Ever thought about how many minutes we have each year? This cheerful uplifting song from the Broadway musical Rent, invites you to reflect on how we choose to remember the five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes we are gifted each year.
Click below to listen (you can also download here):
Couldn't load media player!
Our community in Pune has been blessed to be in intimate "Study of the Mind" circles with some of the world's leading lights in Buddhism. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, was with us a few days ago and shared some beautiful insights on the ancient wisdom of "letting go".
“Wanting more and more, is like drinking salty water to quench your thirst, which only makes you more thirsty. In a world obsessed with more, go the other way and be generous. Give freely. Possessions are harmless. The problem is our grasping mind, our possessive mind. Letting go helps us be free of grasping, of clinging. Possessions possess us. Learn to be content. Focus on genuine needs, drop the manufactured greeds."
She shared her experience of meeting a beautiful mystic in the Himalayas named Swami Ramananda. Whenever he would receive a gift from anyone, he expressed the delight of a child at Christmas. And then he would proactively pass on the gift at the closest opportunity to someone who would enjoy it. He had non-sticky fingers, and his eyes were always searching for whom he could pass on his gifts to. She also shared a great story about how the Buddha taught a miser a practice in letting go and giving. He asked him to pass a coin from his right hand to his left hand, back and forth as often as he could to remind himself to "let go".
"The greatest wealth is a mind that is open and spacious. Density of our conditioned mind, is what makes life dull and heavy. Move into flow, into fluidity. A mind caught up in pain-pleasure cycles creates suffering. The antidote is to allow, to relax, to let go, don’t hold on, let things be. Know that change is inevitable. Keep a sense of open spaciousness knowing things are as they are meant to be. The ideal mantra is not “Om Mani Padme Hum”, as much as “let it go, let it go.”
Lyrics:
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments, oh dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love (love)
Seasons of love (love)
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to plan
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned or the way that she died
It's time now, to sing out
Though the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love
(Oh, you got to, you got to remember the love)
Remember the love
(You know that love is a gift from up above)
Remember the love
(Share love, give love, spread love)
Measure in love
(Measure, measure your life in love)
Seasons of love
Seasons of love
(Measure your life, measure your life in love)
