Time is ticking away (video)

GrindTV.com; Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly (COUNTDOWN CLOCK -16)

Jamie Scott's "Fall" shows 15 spots in Central Park as they change seasons. "I chose 15 locations in the park and revisited them two days a week for six months.... just after sunrise."

Preparing to live starts by meditating on death. For such meditation inspires in us a sense of spiritual urgency.

Time is short if we think it's short. Or the moment (the now) extends to encompass anything, any event, any eventuality.

Sometimes it is wise to make it feel short. The Buddha spoke of an ancient teacher who taught that meditators should reflect on life as being like a piece of meat dropped on a hot skillet, or like a drop of dew on a blade of grass, like a line drawn on water, or some such -- but in those days so long ago, the Buddha emphasizes, the human lifespan was much longer. What to say of our time and our need to make the best use of our time?

"Hi, it's me, Death; are you busy?"

A killer with a drawn sword is standing just behind. Straighten the spine and meditate. Life is short, death is long, meditate. Before long this body will lie by the wayside like a useless log.

If such reflection leads to excessive worry and an unsettled feeling, then it is doing more harm than good. We want enough urgency to begin our cultivation, our development, our refinement or "evolution," but not so much that we are inundated by a sense of overwhelm, futility, or lack of hope.

We have time, BUT what time do we have? We have the same time we always had, just now. We have now. We can begin now, and nothing else matters. If we delay, we throw the only time we have away.

A cosmopolitan man lost deep in the boondocks asked a local simpleton, "Hey, friend, how do I get into town?" "You can do it," the simpleton replied, "I just wouldn't start from here." 

We may not feel our starting point is any place to set out from, but it's all we have. We have to start right where we are. Where else would we start? Wherever we are, the real question is, When will we start? Even then it will be now, so why would we delay and make it harder?

• Meditation: "Recollection of Death" (marana-anussati)