"Walking in the Clouds: A Journey of Mindfulness"
#Good Places for the New Year 2025
The moment the plane left the ground, the world gradually faded away like a dream of yesterday. The outline of the city retreated into colorful geometry under the clouds, and the hustle and bustle returned to silence. The only sound left in my ears was the low hum of the engine and the interweaving of my heartbeat, as if I was meditating in silence in the air.
At an altitude of 10,000 feet, I was involuntarily placed in a narrow seat, motionless, with no escape, which became a place for self-reflection. The hustle and bustle of the world, the ups and downs of career, the joys and sorrows of human feelings, suddenly seemed to be thrown under the clouds by the plane, distant and frivolous.
This is an intuitive experience of impermanence: from boarding, taking off, accelerating, bumping, to the impact of landing, isn't life like this? All dharmas arise and perish due to causes and conditions, and all phenomena have no self-nature. As the saying goes, "color is emptiness, emptiness is color." When the body and mind let go of the obsession with "stability," we will know that flying itself is not scary. What really makes people tremble is the inner fear that they have never realized.
I looked out the window. The sea of clouds was vast, one wave after another, just like the confused thoughts of sentient beings. Suddenly I remembered what the Shurangama Sutra said: "If you can turn things, you are like Tathagata; if you are turned by things, you are like sentient beings." Although people fly in the clouds, their hearts do not have to be manipulated by air currents; although the environment is turbulent, thoughts can be quiet.
The passengers beside me were either sleeping, watching movies, or restless, and I put my hands together and silently recited the Heart Sutra, hoping to use this journey as an opportunity to practice, to see that the five aggregates are empty, and to overcome all suffering. This short journey of a few hours is nothing more than a metaphor for life: starting from the past, experiencing various midway variables, and finally arriving at a new origin.
On the eve of the plane landing, the cabin broadcast sounded, reminding passengers to pack their luggage and fasten their seat belts. I also felt in my heart: practitioners should be like this. At every turn and every unstable moment in life, they must be mindful of the Dharma, pack up the baggage of troubles and delusions, and stay in the middle way of consciousness.
The plane landed, and the weight of heaven and earth returned. Although this journey has ended, looking back at what I saw and thought in the clouds, it seems to have opened a new door for me.
The plane rises and falls, and the heart also moves and is still;
If you can be patient in the ups and downs and observe in the sky,
then every journey is a path of practice;
Every place you go is a bodhi field.