Hello again and welcome.
My name is Pratiga.
Today I'd like to explore a statement that at first may seem almost impossible.
To accept.
Life has never been about you.
When those words are first heard,
They can sound harsh.
Perhaps.
Even dismissive.
As though one's life,
One's struggles,
And one's hopes don't matter.
But that isn't what is being pointed to at all.
In fact,
It points to something deeply freeing.
Most of us have spent our lives believing that we are at the centre of everything that happens.
Every success,
Every disappointment.
Every relationship,
Every loss.
Is interpreted through the constant reference of me.
What does this mean for me?
Why is this happening to me?
What should I do?
How do I protect myself?
Thought quietly places a central character into every moment.
And then asks that character to carry the responsibilities of life.
But is this actually true?
Or is it simply how thought has learned to organize and interpret?
Each experience.
Take a moment and simply notice.
Right now,
Life is happening.
The breath is breathing,
Sounds are appearing.
Sensations are present.
Thoughts rise and pass away.
None of this asks for a separate me in order for it to happen.
Life simply unfolds,
As it always has.
Even the feeling of being a separate individual appears within this unfolding.
Perhaps the struggle has never been life itself.
Perhaps the struggle has been trying to make life belong to someone.
Someone trying to own it,
Control it.
Organize it.
Understand it.
Protected.
Completed.
And that is an exhausting burden to carry.
What if,
Just for this moment,
Nothing needed to resolve revolve around a separate you?
Not because one becomes unimportant,
But because the belief in being a separate centre begins to soften.
Then life is no longer happening to someone else.
Life is simply expressing itself openly,
Freely and selflessly.
As this moment.
As this breath.
As this conversation.
As this joy.
As this sorrow.
Everything is included as one formless whole.
Nothing is outside of life.
And strangely,
When life is no longer about me,
What remains is unconditional love.
For kindness.
For listening.
For wonder.
Without the constant movement of self-concern.
There is an openness and a stillness.
That has always been here.
Perhaps this is why a moment of awe feels so peaceful.
Watching a sunset.
Listening to the rain.
Holding a newborn child.
Looking into the night sky.
For a brief moment,
The one trying to make everything about themselves disappears.
And then only the spontaneous wholeness of life.
Remains.
Nothing has been lost.
Everything has been found.
So perhaps the invitation isn't to become someone different.
Nor to get rid of the self.
Was simply to notice that life was changing.
Has never asked for a separate owner.
It has simply been living itself.
And in recognising this,
The burden begins to fall away.
Not because life changes,
But because the one who's seen to be caring,
Interpreting,
And trying to manage life.
Was only ever a thought.
Thank you for being here and for sharing this moment together.
And until next time.
Be gentle with yourself.
And simply allow life to be exactly as it is.
If this contemplation has resonated with you.
You're warmly invited to explore the rest of this growing collection.
Each one is another doorway.
To the same recognition.
