“If only death is certain, and the manner and time of death are uncertain, what should you do now?”
A close friend and colleague shared this unattributed Tibetan quote with me 6 months ago and I have found it to be a frequent visitor to my thinking since then. I thought I would share it with you now because at the moment it is working for me in three different ways.
Looking at the last section of the quote,’what’. ‘do’ and ‘now’ are words that neatly sum up where my mind has found itself recently.
What
I sometimes think we have too much choice. As a society it is one of those valuable prizes that we legislate, create policy and even fight wars for. And yet rather than empower us, choice sometimes seems to have the opposite effect. Whether we are dazzled by the vast array of choices we have or disabled by the constant need to be making decisions about things, the promised rewards do not seem to be materialisng.
At the same time the amount of choice and decisions we now have over the smaller things, e.g. types of coffee, holiday desitnations, clothes in our wardrobes seems to ensure we lose focus on some of the big choices we have, e.g. what would be like to spend our brief time on this planet doing.
What keeps me on my toes is the fear that I only discover what I want to do with my life when it is too late.
Do
I like this word because it creates lots of conflict in my mind. On the one hand I think we all try and ‘do’ too much, cramming our lives with stuff so that we never get a chance to just ‘be’. We associate being busy with being valued and therefore assume something must be wrong with us if we have spare time.
On the other hand in most instances changes requires an action. If we want to alter an outcome we need to change what we are doing. I love change, so I must love doing things. I value interventions that make a difference - more actions.
I guess the punch line is, that having chosen the ‘what’, we need to being empowered to ‘do’ things that will take us forward. I spend time with some people who act like victims to their circumstances. They are busy doing lots of things but not the things they clearly need (or sometimes want) to be doing.
Now
The original quote brings a feeling of urgency. On the basis - worst case - my life could end tomorrow what should I do now? The concept of “live life as if everyday is your last” is very appealing but needs the tag line “if you do the end may come sooner rather than later”.
On the other hand some people just seem to be waiting for something, or making sacrifices today for a tomorrow that may never come or which will not turn out to be worth waiting for.
The concept of ‘now’ is a very powerful one for me - it energises and challenges. I think i will continue to grapple with it.