The Inevitable Tides of Time

This week's blog post has to be about the devastating floods that have wrecked havoc across the nation. I think it started on Friday night, when it began to rain all night and continued raining the whole of Saturday. I didn't pay much attention to it as it was like any typical rainy day in December.

But this particular day was different: a whole month's of rainfall fell within 1 day and water completely inundated many low-lying areas in Selangor, Pahang and even Negri Sembilan.  Klang and Shah Alam were the worst suffering places in Selangor while all the major towns in Pahang had it bad too.

It was like a biblical deluge, threatening to wipe out entire towns and cities. People were trapped on the top floor and roof of their houses, without food, water and electricity. Cars were completely submerged and washed down like flotsam down roads which had now become muddy rivers.

As always there were a lot of blame to go around. People were understandably angry as rescue efforts were slow. The sick, the elderly and the handicapped were  were stranded helplessly in their homes as flood waters rose. People on the ground had to help each other out. The destruction to homes, properties and businesses were incalculable.

This is a double-whammy after the livelihood of so many people had been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic which is still showing no sign of abating. How do we deal with such challenges in life?

Is life simply suffering, as the 'pessimistic' Buddhists like to put it? Or have we just been lulled by the comforts of our middleclass existence only to find the real world unbearably harsh when we are literally thrown into the deep end of the water?

The truth is that, life has always been precarious. The universe is a harsh place for fragile carbon-based organisms like us which require very optimal conditions to flourish. We are but a small flicker of existence in space and time.

We are small and insignificant when viewed from a cosmic perspective--tiny clumps of molecular debris flushed out into the immense void. This localized aggregation of matter which we call a living being has but only a transient existence. Are our mortal sufferings then considered insignificant in the larger scheme of things?

The very fact that we realize that we are suffering, is by itself an awakening. This chance conglomeration of matter is suddenly conscious of its existence and considers itself to be separate from the universe. This separation and the need to constantly preserve its existence is the very definition of suffering.  

Suffering is the price of consciousness. To love the life we live is to awaken to the bliss and harshness of the universe, in equal measure.  We alternate daily between heaven and hell, finding the former when our needs are met and suffering the latter when what we love are taken away from us.

When we suffer, we are exercising our right to be conscious. We want to control that piece of space-time real estate which we call ours--our bodily existence, our material possessions and our connections to other living beings.

We suffer when we see what is ours destroyed by the ruthless forces of the universe. Relief only comes when we are willing to let go, and allow the torrents of mud and water to reclaim them. In the end, nothing is ours: they were only leased to us at the pleasure of the universe.

We must live with the assumption that nothing is ours. What we consider ours is simply loaned to use temporarily. We should never claim ownership to them. That way, we'll let go of them more easily. Yet, there's no less enjoyment in their possession when we appreciate the fact that we are blessed with the opportunity to enjoy them, even for a brief moment. 

When we assume that everything we have belongs to the universe, we tend to be more generous--giving and sharing whatever that we are being blessed with, which by and large is a matter of chance and luck. And when someone suffers the pain of losing something they own, we share what we have with them. 

It is the giving and sharing--not owning--of what we have, which is what true existence is about. The less we own, the less liable we are to suffering. When the floods come to claim our possession, we know that the debt-collector of pain has come to demand what is due. 

Ultimately, everything will be lost. If not swept away by the waters of the flood, inevitably they will be reclaimed by the tides of time.