After The Fires

A talk on surviving hard times. I reflect on how we may find value in reexamining what is most important in our lives. I also discuss the Prajna Paramita sutra and how even though we may believe that living is not the ultimate reality, we still need to deal with it.

Transcript

Aloha.

I'm Rev.

Cindy Paulus,

And I'm talking today after about the third day of the fires in Los Angeles.

Devastating fires.

And it's been about a year and a half since the fires that happened here on Maui,

Which are also devastating fires.

And I'm considering and pondering the Prajnaparamita Sutra.

And I,

This morning,

Found myself saying it to try to give me a little distance and perspective on what was going on.

I don't know if you're familiar with the Prajnaparamita.

It's very old,

This sutra.

It goes back a long,

Long time.

And it's a Buddhist practice.

And it gives you a view of emptiness and the fact that life is a dream.

Of course,

I'm shortening it down.

But it goes quite deeply into how everything is emptiness.

And the interesting thing that I was pondering that I wanted to talk about and share with you today is that even if,

Indeed,

We are living this emptiness and this form,

And the form is emptiness,

And this dream of our life,

And the reality and the non-reality,

We are still having to go through it and experience it as real,

Even if it's just a part of a higher reality.

Now,

I know this gets complicated,

But then again,

Life is very complicated.

I mean,

Dreams are complicated.

You know,

What is a dream and what is reality is a very complicated thought.

We have all had bad dreams and woken up and going,

Boy,

That was a bad dream.

When you're grateful,

You're awake,

Right?

Sometimes you might awaken in the middle of a bad dream just so you didn't have to experience all the terrible parts of what you were dreaming.

Possibly when you're going through tragedy,

As people have been in the fires,

You might take some time out and really feel that existential moment where you're going,

This can't be real.

How could this be?

How could really all those things that were here two days ago be gone now?

I mean,

How could all those homes be burned?

And you would have to really kind of ponder and wonder what's going on.

But at the same time,

You're going through it.

You can get perspective on it,

And you can get the ability to have an overview of a tragedy,

But you really can't escape it.

And that's part of the reality of being,

Is that you still,

Even if you have a different perspective on it,

You're still going to go through it unless you die.

So there are people that try to change that reality in many ways to deal with that reality.

But the reality is such that you have to come back and face it and deal with it.

And you can change it by putting it in a different perspective,

Which can really help.

I mean,

By being still and by reflecting and by meditating and by stepping back,

You can gain some strength in understanding some of that.

But the truth is that you still,

If you've lost a house in a fire,

And most of what you own in that house,

You still are going to have to deal with it.

Now,

Having a better perspective does help going through it all.

I mean,

I saw many people saying,

You know,

At least we have our lives,

At least we have our loved ones,

You know,

We'll start over again.

But the reality on that too,

Is we know that it's going to not be the way it was,

And that it's going to take a long time to rebuild,

And that it's going to take,

In our day and age,

More money and all this other thing.

So it takes such great strength to be able to maintain that perspective,

That view of knowing that this is a life dream you're living out,

And this is the reality,

And this is also not the ultimate reality.

And one thing that can happen from your understanding of that,

Is you can find some kind of inner strength.

You can find that you can gain a bit more of a view of a higher reality that will give you the strength to get through that daily reality.

And you can't escape that daily reality,

The daily living still has to be dealt with.

But you might find comfort in some more things,

You might find some beauty in more things than you might have before.

You might find some more appreciation for what is important in your life than you did before.

And you might learn some very,

Very deep and important lessons on your value system,

And what gets you through,

And what gets you by,

And how you do survive these times.

I've seen some amazing stories of people helping people,

And things that are going on that actually do help other people survive.

People giving,

People trying to do whatever they can to help others.

And you have to be touched when you see these amazing stories that are pretty inspirational of how people are helping each other,

In ways they wouldn't have done unless there had been a crisis like this.

If there hadn't been that tragedy,

Many people wouldn't have been given the opportunity to help others they never knew before.

And that is going on,

And that you can't underrate.

You can't dismiss the value of the fact that there's so many people trying to help other people,

Trying to serve in any way they can,

Trying to give in any way they can.

Now everyone has different ways of serving and giving,

Which is all right.

You know,

Some people might write a song about it,

Some people may be there out there feeding people daily.

It's all different depending on what way you are there to serve and help.

But it does help to know that you can do something.

It does help to know that you can dedicate your life to something important.

It does help to realize how important your family and your friends are,

How important what it is that's your life and the way you're living your life is.

Your perspective can easily,

And I hope will,

Change when you go through a tragedy.

There's not a lot that will change us if we're bouncing along in a pretty good way,

With a pretty comfortable life,

With everything going on the way we want it to go on,

Even if there's some challenges.

