Jumpers.
Disclaimer: Following article discuss jumps, this is philosophical. There is no jump without any risk. Hence, if you feel like, seek professional help. We hold no responsibility of the meaning you would derive reading this, which anyway is impossible to predict.
Have you ever, bunjee jumped, sky dived or taken a free fall into a pool? I am sure you have atleast watched a video of such. I have seen neumerous times people jumping from buildings and even planes, with the parachutte on their backs. With popularisation of Red bull challanges such videos are not rarerity in my daily dose of internet. I am sure only very few ever have attempted a free fall entirely, and did not expect to survive. Infact, latest I can remember were the jumpers of 9/11. In one such lonly afternoon in the comfort of my bed I went into a jumpers mind and wrote the following.
What makes a jump interesting.
There are different kinds of jumps. What is the most important aspects about a jump? Can you summarise? Think about following.
Any jump has a start, a flight and an ending, A bottom. Which is Either a happy landing or a Crash landing. We are heros, when we take a jump, only if we make it to the bottom safetly. I am sure if you do a google search today, you would find many such triumphs and faliures. From Franz Reichelt 1912, who fell to death jumping from the effel tower to test his parachutte, to jumpers from latest Paris Olympic games lading perfect tens. If the safe landing is our objective, we have to have faith that everything should go well. If not, no faith is needed.
Why is a jump from a top of a tower, is different from a jump from a table top? Both have start, both have ending yet, there is little to no risk from jumping from a table top. The risk for a jump from a airplane is inherently associated with a big risk. Hence not everyone is capable of doing it. We can compare this to any risk that we take in our life. More the risk, generally more the adrenalin rush and if landing is successful, better the satisfiction we feel. Important question we should asking ourselves is who gives a value to a jump from a sky?
Life as a free fall.
However there is a different kind of a jump. It is hypothetical, and imaginary. And that is a free fall. Imagine a free fall? Can you do that? We simply cannot, as we are so much used to jumps with a start to finish. The free fall is just an impossible dream. I cannot give you a definite example from the physical world. But I can help you with imagination.
Imagine you wake up one day, and you are in a fall. You cannot remember, when and how you started to fall. Unlike other jumps you have seen, you know there is no end to this fall. You are guaranteed that there would be no crash, although you do not wear any parachutte. Can you imagine such a fall? If so, that is a free fall.
There are some important observations we can make, when we compare our lives to a free fall. Generally we assume life to be a normal fall. With begnining, which is called birth, the flight, which is called life, and the ending which is called death. Philosophy and religion and countless others try to get a meaning of life, from within this framework of life. Sometimes they compare it to a journey, yet, it is not a free fall they are talking about. When we call life a journey we also assume there is some ending to it.
Now try to compare the life to the idea of above free fall. Infact, there are lot of similarities if you looked at it with mindfulness. We started to fall, through time, and we did not know how we started to come into this journey. We cannot remember the begining. We assume it is our birth, but how can we be so sure?
We enjoy laugh and cry in the free flight, sometimes fearing about the doomed end that we all have to face. We forget to feel the wind, and enjoy the golden hour view of a sunset because we are so afraid of the crash landing, as we do not have a parachutte to save us. And within this fall, some similar free fallers, try to sell us things. They try to sell us news, retirement plans and caskets to keep our own dead bodies. Some even try to sell us a meaning of life, secrets of love, and ten things we sould be doing to be successful before our crash landing.
But mindfulness suggests otherwise. If you want to be free from the crash ending, you have to shift the framework. And really start to look into yourself and ask the question, again and again. What if life is a free fall?
Within this free fall, there would be no meaning to the death, no value to the objects of mind, which others try to sell, and maybe one day we all will just enjoy the free fall as it is.
Comments