There are times when a great deal depends on the decisions we make and which direction we go in. I call these “vitality moments.” Sometimes, when we are in the thick of it, we understand our choices are vital; at other times, these moments are harder to spot. Sometimes we notice important, vital moments only when we look backward, as if in the rearview mirror. We can explore vitality moments within the context of our spiritual search. If we consider some of the myths of great spiritual beings, there is always a vital moment in the story. The first that comes to mind is the Buddha, who left the life that he knew and his family and became a renunciate in order to seek the answers to his questions about the nature of human existence. When he came into an unfiltered, visceral relationship with suffering, sickness, old age, and death, he saw that this is how everything ends. His was a universal reaction: as we grow up, at a certain age we confront our mortality and accept that one of the few guarantees life offers is death. That is when the Buddha had his vitality moment, or turning point, when he recognized some fundamental aspects of the human experience: that everything is changing and that nothing lasts forever.
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The Fire This Time
On a recent Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of my wife’s voice shouting my name, followed by “Call nine-one-one! Call nine-one-one!” The garage on the property just beyond our backyard fence was ablaze. The 9-1-1 operator told me that fire engines were already on...