But you won't stop in the middle of that and really take a deeper look at what you can do and what's most important of all.

And when you do have a tragedy,

When you do have a situation where you lose everything,

You still realize you haven't lost what's most important.

You haven't lost your friends,

You haven't lost your loved ones,

You haven't lost what's a true lasting value in your life.

And so it gives you a chance to reset and renew and rededicate yourself to something that makes your life worthwhile.

And it's those hard lessons,

These very,

Very hard lessons,

Are not anything we would wish on anyone else.

I mean,

They're painful,

They're very difficult,

They're very trying.

Now talking about what I've seen and experienced after the fires here,

There are people that just have a very,

Very hard time,

Even if they're trying to help others,

That they still go through things such as depression,

They go through things such as some of them trying to escape still.

I mean,

It's very obvious we don't like to experience this kind of pain.

And there can be side effects from that that aren't good,

But you can still choose to be inspired,

You can choose to try to help,

You can choose to do something that might make a difference in your life to help other people who are struggling.

And I think now more than ever,

We're seeing all those people who we never thought would be struggling,

Struggling.

We realize in some way that security isn't what we thought it was.

We might have thought we had a very secure life,

We've worked hard for it,

And they find all the people who've lost homes,

Things they had for 30 years,

Some of them,

Some of them more,

Are gone,

Gone in a moment,

Moment's notice.

Now,

It's a tragedy.

At the same time,

It shows you how fleeting,

How fleeting all of our things that we work hard for as far as possessions can disappear,

Can be gone.

And I think in these days,

In these times,

With these changes going on,

We're starting to realize that more and more.

It's not an easy thing,

And it's not a pleasant thing,

But it does make you,

It does make you re-look at your life,

Re-dedicate your life to something important.

And I've seen that.

I've seen that here on Maui.

I'm seeing that now in Los Angeles.

You know,

You might have experienced this in your life as well.

And these lessons,

In these hard times,

Are really giving some people an opportunity to change their life for the better.

Now,

It's not easy.

It's really not easy.

But you know what?

In the long run,

Their lives and your life,

Your life might really be drastically changed and be improved in a way you never could have imagined if you were just living a very comfortable life.

Not that a comfortable life is wrong.

I'm not taking that away.

It's really great to be able to have just a comfortable life.

But you have to be aware that can change in a moment's notice.

And if you didn't,

And you weren't aware of that before,

After seeing what's been happening,

You might very well become aware.

Maybe it's time to re-look at what my life is,

And my life's purposes,

And what I'm doing of value,

And how I can help other people.

So I just needed to put that out there because it's really been something I've been pondering as I've been watching this all happen.

And I pondered it before when here in Maui,

The same thing happened.

Not as many homes burnt in the long run,

But a lot more people died here.

And I think the count we have is very high at this point.

So it's just something we have to wake up to.

We have to be aware of.

And it's something that we can actually not control what happens in life,

But we can go within and control the way we react to it.

We can control how we can improve our life.

How we can help to improve the life of others.

That's not based on possessions.

That's not based on what you own.

That's based on your inner self.

That's based on your fortitude.

That's based on your caring,

And your ability to try to do something worthwhile in life.

So I just wanted to encourage you to take a look at that.

To be inspired by that.

To let your life take on something of value,

Of helpfulness,

Of humanity.

Because humanity really needs your help now.

And I don't see this changing.

I think we're all going to experience more and more the need for people like you to make a difference.

And if you have that strength,

And that inner connection,

And that belief system,

It makes it so much easier.

And it can make a difference and help so many people.

I'm sending you my love and wishings for the highest of blessings.

This is a piece I wrote after the fires in Lahaina,

That I think also applied to what's going on with people now in Los Angeles.

I had a firefighter read this quote from the Bible,

And then I wrote a poem that I think is appropriate to listen to now.

For those who grieve in Zion,

To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.

The oil of joy instead of mourning,

And a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

A planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

Here's a garland for the ashes.

A prayer for what's been endured.

A new tree that's now planted with love as the sacred cure.

To all those who have suffered,

May you be blessed with a crown of light.

May the strength of understanding bring you forgiveness to set things right.

Here's a garland for the ashes.

A prayer for what's been endured.

With seeds of love now planted,

And that love is the sacred cure.

May the cloak of darkness be dropped to reveal the truth that lifts you high.

To be embraced by the soul of the universe with aloha that has survived.

Hold up the torch of light,

That flame lit in your soul.

Sing the hymn of humanity that unites us and makes us whole.

Here is a garland for the ashes.

A prayer for what has been endured,

And a new tree that is now planted with love as our sacred cure.