Yellow leaf

Until 10 years ago, I used to train martial arts. Quite seriously. I was quite good actually...Then my knees started giving me problems...Anyway...I still do it a bit today. For a laugh...And health... 🙂 As part of that training I studied Taoist and Buddhist philosophy and meditation...I was of course searching for enlightenment, the mind of no mind, the empty place where we become one with the divine...Immortality? I think that was mentioned few times too... I fully expected an earth-shuttering experience, after which nothing will ever be the same...Something like matrix falling off and me (or more like "not me" 🙂 ) standing there and realising "I was god"...Or some shit like that...

Then one day I was watching a documentary about some old Buddhist Kung Fu master who was considered to be enlightened... And so after showing off his fighting skills, which were amazing, the interviewer asked him: So you have attained enlightenment. What does that look like? And the old man giggled and said: (He he he) Before enlightenment - eat, shit, sleep. After enlightenment - eat, shit, sleep. But in an enlightened way. (He he he)... I was staring at the screen feeling almost offended 🙂 Here I was, doing my Kung Fu (which by the way means Hard Work), reaching for the ultimate human experience, and this old fool was making a mockery out of it...

Anyway, time passed. One January, my wife gave birth to our son. More time passed... 10 months later, one autumn afternoon, I took him to the local park for a walk in one of those prams where babies are sitting facing you, so you can keep an eye on them and they can keep an eye on you. And you can talk...Which we weren't, as we still couldn't understand each other... And then, without warning, a giant, golden yellow maple leaf fell from the tree into my 10 months old son's laps...His eyes widened as he stared at the leaf with complete amazement, as this was the first yellow leaf he has ever seen. And then he said: "wow"... And I got enlightened... I finally understood what "To become childlike", which was often mentioned in the ancient texts, actually meant. It meant "To be able to see the world as if you are seeing it for the first time. In all its glory. Huge. Mysterious. Magical." My little Buddha (The Awaken one), who by the way never slept as a baby because being awake was sooooo interesting, said one "wow" and that was enough to open my eyes and wake me up, after 40 years of being asleep and 15 years of studying martial arts and meditation... My baby son made me see how amazing not just that yellow leaf was, but how amazing my son was, my wife was, the park was, the world was, "now" was, I was... Since then I have been trying to stay awake here and now. Which wasn't always easy, as my brain was constantly trying to drag me into very important "future" and "past" that I had to think about instead of being in the present... But, I have to say, that for the most time, I have been eating, shitting and sleeping "in an enlightened way"... 🙂