Deepening not Hiding

From the Osho Zen Tarot, Transformation (Death); from the A'HA Oracle, 'Cocoon:'

           In Buddhism, impermanence (changing moment to moment) is the path; practice is a way to acknowledge and accept it with equanimity. It involves fully embracing it not only with the intellect but the heart as well. Yet we become attached to what we love, and suffer when it ends. It seems unfair that death or an end should come to the things or people we hold dear. The Cocoon card implies that we should somehow protect ourselves. Does this mean we are supposed to attempt to shut down our emotions or our mind? Walling ourselves off from reality - emotionally, mentally or physically - won't make it unreal. Norman Fischer explains: " I have experienced extreme sadness and loss, feeling the whole world weeping and dark with the fresh absence of someone I love. At the same time I have felt some appreciation and equanimity, because loss, searing as it can be, is also beautiful—sad and beautiful. My tears, my sadness, are beautiful because they are the consequence of love, and my grieving makes me love the world and life all the more. Every loss I have ever experienced, every personal and emotional teaching of impermanence that life has been kind enough to offer me, has deepened my ability to love."

“The Thing Is”

to love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you like your own flesh

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face,

no charming smile, no violet eyes,

and you say, yes, I will take you

I will love you, again.

~ Ellen Bass