The Miracle of Being Alive

<p>This past week when I was on a silent retreat, as the days went by and we all got deeper into our meditation practice, I could see that people were walking really slowly...taking long pauses to enjoy the nature around us; stopping and touching the leaves of a bush and even petting it in appreciation; gazing at a wild turkey and laughing at all its sounds and attempts at impressing us with displays of their feathers, or perma-grinning up at the full moon.</p><p> </p><p>If any of us had been wearing tie-dyed clothing, someone would have thought everyone was on psychedelics of some sort. And it kind of makes sense, because meditation does to our brains many similar things that psychedelics do – but that’s another podcast.</p><p> </p><p>However, i’s interesting to me that we often find it <i>unusual </i>to be in awe of life on a regular basis.</p><p> </p><p>Why isn’t that our <i>baseline </i>instead? When did we fall from this state of awe?</p><p> </p><p>As you may know, dying is a sexy topic in Buddhism, with a lot of teachings centering around impermanence. There’s a Tibetan saying, ““Since death is certain and the hour of death is uncertain, <strong>what is most important?</strong>”</p><p> </p><p>That’s really the question, right? What <i>is </i>most important to us?</p><p> </p><p>When we deeply practice and pause to ask ourselves this, we often realize that the most important thing is to be in full, loving awareness, loving presence.</p><p> </p><p>After all, the only thing that’s certain is impermanence, and accepting this allows us to let go of attachment and on a deeper level, our fear of death, which actually helps us live a more engaged life.</p><p> </p><p>As we stay present with and accept the transient moment, we begin to identify less with what changes, and more with presence <i>itself</i>. And we can begin to realize that this awareness is actually made of <i>love.</i> But don’t just take my word for it. Dive into it and check it out for yourself.</p><p> </p><p>I remember saying goodbye to my dad on wh