Enjoy your life, translated by Zhang Bao 2019.4.23

Sometimes I feel like I'm sleepwalking through life. It's like everything is far away, very numb, unable to focus. Going to work, eating, talking, sleeping, all this is like an act in a dream, without a hint of reality.

Coffee excites me, carbohydrates frustrates me, but the whole experience and process is boring and tedious, repeated over and over again, and the results are clear. In the end, everything feels like a chore and a burden. I just want to go to sleep, to forget this tarnished dream feeling in the hollow of legend.

It was a sleepwalking sensation that I couldn't stand it. I've done some really stupid things in my life. I wanted to do whatever I could to get myself out of my coma, which could mean breaking up, quitting smoking, moving, eating, or other methods that would require major surgery.

In fact, only this kind of big action can wake me up, but the price paid for the big action is also enormous. For example, a long time ago, I worked at the top of a world-class company. This is in my area of expertise, my income is very huge, I have a home, I love my job and the people I work with.

But as soon as that feeling of sluggishness and sluggishness permeated my life, I became dissatisfied and restless. I quit that job overnight on a whim, and all the chaos and regrets that followed can be imagined. Fortunately, my mindfulness meditation practice has taught me a more positive approach to getting rid of this numbness of ignorance for many years after that.

I need to wake up. It's funny because the urge is to go to sleep, but the treatment is the opposite: wake up.

Waking up is the most beautiful thing I've ever learned. Mindfulness, healthy living, and mindfulness meditation emphasize peace of mind. It's beautiful because it removes the distance of everything. Life feels precious, fresh, clear, clean, and refreshed. It simply doesn't get any better than that.

You may think that waking up like this is an esoteric thing that requires a magical formula or a special blessing. Maybe it's proper drugs, religion, books, enlightenment teachers, or ritual purity. But that's not the case. Meditation is not required to wake up. It does not require years of meditation and breathing. It does not require believing in past lives, karma, or original sin.

Waking up is a very simple thing. All you have to do is notice that you're here right now. Try it now. Notice everything that's happening here, now. Can you feel it? It feels like waking up from a dream. It doesn't feel creepy, ecstatic, or special in any way. These feelings are part of the dream.

On the contrary, it feels very normal. Focus on the incredible part. nuances of color and texture on the walls. The sound of the refrigerator motor starting. The sunlight is reflected in your friend's hair. The way your cat is circling around the books on the shelves. It all seemed like a perfect moment of glory that would never exist again.

If you want to call it the "trick", it's to constantly remember to wake up a thousand times a day. This is where mindfulness meditation practice can help you. Mindfulness is a memory that comes up in every moment of your life. As a practice, mindfulness consists of three skills: concentration, sensory clarity, and acceptance. Concentration helps you focus on the present moment. The clarity of the senses teaches you to connect and appreciate all the little details of the moment. Accept the moment that allows you to sit in the present moment, even if there are parts of it that you don't like.

These days, people may wake up again and again at every moment. While typing, I felt my fingers touch the cool plastic key. The pleasant sensation of contact incoming and outgoing. Drink the drink from the crumpled paper cup on the table.

In this moment it is perfect, normal, fulfilling... Right now... This moment. It never ends. There is no need to run away from the life of your dreams or seek some destructive state of unconsciousness. It doesn't work and will only make you miserable in the long run. Instead, move in the opposite direction, and the direction is becoming more and more sober. It won't always feel good, and it won't always solve all problems. But it will allow you to live in an authentic, sincere, beautiful way.