chapter 31 - Know who is our real life supporter

We depend on the breath as life force, but we had neglected the breath, and took it for granted most of our life time. So do we have neglected the space, the earth, the water, the wind and the heat from the sun that enable us being here, that provide us with oxygen, heat, food, nutrients, minerals and water that we need to survive (beyond vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism), as we took them for granted.

Our minds are too busy in our daily life routines, busy with too many receptions of the senses, indulging in happiness and avoiding unhappiness, busy with the thoughts in mind, actions of the body, and speech by the mouth, and busy chasing after our endless desires most of the time, without tiny moment being aware of the existence of the breath, and not knowing who is the one life supporter supporting our life? Not our parents, not ourselves, and certainly not money or love.

Unless one day we woke up with a serious blocked nose, then we will realize ‘Ah…! I have forgotten that there is a thing called breath, and it is so important more than my job, my responsibilities, my pride, my knowledge, my beauty, my feelings, my fears and worries, or my desires… I need to breathe. If I can’t breathe, if my heart stops beating, if my nervous system breaks down, I am dead, I am nobody, I have no life... What is there for me to moan and complain about the past and worry about the future then? This present moment if I can breathe and being alive is the most precious thing that it can be and all that I need…’

But once the blocked nose is cleared, we will forget about all these and go back to our busy life about performing actions, accumulating wealth, busy with happiness and unhappiness, fulfilling our desires, indulging in enjoyments and gossips about this and that.

There’s nothing wrong with this too. But when we encounter with some difficult situations, painful sorrows or disappointment in life later on, who are we going to cry to? When impermanence strikes, are we still be able to sit back, relax and smile? If we can, there’s no problem at all.

City people eat and drink very often in everyday life, thinking that if we have money, we can get food and drinks conveniently, enjoy eating and drinking, forgetting that actually it is nature that provides the basic needs for our life through earth, water, air and sunlight, in this space that doesn't belong to anyone.

If the earth, water and air are polluted, and the sunlight is not available anymore, then no matter how much money we have, how successful we are, how big ego and powerful we are, there will be no food, no drinks, no oxygen and no heat in the environment for us to stay alive.

When come to death, everyone is the same rotten smelly dead corpse, nothing so called dying elegantly and gracefully, or not.

Living beings or objects need space (Akasa), earth (Prithivi), fire (Agni/Tejas), wind (Vayu), and water (Apas/Jala) to exist. Lives and objects do not exist without these five elements of nature. Thus all living beings including plants, animals and human beings as well as everything are depending on these elements to be here.

We all are one same nature, regardless of living beings or objects (one selfless consciousness that is selfless, nameless, formless, attributeless, timeless) that are sharing the same space in this universe depending on the power of nature for being here. We should be respecting and be kind to each other including all the diverse human beings, the plants, the animals, the surrounding environment, and all kinds of objects. There is no superiority or inferiority.