There is a saying in Buddhism which goes as follows: “Contemplate the preciousness of being born free and well favored. This is difficult to gain and easy to lose. Now I must do something meaningful.” This saying is know as “Precious Human Birth” and is the first saying of what is known as The Four Reminders. The other reminders include 2) Death and Impermanence 3) The Law of Karma and 4) The Defects of Samsara or “confused, cyclical existence.”
All of these four reminders are valuable in living a genuinely creative life. But the first is of particular value, as it sheds light on the most important event in our ability to participate in this lifetime: the basic fact that we were born.
It is easy for most of us to forget that our lives are precious, indescribably precious if you really stop to think about it. And unlike all the millions of other creatures out there, humans are the only creatures who consciously create. You, me, all of us have this crazy-powerful ability to review the past, contemplate the future, to feel stuck, to feel liberated, to experience challenges and to overcome those challenges and grow, learn, and open over the course of our unplanned lifetime. When I really let all this sink in, it brings tears to my eyes. What an indescribably precious gift it is to be born human! What an amazing thing that we all have the opportunity to foster our natural creativity and bring it out into the world!
Today at 1:44 pm, Mountain Time, I will complete my 42nd year on this planet (Meaning I will “turn” 42). And on this day of profound importance to my own existence, I would like to give thanks to the infinite number of causes and conditions that, for some unknown reason, gave rise to a little baby boy in Denver, Colorado over four decades ago.
What an amazingly creative journey it’s been! What an amazing opportunity I’ve felt to be cared for and loved by my parents and stepparents, to be nurtured and encouraged, to experience wonder and amazement, to feel scared and confused and challenged and to learn from those challenges; what a precious this it has been for me to try and to fail and to try again, to be embarrassed, enraged, and jealous; what a gift it’s been to have had laughter and friendship and loss and loneliness. What an amazing mixture of sensations, thoughts, and emotions. What incredible experiences of insight I’ve had. How wonderful it has been to fall apart and feel broken then gather myself up again. What a gift to be level-headed, impulsive, wild and reckless. How I’ve loved those experience of adrenaline I’ve had as a rock climber and surfer. How I’ve loved dancing to cataclysmic bass lines and oceans of sound. How I’ve loved being a son, and a brother, and a boyfriend, and a husband, and a father to one, and a friend to many. How I’ve loved to have loved and felt heartbreak, longing, empathy, and appreciation. How I’ve loved to create, to create doodles and sketches, to create songs, to create poems and chapters and articles, to make up spontaneous characters and to invent inappropriate jokes on the fly, to design buildings and make sculptures, to feel stuck and ask questions, and to learn, learn, learn and create some more!
How I love the feeling of awe and wonder I feel when I contemplate this precious human birth! To the multifarious offering of the phenomenal world and the unyielding possibility of the formless realms, all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you! I love being a creator, suspended between the gods and the animals, creating as only we humans can!
I love this life I’ve been given! Happy, happy birthday!