Sunday, May 19, 2019

Sparking Joy Through the Flight of Time

I am blogging a day earlier today because tomorrow is a public holiday. So here I am on Wesak Day (a Sunday, hence tomorrow is a replacement holiday), writing these lines from home.

I've written a lot over the years that I've maintained this blog. Even by blogging just once a week, I am surprised by the amount of words that I've written over the past 1 year. That is the power of time--or how small things accumulate over time. I wrote post about it 15 years(!) ago.

We like to say how time flies. Yes it does and that's it's beauty: it literally has the power of flight. What do I mean by that?

If we are smart, we'll know how to harness this 'free' energy that time possesses. Time is like a punctual airline that will fly every second whether there's anything in its cargo hold or not. So why not make use of this free 'freight' service?

What can the Time Airlines carry? Anything! By loading these words that I'm typing on the flight of time, it becomes a blog. A lot of things do not need a massive effort to take off. You just commit to do small tasks regularly, and lo and behold, you'll be amazed at the results that will materialize.

The best way to accomplish anything is by keeping things simple--like small packages. Load it up up the cargo hold of Time, and let it fly. It will carry them to the correct destination if you put the correct address on your package. And remember, this is a free service that works round the clock--24 hours a day, year round!

We tend to see Time as our enemy. Time ages us and make everything we love and possess fade away. It need not be so. Time is also our greatest friend because it is the only thing that's constantly moving. Time is the most powerful engine in the universe. This universal energy can be put to good use--or we'll end up being used by it.

Do not let the seconds fly with an empty cargo. Nature is very devious in using time against us. Just look around you. How easy is it for your car to get dirty? How did you manage to gain so much weight? How did all that old stuff start collecting dust in your house? Time deposits dust, dirt and fat on us, bit by bit, every single second. Nature never lets time get a moment's rest. One molecule at a time, it does it work. You don't even see it happening!

So use that enormous power to your advantage. I have a tendency to collect too many unnecessary things. That's the bane of modern life--we accumulate to many material possessions. What I do nowadays is to be constantly eliminating things that I do not need anymore. I have a corollary to Marie Kondo's famous 'spark joy' rule: throw away things that you do not need anymore to 'spark joy'! By throwing away things, you are de-cluttering your life and that can only mean that life is becoming simpler and cleaner--just like good computer code.

What I'm doing is reversing what nature and modern life has been doing to me--making my life complicated, cluttered and complex. Every time I chuck something into the garbage bin, I'm done with the karma associated with it. It is the most efficient way to work out karma.

Time flies and make sure you let it carry your garbage away. Once gone, they'll never ever bother you again. I can think of nothing that sparks greater joy than that!