When did you look up at the sky ?
Seriously when? Today? Yesterday? Now? or months ago? Or did you forget the sky already. I am going to tell you a little narrative of a man who looked up at the sky. And It is a mindful journey. Join in.
Once upon a time there lived a man. In a little town, who used to be a kid. He loved looking at the sky, either from a top of a tree or while lying on his back on a playground. He used to look at the sky for hours. And without thinking too much he watched the clouds drift.
As a kid...
One day he saw the clouds, slowly drifting in the sky. From east to west, slowly. And only when he gazed for so long, he noticed them moving. White puffy clouds like cotton candy, in the backgroud of sky blue.
Next day he saw the sky, this time naked no clouds at all. Like a endless paint of a lazy artist. There were nothing to see. Occational bird was dare to fly across. An aeroplane or two.
Following day, it was windy. The sky was full of clouds. And it moves, from west to east, like ships on sail. A convoy of ships in the blue pacific sea. One after the other like a parade, and he could not take his eyes away.
As expected, or unexpected, next was a rainy day. Dark clouds from the bottom to top. No blue and its all grey and black. Growling clouds making noice like it had a somachache from the yesterday meals. He waited until it started to rain.
He had gazed at the sky, day after day. Night after night. Some were starry some were decorated with moon and stars. Some were scary, others were boring.
And he grew up. He grew up and started doing a job. Forgot all about the sky after some time.
And one day when he was walking to his work. He forgot to bring his umbrella. It started to rain. A heavy rain, he got all wet. He was already late for work. He was already upset. And just then he got angry. He cursed the rain. Cursed the sky.
-------------------
Why you should look at the sky? Mindfully.
Let's stop our thought process here and think about what happened to this hypothetical man. Maybe It is not hypothetical at all. Maybe it is me, maybe it is you. Maybe it is a women.
Initially as a child he saw the sky. Obviously sky changes, from clear skies to cloudy ones to the dark scary ones, from starry nights to dark nights. Yet, if we observe this as a child without giving it a value, It would just be nature. There is no inherent good, or badness of one kind of sky over the other, and it is inevitable one gradually would change to the other. And It is natural. But how did the man in our case senario changed to a one who is angry?
This happened over the years, when the person blinded his mindful vision with the clouds of information. No longer, he could see the sky as sky, and rain as rain. He would project his values over everything he sees or hears giving it a number. Hence, rain on a working day is now Negative for this man. And that is how, he would become sad and angry just when it rains. However nothing changed form the sky point of view. The sky is ever changing dynamic thing, like everything else in our lives.
In fact I am not the one who saw this truth. It came from a wise monk. However this intution is not unique, as I heard Mike posner singing about it just the other day. And More importantly he had the solution in his song, and that is..
"Be as you are.."
That is exactly we should be doing. And mindfulness is the way to rediscover the child within ourselves.
Comments