A Moment's Reflection

This is another typical pandemic day for me: all day at home, working from my bedroom. I've been learning new things every day, making full use of the lack of activities elsewhere. The other day I dropped by at the old office to sign some documents. It was great to be able to chat with former colleagues again. I pity all of them having to wear a mask all day at work. But this is the new normal and we'd better get used to it.

Today is also the first day of Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, the Muslim celebration for the end of the fasting month. The pandemic has made everyone look at their usual religious obligations in a different light. Perhaps it is a good thing. When we are too mired in rules and rituals, we forget the essence of religion. We can't worship at mosques and churches now, so we have to believe that the divine can be accessed wherever we are, as long as we focus our hearts and minds to it. I think it helps us to strengthen our faith.

I see the lockdown as a sort of spiritual retreat. It gives us an opportunity to reevaluate our priorities; it lets us see deeper into our souls and figure out what's important and what's not. It shows us that any bad habit can be broken as long as we have the resolve to do so and that we are actually quite adaptable. If we are willing to let go of things, so much transformation can happen.

Accepting and embracing change is one of the most difficult challenges in life. Everything we hold dearly to ultimately will be lost. This Buddhistic truth is such a brutally stark and cold one. We have to learn to accept the loss of our youth and vigour and everything we hold dear to, ultimately. The pandemic has made all of us see the fragility of life. The universe favours no single life-form: we are but a flicker of existence in the immensity of space and time--a tiny wavelet of energetic impulse, rising and falling in the void.

While this view of the universe can be very depressing, we can also look at it this way: we are the universe. You don't lament the loss of a single strand of hair because, they keep growing--old ones are replaced by new ones. You still have a head of hair. The cosmos is all there is and ever will be. Even if you believe in multiverses, they are part of the cosmic whole. We are but a vehicle for the universe to experience itself. And in that experiencing we see our true nature.

And this opportunity to experience life in its totality is the miracle of existence. Take one breath, and within the in-breath and the out-breath, generations of births and deaths would have occured: everything changes, vibrates and goes in and out of existence. You are the God of your microcosm, which is a reflection of the larger macrocosm. Let's follow William Blake's advice: experience the world in a grain of sand, eternity in an hour.

We are here, now, experiencing this moment. This moment. And another moment. And yet another moment. Every moment sparkles like a multi-faceted jewel--the distillation of all your previous life moments. Every moment is a miracle of existence, reflecting and illuminating your entire life's experiences. See it clearly in its totality, with the highest possible resolution of the mind. And if you do that well, you are the universe, experiencing itself.