When "Be" is Beyond Words

With Awareness comes Body
With Body comes Mind
With Mind comes Ego
With Ego comes Thoughts
With Thoughts come Actions
With Actions comes Karma
With Karma comes Rebirth
With Rebirth comes Suffering
With Suffering comes Realization
With Realization comes Liberation
With Liberation comes Bliss.
With Bliss comes -------------.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

To understand the depth and facets of human existence requires maturity and wisdom.  Another way to look at it is, there is often something more fundamental or deep-rooted that is supporting a certain trait of a person.  In fact, we may not even be the person we purport to be.  Take independence, a trait that gives people the connotation of power, strength and self-accountability, but the price to pay may be the fear of dependency.  Perhaps you were once a tender soul who got ignored when you most needed a shoulder to cry on and thus left you with complete helplessness.  How about a well-poised person who can always control him- or herself and is non-reactive to outside circumstances?  Could he or she be born spiritually enlightened or is that someone who was once painfully shamed when rage was expressed?  By the same token, a highly organised individual who is always well-planned and ahead of his or her game wins high praise.  But how much is this characteristic a result of a traumatised experience when that person had lost security and certainty in life?

There is no problem at all in having all these so-called positive traits, as often enough they will work for you reasonably well at a mundane level.  But we need to work through the process of self-awareness and understand how we have come to become who we are now.  Preserve your traits by all means, just make sure that you notice it when it is motivated by fear and do not let that consume you.      

Arising and Ceasing

Any form that exists in this reality is subject to impermanence and is thus short-lived and unstable.  Nothing can be exempted from this rule - everything arises and ceases.  And of course, the fact that time exists also provides the backdrop to make it looks real with the human concept of past, present and future.  This dualistic outer world is created by our mind, the concept of "I" as well as our breath.  All of these elements being slaves to time, also arise and cease, come and go.  Although this is a natural phenomenon, it is a source of our sufferings and can even lead to an aching existential crisis.

To cultivate true happiness and transcend all sufferings, we need to realise the essential nature of this reality where impermanence is at the mercy of time and duality.   If that is the case, then maybe the key to it is to break away from duality and try to see birth and death as the perception of "one" but from different angles.  This is not just about physical death but any changes, appearances and disappearances in our living world.  When we can do that, then death will be a promise of birth, until one day the two can merge to become eternity - our true divine essence.