Are You Rushing Through Life?
Today I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store and I was watching the people in the other lines. Most seemed upset at the delay, impatient that they had to wait or at least a bit fidgety as if they needed to be somewhere else – now! Why is that? What has happened to our society that we are always in such a rush to DO NOTHING!
Yes most will rush home and do nothing – of critical importance anyway – that’s not saying I did something of critical importance when I got home – all I am saying is that I wasn’t in a rush and I was able to enjoy my time at the store – and not being in a rush makes my life a little better 
Personally I think the primary reason we are all in a rush is to stay ahead of all the monkeys inside our minds. Most people are so tired at the end of the day they just can’t wait to go brain dead watching TV and why? Anything is better than all that internal chatter that repeats itself over and over within our head.
But there is a resolve that few in the West practice – meditation. So why don’t we do it – self discipline – and most likely because TV is an easy choice – even if TV is only a very temporary resolve to an on going problem.
Christian’s had a great example – Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights mediating to find his clarity, Buddhist’s had a great example – the Buddha meditated until he attained enlightenment and Muslim’s had a great example – Muhammad went to a cave and meditated to find his clarity. In fact in the Koran it says one hour of meditation is worth a lifetime of prayer. For those of you who are religious there is a saying “When we pray we talk to God – when we meditate we listen to God!”Âť
So why do we need meditation – internal peace and some semblance of reprieve from the monkey chatter between our ears. AGAIN why don’t we all meditate – simply put – we don’t understand it or when we first start – we fear the difficulty and when we live in a society geared for the quick fix – well this doesn’t really fit the bill. There is no magic pill here.
The way I se it primarily we are in a rush because, 1) We didn’t prepare properly in advance or 2) We are running as fast as we can to get away from our internal pain, or 3) We feel that by going as fast as we can we are satisfying an internal need to show others that we are important.
So for the most part – there is no need to be in a rush – RIGHT!
Life is to be lived within the moment – it is not something to roar past and hope we can get it all back when we retire. Those who put off or rush by -rarely if ever find the time to ever do what they have put off or rushed by, because there will always be a new reason to put off or rush by again tomorrow.
In any case here’s a interesting story about Rushing through life and how rushing costs us not only awareness of those things that we treasure most, but the wisdom to see those things we rush past that affect others as well.
About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old.
He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and – WHUMP! – it smashed Into the Jag’s shiny black side door! SCREECH..!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!” Building up a head of steam, he went on. “That’s my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it?”
“Please, mister, please. . . I’m sorry! I didn’t know what else to do!” Pleaded the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop!” Tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother, mister,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”
Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE -a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention. . . Some bricks are softer than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming at to you.
For the first 4 days meditate for 10 minutes each day – set an alarm and stay sitting until your time is up. That is a big part of the benefits of meditation – just slowing down.