Making it meaningful

"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend -- or a meaningful day."

~Dalai Lama~

I arrived at work a little grumpy today, after having missed a ferry, then running to a bus, then missing a train, and finally arriving late at work. I was grumpy, because I was missing my car, which is in repair and would take me to work in lightning speed. Not that I don’t like public transport, but for the hours I work, a car is essential and gives me 30 minutes more sleep in the morning.

I arrived at work, tuned into my phone which has a handy ‘Buddhist quotes’ app, and read the above quote by Dalai Lama. Suddenly I realised something; why am I complaining? Apart from the slight inconvenience of taking 90 minutes to get to work (instead of 30), nothing is wrong.

That’s it, nothing is wrong.

The key in this quote for me was “…make it meaningful”. No matter what is happening in life, just make it meaningful. This quote also hinges on the subject of impermanence. Nothing stays the same, everything changes. New friends become old friends, new days become old days, so we just have to roll with what we have and ‘make it meaningful’.

Honestly, I snapped out of my bad mood straight away. I sat down and decided to make everything I did that day meaningful. From the emails I wrote to customers, to the computer work I did, to my interactions with others. Meaningful. Meaningful, so that if I were to look back on any space of time today, I could say there would be nothing I could have done better. Meaningful, means you have invested yourself truly in what you do, and the action, thought, feeling or interaction is genuine and uniquely you. If we consider meaningful friendships or meaningful events, they have inspired us in some way, so as to create the person we are today. Routine, problems, stress and ignorance dim the ‘meaningfulness’ of life, so that we begin to perceive everyday as the same. As a famous quote from Paulo Coelho goes:

“When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.”

Meaningfulness, is perceiving that each day is different; that even though the sun rises each morning, we through our choice have the power to make each day different. Perception is everything. What we infuse our minds with, we begin to see in our surroundings. By beginning the day with a commitment to creating meaningfulness we can create the correct thought, which in turn creates the correct reality around us.

Reality is a reflection of our mind; how meaningful our reality is depends on how meaningful our perception is.

Copyright © SoulSurfer 11 December 2012 at 2.13pm