A calm before the storm

AThe phenomena of rain under bright sunlight is rare during my younger days  but it is getting very frequent lately. There is an old local taboo which warn people not to walk in the rain during such occurence. Otherwise, their hairs will turn white. It is quite a rediculous taboo and it have faded into oblivion.

At the moment sitting here, a song came to my mind as I enjoy a cool strong breeze under a strong sunlight. The name of the song is " Have you ever seen the rain"? In this song, it describe about the phenomena which I have mentioned earlier  and it also describe about the sun turning  cold while the rain turn hard. This song was written by CCR in the mid 80's and during that that time the composer of this song already have this awareness and feeling that  everything is changing and strange things are happening.  In actual fact, the weather is changing constantly and recently, there have been many disasters and tragedy where volcanos which have been  dormant for many years came alive , mud slides occurs after  heavy rain ,  earthquakes followed by  tsunami. 

Those people who have been caught in these tragedies have question the existence of God  and they have ask  why God create them and punish them at the same time.  In Buddhism, we called this tragedy, the work of the karma.  But, why the whole village ? Are all these people guilty of something bad in the past ? If not, why punish them all at once ? Our great teachers have been telling us that if something bad or good happens , it is for a reason.   The only answer to this question at this moment  is  that everything is changing and we cannot control and  determine its outcome.  After a strong wind at night,  there will be alot of leaves on the ground in the next morning and in some cases, some weak trees or plants will get uprooted as well.  This is the way of nature. Something fell and others  have to wait for their turn to fall.

I saw a vedio on the dooms day website and it was about a cosmo clashing onto the earth at a high speed and creating  havoc to our mother earth , causing  earthquakes , tsunami and explosions and finally split the earth into many pieces and the whole world perish after that.  What can we do about it ? There is nothing we can do if this happens , so why worry. All of us have to die but once, so whether it is for another 100 years or the next 10 years, who will know.  Whether the whole world will extinct or not , it is also everybody's guess. So, we should concentrate on the present moment and live meaningfully and find peace from within.

Buddha, who exist more than 2,500 years  ago have understood all these sufferings which all of us have to go through in our life time and he shared his wisdom and teaching with all of  us so that we can  guide our behaviour and  thinking to live a better life.  His teaching of living  in the "Now" have been getting worldwide attention and have been promoted by writers and  self improvement lecturers.

Finally, lets forget the past which have gone, don't worry about the future which is yet to come and what we have is now.  All of us should live wisely and live meaningfully in the present moment which is NOW.

Namaste.