End

As a person who spends a lot of time (or wants to spend a lot of time) observing nature, I have noticed that most natural phenomena, like the Mountains, Rivers, Wind, Earth, Clouds have no beginning or end. They are just one endless stretch and though one might try to wrap a logical start and end to these, they are so interwoven and continuous that one cannot figure out, where and when they began and how they end. When Nature seems so without borders, I wonder, why we place so many borders around us. We, as humans, always try to figure out the logical beginning and end to everything: be it jobs, or our relationships, or country borders or culture, or even life and death itself. A tight boundary line for everything. In this logical mind, when something begins, it has to eventually end. End is inevitable.

In the coming of the end, of many things in our life, once we know that the end is approaching or it has come to pass, there is a grieving process. This grieving process is natural, for it is followed by acceptance which paves the way for moving on and on to a new beginning. Something ends, also means, that something else begins. That something ending and something beginning is very tangible for us in our minds. It is important for our minds to make this distinction, without which it can go on suffering endlessly in the past.

But what the mind suffers is only the memory. You see, for existence or the reality around us, nothing really ends or begins. It is just happening, as a constant moment to moment existence. For the existence, nothing really began or ended. One kind of activity was happening at this moment and in the next moment, another activity is happening. It is only the mind that tries to make this distinction of something ending and something beginning. What ended, ended in your mind. And what began, began in your mind. Because of the memory of the mind, it can remember all that was related to a certain thing. The mind grieves the memories. During this process, it is in turmoil and the mind doesn’t like to stay in turmoil for long. It will naturally seek to end turmoil. And through this process of grieving, it will move on from this turmoil. Sort of end the conflict in the mind, so that it can finally move on. It will begin forming new memories again with something else and the mind will classify it as a new beginning.

So essentially, ends and new beginnings happen mostly and very deeply in the mind only. It doesn’t really do much in the reality of existence around us. There is no end or beginning really. This only resides in our mind.

Now, endings and beginnings are certain types of emotions and I am not trying to desensitize the emotions behind them by deconstructing their occurrences. They are important for natural human processes. Hence I even wrote a poem about it (in the pics attached). I am sucker for emotions. But it does help, if one notices that these endings and beginnings are repeating themselves in our lives in a very discreet pattern. They keep recurring at various stages of our lives. Because it is so hard wired within us, and it is a mental process, we do not pay attention to the repetitive nature of this. Every time it feels like a new thing, but it has happened to us a million times. How screwed up we are in our heads, that many times, this ending and beginning will keep happening. If we bring a little attention to this, then we will see them for what they are: processes of the frantic mind. They really do not exist anywhere else, but our minds. Seeing this clearly, settles the mind to some extent.

It in no way takes away the beauty of what is the ending or the grieving process and the beginning of something new. It is a way of looking at life like a continuous thing, a million things happening in one moment. It is looking at life as it is, without judging it or cursing it. It is happening every single moment, from this moment to this moment and again to this moment, and it takes a settled mind to see that there is much more beauty and intensity to life in its every present moment rather than to the faded dregs of our memories or to the fickle untrue fancy of our mind’s imagination. Life is eternal and unchanging. Yet, our minds see it as limited and changing. Get in the middle of this paradox, and you’ll find that both are

true.

Where do the Himalayas begin or end?

Start in Afghanistan and end in Nepal?

Does the river start in a mountain,

And end in the Ocean?

Do the clouds begin as vapor,

And end as rivers?

Does the wind have a beginning,

And does it have a finale?

Does the Earth start at your feet,

And end behind you?

Does the life within you, begin with a body?

And does it end, when it goes back to the Earth?

The Mountains, Rivers, Clouds,

Wind, Earth, Life.

Have no beginning,

Have no end.

Jobs, Friendships, Relationships,

Work, Activity, Striving.

They have no beginning or end either.

They begin in our minds,

They end in our minds.

If not for our minds,

They are anyway happening

Every single moment.

For this moment, which is now

Is all that there is.

This moment has no beginning,

Has no end.