove all these things in our lives, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. But with time that would open so many doors and we could really connect with one another. Being able to open those curtains and actually see the world. Even if it may just be our backyard. But that's where we start.
Seeing the world being as beautiful as it is, we can then see how everything is so strong and yet so fragile.
Your post is very deep and has hit me hard with some personal things that is hard for me to deal with. Yet I thank you for this. It is very important for people to see this and understand it as well. Thank you my friend <3
Beautifuly written Nathan and indeed we are in the middle of everything and would be sad to be just dust or that we are mere dreams of a god.
To live life fully and without regrets. Most preferably in my old age and surrounded by nubile women feeding me grapes and giving me wine hahahha.