I was at a dinner last night and a woman there who is a rep for a cosmetics company, tried to convince me to buy her miracle anti-aging cream. 'Look at me! I am sixty one, and I look twenty years younger . . .' She took a look at my face and decided I probably needed the 'Re-Define' line.' I was polite, took her fancy brochure, and dumped it in the trash after I got home. How foolish, I thought, this refusal to go with the inevitable.
You shouldn't chase after the past.
or place expectations on the future.
What is past
is left behind.
The future is as yet unreached.
Whatever quality is present
you clearly see right there,
right there.
Not taken in,
unshaken,
that's how you develop the heart.
Ardently doing your duty today,
for - who knows? - tomorrow
death may come.
There is no bargaining
with Death and his mighty horde.
Whoever lives thus ardently,
relentlessly ,
both day and night,
Has truly had an auspicious day:
So says the Peaceful Sage.
- Bhaddekaratta Sutta: An Auspicious Day, MN 131 -
Are you chasing after the past?
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