Building in a World of Sand

You should try to…make an understanding with yourself that you are not your body, you are something bigger.

That is your work on this earth, do you see? Every experience here is to teach you to do that.

Living, dying, every experience.

(Roland Merullo, Breakfast with Buddha,  P. 275)

We are wondrous world builders, ever vigilant to outside threats. We want to last forever just as we are, and we go to great lengths to protect ourselves.

We are so similar to the sand mandala, constructed with carefully chosen colored sand, each grain its own world. Once the mandala is complete, it is dismantled and released into water, and the process begins again.

When we die, we are “dust to dust” or “ashes to ashes.” Like the mandala, our bodies are no more but we are the energy of existence. We are everywhere.

Better to tend to our work on this earth as “Buddha” advises in Merullo’s novel–to see the world in a grain of sand–after all, we are forever.

Aim for Even posts offer equanimity in daily doses. No day or dose is ever the same, even if the aim is.  You may read about the origins of Aim for Even here or on this site’s About page.