In this article we propose a different reading with a Mindfulness story. We invite you to stop for a moment, breathe, read the following lines and reflect on how conscious you are in each moment of your life.
The Seeker’s Tale
This is the story of a man I would define as a seeker. A seeker is someone who seeks, not necessarily someone who finds. Nor is that person someone who necessarily knows what he or she is looking for, is someone for whom his life is a constant search.
One day the seeker felt that he should go to the city of Kammir and after two days of marching through the dusty roads, he spotted his destination in the distance. He was aware of a hill to the right of the path that caught his attention: it was green, with lots of trees, birds, flowers and it was completely surrounded by a kind of small wooden fence, and a bronze gate. Suddenly he felt that he was forgetting the town and succumbed to the temptation to rest in that place.
The Seeker, already on the hill, discovered an inscription on one of the stones that was there: Abedul Tare lived 8 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 3 days. He was a bit startled to realize that this stone was not simply a stone. It was a tombstone. He felt sorry to think that a child of such a young age was buried in that place.
Looking around, the man realized that the stone next to it also had an inscription: Lamar Kalib lived 5 years, 8 months and 3 weeks. The seeker felt terribly shocked. That beautiful place was a cemetery and every stone was a grave. One by one, he began to read the tombstones. They all had similar inscriptions: a name and the exact life span of the deceased. But what connected him with the horror was to see that the one who had lived the longest was barely over eleven years old. Feeling terrible pain, she sat up and began to cry.
The caretaker of the cemetery was passing by and approached, he saw him cry for a while in silence and then asked him if he was crying for someone in his family.
– No, no one from my family -said the seeker-. But… What about this town? What terrible thing is there in this city? Why are there so many dead children buried in this place? What is the horrible curse on these people which has forced the town to build a children’s cemetery?
The elderly caretaker smiled and said:
– You can calm down, there is no curse, what happens is that we have an old habit here. I’ll tell you: When a young person turns fifteen, their parents give them a notebook like the one I have here, so they can hang it around their neck. It is a tradition among us that, from that day on, every time one lives fully and consciously of some intense moment in life, open the notebook and write down what was experienced on the left. On the right, how long did the joyful awareness of those moments last. Met a person and fell in love? How long did that enormous passion and the pleasure of meeting that person last? One week, two? Three and a half weeks? And after, the emotion of the first kiss, how long did it last?
Have you shared a meal and an after-dinner with people you love? How long did it take to consciously enjoy these situations? Hours? Days? Thus, we are writing down in the notebook every moment that we live consciously… Every moment lived fully.
And when someone dies, it is our custom to open their notebook and add the time of what they have lived consciously to write it on their grave. Because that is for us the only true time lived.
Aware and present
After this story, we invite you to think about:
How long do you think you would write down if you had the notebook?
Are you aware of the time you enjoy in your day to day, throughout your life?
We live a jammed life, sometimes disconnected from ourselves with the autopilot running 24 hours a day. In addition, with a very long list of goals to achieve with the idea that, until we achieve them, we will not be completely happy. And so the days go by, waiting to achieve happiness when all those goals are achieved: “When I finish paying the mortgage, I will be happy”, “When I am more successful professionally, I will be happy”, “When I earn more money, I will be happy”, “When I have a partner, I will be happy”…
The only thing that ends up generating this list is enormous stress, to which we become addicted without realizing it, in addition to causing great anxiety and anguish. This state is compounded by the accelerated pace of life in which we are increasingly immersed. In addition, with the use of new technologies, which although not negative in themselves, misuse can increase this isolation from reality and disconnection with ourselves.
What if we are more present in our daily experiences?
What if we enjoy what happens now and don’t wait for all the goals to be met?
What if we learn to stop and just “be”?