“… I was twenty. It was a summer spent in Aspen, Colorado, in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Although my official reason for being there was to study at the international music festival, I did my utmost to escape the practice rooms. In my mind they were prison cells, just as they had always been for as long as I could remember. Eight hours a day locked away, running through scales and études, mindlessly repeating various passages of music wasn’t living – it was the meaningless existence of an assembly-line robot, at least in my mind. And so, instead, in the middle of the Rockies, my refuge quickly became the mountains… Continue reading Becoming everything through nothing
Breath
Drawing each breath in, let us practise acceptance. Again and again, a thousand times a day. My lungs cannot discriminate between good air, bad air — no, it is the mind which labels things ‘clean’ or ‘polluted’. To the lungs and to the heart, it is all air, for better or for worse. Breathe in and let it mingle with your body deep inside.
Acceptance: without it, my soul suffocates.
Giving each breath back to the world, let us practise letting go. Again and again, a thousand times a day. My lungs are infinitely generous — for it is only the mind which fears loss. To the lungs and to the heart, it is all just air, not ‘yours’ and ‘mine’. Breathe out and let it mingle deep inside another’s body, just as the breath of a million other lives mingles now in your own lungs.
Letting go: without it, I can no longer accept.
Each inhale gives birth to new life. Each exhale dies its own little death — and brings us a little closer to our own final breath. Let us practise this again and again, a thousand times a day.
With our first baby breath of life, with all our heart and lungs we drew the breath in.
Let us accept life for what it is, and when it is time for life to end, let us let it go with just another breath…
Tallis Shivantar 