Let things be just the way they are.

I passed by a large dead dog on the highway yesterday. As my mind quickly built up a scenario of the last moments of that dog's life, I felt a lump in my throat. No animal should die on a cement highway.

But life is like that. There are no sure things, the curtain may fall anytime. Impermanence is a constant. Fall brings us the fluttering of dead leaves and spring brings us new green buds. The world is constantly shifting

We too shall die one day. Our lives are but a blip on the radar of mankind's existence.

Depressing? No. It just means that life is too short to bitch and moan and wish bad things on others.

I am digging deep these days trying to discover if I am leading a life that I truly believe in. It's like I am stepping outside of myself and connecting with myself once again.

I look forward to the silent room and mediation in the mornings. It may just become my favourite time of day. Just my breath and I, free of thought.

Free.

It was high on the shoulder of the mountain, within a beautiful mixed stand of conifers that delineated the entire scene, for they stood at the farthest edge of sight in every direction. They stood like sentries surrounded by a vast openness, an emptiness that acted upon all that it enclosed. Overhead, the openness was omnipresent and fell and purified the mind, cleansed it of the world far below.

The lake reflected it all clearly like a mirror. There was no wind to ruffle the tranquil glasslike surface. When the surface becomes ruffled, it cannot affect the hidden depths but still there is distortion, and the images of pure, cool mountains are broken into shattered fragments.

The mind seems to become murky and ceases to reflect faithfully when it holds onto even one of the myriad things that are forever passing peacefully through. Even the difficulties and the pains come and go peacefully if you let them. Don’t dwell in the distorting ripples of memory and imagination, but always return to the still point of the present. Let things be just the way they are.

- from Journeys on Mind Mountain