Authentic To The Moment

Authentic to the moment:

so too our own struggles, and our sorrow, and every instant filled with pain - they all belong, authentic to the moment they occur. Suffering shouldn't be discarded as an experience that happens only to those not yet awake. Life comes with loss, of loved ones gone in a time too soon, and our own point of when health may take a sudden turn, or age fines us in decline. We all suffer. 

Buddha never offered an escape. No matter how enlightened pain and loss exist. There is a claim that this is aside from suffering, once the illusion of the self is seen that there is no longer anyone present to experience sorrow. Maybe. But I find that a hollow claim. 

as a caregiver for my elderly father I am keen to his loss - through the last years spent without his wife of fifty years, how each day brings a subtle change of what he once could do and now becomes more and more a struggle. He struggles mainly in good cheer, optimistic still of the things he's capable to accomplish. He's had a long life, a good life, and one that's seen a time of depression, war, political upheaval, and great social changes. He's lived. 

there's has never been a need to escape any of this - not for my father, not for any of us. My own experience isn't that suffering lessens through seeing the falseness of the self. In fact it's felt all the deeper now, having no purchase, pure to the moment it belongs. No, I don't suffer any less, yet I see the wisdom of staying present to my sorrow. This, of loss, pain, sadness or joy, is simply what the moment holds. 

nothing is denied.

 what I find is that my response too is authentic to the moment - with little thought applied, and just the care, compassion, that naturally arises. This is what I bring to my father, as well he returns it with his own gift of trust that I will tend to him through whatever it is he offers. We are both authentic to each moment, whatever may be found. His struggle and sorrow, are mine as well. Different, yes, but equal in their belonging. 

~

Peace, Eric