The Illusions Of Loss, Time, And Death
Let's go back, way back, to yesterday. Wasn't that a great day? One that will never come again. Oh, the melancholy!
Glory days, yesterdays are. They are that which was, are no more, and never can be replayed again- like reruns are. Constantly.
Imagine a reel of movie film, the film unwinding behind you into infinite space. Each frame on this constantly unwinding reel represents a day that was. Off into the ethers go these frames, which are held briefly in the memories of the living, or if you are famous, held in the minds of people long after your death. Steadily into the distance these frames travel, away from the Here and Now.
The Universe is like that. Relentless. Stubborn. Refusing, absolutely refusing to preserve or maintain that which was. What's done is done and will never be repeated in exactly the same way again. There is no rest, only perpetual movement.
There is no pining for days gone by on The Universe's part. There is no attempting to resurrect what once might have been the epitome of beauty, fragility, or precociousness, like a sixteen year old girl, a flower, or a five year old child. You get your moment and that's it. "Sorry!" say human thinkers but "Not sorry, never sorry!" says The Universe, which is beyond emotion. It just is.
You might rant and rave about this 'injustice' but you have to deal with it because it's bigger than you, like the weather.
Time is clearly not on our side.
As we all march steadily towards our demise and once there leap into the unknown, disappearing from this realm, we seem to those left remaining gone but....
...we never really were here in the first place, so put away your crying towels. There was an embodiment, yes. That is gone. But that which was contained within the embodiment and found expression for awhile in the physical still remains. That essence, that energy which you knew as Joe, Billy, Samatha, or Carol hasn't gone anywhere other than where it has always been, vibrating in a dimension that is its natural home. Where else could it go? Could it dissolve into dust like the body? How? It never was the body, it only inhabited it like a suit of clothes.
Undeniable is the fact that even before the actual grand exit have come (for most) decades of nightly sleep, where the energy that inhabited the body soared free, only to return in the morning, open the body's eyes, and mumble "I had the strangest dream last night..."
"...I dreamt I was trapped inside a body!"
You can't deny it, this fact of life about life itself is ever present. The inability to locate the self anywhere inside the physical body is irrefutable. It hasn't been done yet, even though science has been hard at work probing and poking inside the brain searching for the seat of consciousness, which continues to elude them.
So back to 'loss'. What loss? What is there to lose save the concept of physical permanence? The Universe is a living thing, as are 'we', those who exist seemingly 'outside' of it, and if you think about such things, which few do, ask yourself this question: "If I am not contained by a body now, what will contain me when my body is no more? What boundaries or borders will there be?”. There will be layers of vibration, perhaps, but certainly nothing physical.
So. Care about the things you reference as 'home' for now. Your body, your family, your friends, your pets, your football team, and even this planet 'cuz you're not gonna be around them forever. However, that's the beauty of it! Krishnamurti said that (the concept of) death brings contrast to life. This contrast is absolutely necessary, for without it you wouldn't see life's fragile, aching beauty.
But on the other hand, that little bit of poetic flavoring aside, it's not like you have a choice! So fight loss, time, and death if you want, resist them in any way that makes you feel like you’re somehow stopping the inevitable. The Universe won't pay you a bit of mind. Roll with impermanence though, and you'll be in the flow, because life is kind of like a crazy magic carpet ride of experiences for no purpose other than just to have experiences.
Never being able to hold on to anything, we can only react to what confronts us. So why not choose acceptance?
If you do, you will be able to see the beauty that exists all around.