Motivation is as crucial as meditation.
I know that I am going to die. Whatever objects I have obtained, circumstances I have created, or relationships I have formed, all will be left behind never to be known again. Every memory I have ever formed will likely fall away with the brain, as well as my intellectual mind. The body’s senses will cease, losing touch with the material realm. And there will be Nothing.
I know that before I was born, there was also that same Nothing.
When we sleep at night, we can’t help but to dream. We dream of ourselves as individuals in a world-like reality and we go about our business. Who’s to say that in that Nothingness, a similar habit of dreaming incarnations doesn’t take place?
Whatever the case may be regarding death/birth, I know that my time here as a sentient being is finite. There is no guarantee that if I reincarnate into a new dream, I will be equally sentient. Who knows if I would even be fortunate enough to encounter dharma in such an incarnation? And that I would be in the right place to really hear it?
What I have going now is precious beyond precious. I am human, I am basically okay, I have suffered enough to find my way to dharma, and I found that enlightenment is an actual thing. That is more than enough to tread the path to buddhahood. The more often I reflect on that, the more gratitude and motivation I can arouse for practice.
Nothing is separate; no one is separate. Friends, strangers, and enemies, we are all here together. This world would be a better place if everyone were at peace, truly free, and deeply happy. To want anything other than that for others is to miss the big picture. Our friends are still our friends and our enemies may still be our enemies and you may deal with both as such but there is a more expansive vision present. Beneath those relational roles, there is a a non-conditional kindness bordering on love. Because there is the understanding that we are all equally well and truly fucked.
So many people pretending to know what’s going on as we sail through the void on a slimy rock whipping around a fireball. This place is random and fragile and it must be protected–all of it. All beings, including you. Human incarnation is confusing and messy. Some of us suffer too much and it is debilitating. Others of us suffer too little, then we drift out of touch with what’s important, we lose perspective, and we become isolated in our own aimlessness. The most fortunate suffer just the right amount–they are ripe and ready for the spiritual path, the path of awakening from the illusion of separation.
That is where my motivation arises: enlightenment so that I may be of benefit to all sentient beings. The party is better when everyone can have fun. We take nothing with us when we die yet awareness, being unborn, is neither touched by birth or death. Therefore can anything other than realizing that awareness be a better investment of our time? Human life is precious, all beings are precious, and none are separate. How can we not lovingly urge peace, freedom, and happiness for all beings?
It’s important for me to reflect on all of this. As I navigate the daily experience of being a resident physician, it is all too easy to focus on a number of other goals, preferences, fixed perspectives, and such instead of maintaining a properly oriented motivation from moment to moment. Certain monks and mystics repeat vows and prayers every morning after waking and every evening before sleeping, just to continue nurturing their proper motivation. I think I’ll try that out.
What’s your motivation? Ask questions of life and find out.
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