IN THE END, ONLY THREE THINGS MATTER

















“In the end, only three things matter:

How much you loved, how gently you lived…

and, how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

- Buddha



I had promised my friend, Sherry, that I would be writing on the above passage in a day or two. He sends very inspiring passages every day to his friends; last morning, he had sent this one…

It had caught my attention, immediately.

Love, as the saying goes, is the elixir of life. It is love that sustains life… Integrates, draws us close to each other, holds us together… Brings to us the hope of a tomorrow… Gives us reason to work with diligence and passion… Inspires us to accommodate… respect and honor our differences, show tolerance, forgive and reconcile… It is love that makes our hearts long, express, promise… and, it is love that helps us beat the odds of fear and insecurities, of betrayal and meanness…

Love alone can cure so much… Give us so much…

We live for love from the day we are born to the day we die…

Yes, in the end, it would, certainly, matter as to how much we loved… and, importantly, how well we did that!

Love, also, helps us live with gentleness. What else can do that for us?

The hallmark of good living is how harmoniously and gently we live with our fellow-beings. What helps us allow space for each other? What helps us respect, honor and celebrate our differences? What helps us overlook others’ flaws, forgive them when they trespass, see the goodness in even our tormentors? What helps us overcome our difficulties… show courage during our tough times? What helps us remain humble and grounded and show grace during our triumphs?

Our gentleness comes from our loving hearts…

Yes, in the end, it would certainly matter as to how gently we lived our lives!

Finally, there are some things that can spoil the beauty of our loving and gentle living: our regrets, blame, self-pity, fear, worry, hatred and revenge. Where do these come from? Again, the alchemy of love can help us deal with and do away with these hurdles on our path of gentle living…

When love comes, we learn to let go of those things which are not meant for us… Letting go of the ‘extra-baggage’ in life becomes easy when love rules our hearts… 




Letting go is an effortless act… 

Rather, it is not an ‘act’… It comes with 

understanding, compassion… love. 




Yes, in the end, it does matter how gracefully we let go of things which are not meant for us…

No wonder, to arrive at this priceless understanding, one has to ‘wander’ in life as the Buddha did…

No wonder, the Buddha means the enlightened one!



GERALD D’CUNHA


Pic.: Anima D'Cunha





Comments

Nivas R said…
Lovely insights! Well-written. Nivas
August 24, 2013 at 10:43 PM
Leena Biswas said…
Love is the great elixir of life, in deed!
...Leena
August 24, 2013 at 11:11 PM
Anonymous said…
I really admire ur non-stop writing! keep it up, keep inspiring.
----- Paresh
August 25, 2013 at 1:51 PM
Vishal R said…
Simplicity of living. Less baggage. .. Vishal
August 25, 2013 at 5:36 PM
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