Because humans have developed the capacity to think, focus and analyse, we are able to anticipate, predict and plan.
By Vernon Sankey
16th January 2021
Because humans have developed the capacity to think, focus and analyse, we are able to anticipate, predict and plan.
This is a fabulous skill that often serves us well and protects us. Only it has within it many dangers. We risk becoming wedded to our plans, expecting them to happen and desperately seeking certainty and security where none exists. Witness the plans and expectations made these past months!
The future is a dream and an illusion. ‘Grasping’ at this illusion is like trying to grasp water with our hands. It cannot be done and seeking to do so is a major cause of frustration, stress and anger…an exercise in irrelevant futility.
The bird of paradise is the symbol of inner peace. Inner peace comes from the recognition that we cannot control the future, that life is impermanent, that grasping at certainty is pointless and that worrying about what may never happen is madness.
Being flexible and adaptable to life’s vicissitudes, accepting life for the adventure it is and living it fully now, in the present moment, will encourage the bird of paradise to land on our hand, a hand that no longer grasps…
