Life is infinitely varied and wonderfully one basic attitude allows us to fully enjoy it - and that is selflessness. But this is hard to believe and practice because the release is first felt as if we were missing something
we love and we would enjoy it permanently.
The problem is the illusion of permanence. First, we imagine that what we want is permanent. And then we make an even bigger mistake trying to make permanent our possession of what is not permanent. This moves us away from the reality of what we want and replace it with an unrealistic image that causes us to increasing levels of suffering that finally dissolves as a vapor cloud that actually is. Then we feel that we lost what we wanted most. We weep and moan even though we lost only the image, the thing we saw as having a permanence that has nothing in the universe. We do not have a lasting city, says St. Paul.
loss is itself a kind of illusion - the illusion but painful because it certainly has the power to cause pain. The illusory nature of loss is still hard to believe. Even facing the facts, shows that what we are losing is our attachment to something or someone, not the thing or the person himself. This may feel like we're starting something real, cruel and violent. Recovering loss - always a kind of death - it takes time and can occupy much place in our lives until finally the obvious truth makes us fall into reality. During these days we are preparing to release the three days of Easter, during which we have the opportunity to understand the real nature of death.
confuse detachment with loss is the reason why we are afraid of death and repeat the same patterns of our mistakes in life. Trying to own the freshness and beauty of the moment is like trying to
give life to a statue or a picture. As William Blake said, we must learn to kiss the joy as well as is and live in a dawn eternal. The forty days of Lent are dedicated to understanding this in our daily experience.
Laurence Freeman
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