Years ago, I recall the precise moment when
I realized, very tangibly, the impermanence of life.
I sat on the couch, contemplating, dreaming,
longing for my mother. She had died just
weeks before of cancer. In that very typical,
and yet not normal, passing moment, it hit me -- I too will die. In that moment I was aware of my physical
being; feeling my heart pound beneath my skin.
My heart would someday stop.
It is so unconscious. I take it for granted. My body does all of these amazing things
without me even being involved. My mind
can’t control what the body already knows what to do and the immanent wisdom it
already has. Funny that is probably why
nature took that option away – it knew the monkey brain would go for
controlling all of it, if it could.
Imagine if you had to control when and how often you breathed or
digested? We would find ways to mess
with it for sure.
