Expressions of Nature

It's 4pm in the evening now. The weather has been rainy since yesterday night, which prevented me from going out from my usual morning walk at the park. I'm now sipping coffee in my study, looking out of a window with a view of treetops and grey skies outside. 

It's that time of the year, those weeks after New Year's day leading to the Chinese Lunar New Year, when the entire city is flooded with auspicious red decorations--characters and symbols of luck, growth and prosperity so valued by the Chinese. 

CNY comes early this year, in January itself. As always I have to get adjusted to the jarring transition from the peaceful warmth of Christmas to the boisterousness of the Lunar festive season.  There are still 2 weeks to go before CNY eve but all the preparations towards  this big day are already in full swing. People are looking forward to another weeklong holiday. Unlike last year when I did not take leave at all, this year I'll also be taking a much welcome break.

In Southern California, forest fires have razed many homes in the residential areas around Los Angeles. So many people have lost their homes, completely. The pain of such a loss must be devastating. 

While we prepare and welcome the coming Year of the Snake, with hopes of good fortune and material prosperity, we must also spare some thoughts for the less fortunate who are suffering elsewhere and remind ourselves that whatever we have, can be yanked away from us in the blink of an eye.

If I look at all the things in my apartment: my wall-to-wall shelves of books, my electronic gadgets, expensive pens and furnitures, I often ask myself: would I be able to handle their loss? I know that the magnitude of pain that I would feel is directly proportional to my attachment to them. I take it as a kind of spiritual practice to meditate upon this fact. Things are just temporary forms that exist momentarily to teach us about impermanence and the futility of clinging to them for happiness.

We should be appreciative of all the material comforts that we have and be thankful for being blessed with them. But they are not an essential part of you. They are like space debris attracted to the gravitational field of our ego. As long as we have an ego, we'll continue to accumulate material possessions. We must learn to mentally 'lose' them in our minds regularly, so that their hold on us are kept in check.

We should not feel guilty either in enjoying the fruits of our worldly achievements. If you play soccer, every goal you score should be celebrated with delight and aplomb but at the same time we know that it's just a game. Within the world of the game, winning matters. We must be able to zoom in as a player fighting to win the game and also with equal ease, zoom out to see in the whole thing a neutral spectator, enjoying a thrilling soccer match.

Nature will constantly remind us that we do not own anything in the world. Floods, fires, tsunamis and earthquakes will destroy our every attempt to build permanent monuments. Whenever that happens, we must realise that we are also a part of nature and we must flow along with it. We as humans must continue building edifices that withstand its relentless assault but at the same time, accept their inevitable destruction. Creation and destruction are simply expressions of nature.