8. The Lightness of Being

One awakens in the early morning to the songs of the birds in the trees. One remains lying down, just listening to the greetings of nature. There are thoughts of a hundred chores that try to interfere with this listening, but one recognises that this is the ego-self trying hard to assert its phantom existence. One smiles and continues listening, enjoying the full-throated calls of different birds, of the squirrels, and in the deep background, the orchestra of the crickets.

One gets up, splashes cold water on one’s face, and enjoys the tingling sensation. One then goes out for a walk, often accompanied by one’s spouse, or perhaps child, or a friend. One greets the other with a genuine sense of joy, and maybe touches the other’s hand, or caresses the face. During the walk, words are sparingly used. One breathes in the fresh air of the early morning, takes in the sounds and smells of nature, as one observes the changing hues in the surroundings with the coming of dawn. Mental noise makes its appearance now and then, and one allows this to happen without controlling.

As one walks, one feels the pleasantness of the earth beneath one’s feet, and the softness of the breeze caressing the skin. There is a spring in one’s gait, and one feels the lightness of being. One observes flocks of different types of birds, flying or gliding effortlessly in the sky. The sky itself looks wonderful, lit up with changing hues that look like liquid brush-strokes of a magnificent painting, one that is alive. The blueness of the sky, viewed through the dark branches and green leaves, emphasises the beauty of the trees. One has seen this spectacle several hundred times before, but every time it is new and fresh and original. The leaves on the trees, some of them glistening with the morning dew, flutter and wave continually in the breeze, and one acknowledges the greeting that nature seems to be sending out, and waves back.

In those moments of unalloyed joy, characterised by the complete absence of the ego-self, one truly experiences a kind of sacred state of being, of aliveness and oneness with everything else.