The years click by, one becomes older, and things get worse.  Many would agree with this generalization of their experience.  If one is unlucky it would be difficult to see life otherwise , beset with chronic medical issues, and subject to the indignities of medicare for treatment.  Luck counts for a great deal in life.

I read again the excerpt from Robert Wright’s book, Why Buddhism Is True, published in 2017.  The chapter on Nirvana, treats the condition of attachment arising from cause and effect that is the texture of all reality, and thus of all human experience.  We enjoy and then learn to crave the pleasures that life affords.  And we learn to resist, to flee the unpleasant and the painful.

Hey, who wouldn’t desire the latest model Lexus is350, engineering perfection and exquisite comfort.  You might add the adjectives that describe the appeal of such a vehicle to you.

And the other side of the coin; that adult son or daughter whose life-style differs from your own, especially when you have real concerns for their future well-being.  That is real pain, a pain that you cannot simply dismiss.

As time passes, responsibility grows.  Life becomes layered.  As it often happens, things become wobbly, disjointed, out of kilter.  “Such is life,” as Vonnegut often said.

Tragedy is the warp and weft of life.  Or as the Buddha said over and over, to be alive is to know dissatisfaction.  Not everyone suffers, but everyone is entrapped in their own web of struggle with judgments pro and con, with desire and with aversion in reaction to the external world of circumstance.

The Buddha said that to recognize this straight up, to be done with the pretense that I am the exception; that “I am fine”…..is crucial to finding relief.  A first step is to tell the truth to one’s self, that I am not just a spectator, but a sustaining participant in the conflicted, dissonant world around me.

Then with a modicum of calm, one can begin to notice what compels my attention, causing me to spin off, tumble into the dark cold space of anxiety, imagining many dire future outcomes.  Think about it.  What jerks you around?  According to the Buddha observing, describing with words, saying out loud what I fear or what I desire results in a reduction of my anxiety, my inner turmoil.

This is called mindfulness.  A good therapist can be a guide for this sort of practice, if you can afford the professional expertise.  But professional help is unnecessary.  One can begin right here, right now on the path to one’s own unique form of paradise.  A world less grayed-out by anxiety or greed is a brighter, more spacious reality.  There is more room, a lot more.

Remember how you felt when you played as a child?  Wouldn’t I like to be child-like again; to work, to study, to be a spouse and a parent with a spirit of exploration and discovery?

I like this song by Eddie Money.  When the tune comes up on the radio I imagine that the back beat of the melody is the heart beat of the cosmos.  The song is an exuberant invitation to get on board, to say “yes” to the offer.  There is no need to wait so long.

TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE

by Eddie Money

Got a surprise especially for you,
Something that both of us have always wanted to do
We’ve waited so long, waited so long
We’ve waited so long, waited so long

I’m gonna take you on a trip so far from here,
I’ve got two tickets in my pocket, now baby, we’re gonna disappear
We’ve waited so long, waited so long
We’ve waited so long, waited so long

I’ve got two tickets to paradise,
Won’t you pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight,
I’ve got two tickets to paradise,
I’ve got two tickets to paradise

Oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh

I’m gonna take you on a trip so far from here,
I’ve got two tickets in my pocket, now baby, we’re gonna disappear (you know why?)
We’ve waited so long, waited so long
We’ve waited…