You're part of the ocean

I heard a nice little story the other day. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air - until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.

"My God, this is terrible," the wave says. "Look what's going to happen to me!"

Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, "Why do you look so sad?"

The first wave says, "You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?"

The second wave says, "No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean."

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When I was in Munich with Mel, her friend MJ had a copy of the book, Tuesdays with Morrie. I read the first 50 pages one night before bed and I loved it so much. It's a true story about the author's (Mitch Albom) relationship with his sociology professor who is dying from Lou Gehrig's disease. In his last months alive, he imparts some profound words of wisdom that Mitch recorded and compiled into the book. I was telling my friend Sonali about it and she got me a copy of the book for my birthday. I finally finished reading it two nights ago and it was such a precious story. The above is probably one of my favourite passages from the book. Actually, the funny thing is I finished A New Earth the same night, and the two books complement one another really well. Morrie actually touches on a lot of the same issues Eckhart does like staying Present. Here are some other interesting points he raises:


-"When you learn how to die, you learn how to live"

-"Love others or perish" (reminded me of Eckharts' "Evolve or die" mantra)

-(On detachment from experiences) "You know what the Buddhists say? Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent. Detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it. Take any emotion - love for a woman or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions - if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them - you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say, 'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.'"

-(On finding a meaningful life) "Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

That last quote especially reminded me of the final chapter in Eckhart's book, where he talks about doing everything with either acceptance, enjoyment or enthusiasm. What really 'hit home' for me was the section on goals and how they shouldn't be based on an inflated image of yourself or having this or that. For example, I want to be famous or own a yacht. Instead, he says, you should see your goals as dynamic, pointing towards an activity you are doing, which connects you to other human beings.

"Instead of seeing yourself as an actor or famous person, see yourself inspiring countless people with your work and enriching their lives. Feel how that activity not only enriches and deepens your life but the lives of countless others. Feel yourself being an opening through which energy flows from the unmanifested Source of all life through you for the benefit of all."

Anyways, I just feel like it's no coincidence that these two books happened to return to my life right before my birthday - and eerily enough there is a passage that after reading I had to stop, and read it again because I felt like the book was actually talking to ME!

"It's very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it."

And I believe that was probably the universe's 23rd birthday message to me. These two books have become my manuscripts for living (and dying as well) and I highly recommend both of them.

(p.s. tomorrow is officially 1 month until I come home!)