Words by Neil Watkins:
Following one of our countless conversations where we tried to pin down
the foundation truths that this reality is constructed upon. My dad sat and
wrote the following piece of writing. I remember when I went to see him
soon after. He was bursting with pride to show me how he had
encapsulated that truth onto paper.
“In life we all keep searching for the right answer, but there is no right
answer. Everything is relative rather than absolute, that is the truth of the
matter.
When we meditate we strive to keep going deeper and deeper peeling
away the layers until we reach the centre. As we peel away the layers we
unmask our many personas. First we peel away the layer of the body, then
we unmask the mind, going deeper we unmask the psyche. We all have so
many masks its as if every day of our life has been halloween. But when
we remove our masks we shed our fantasies about ourselves, others and
the world and eventually we can know and see what we actually are.
By doing this it helps us to empty ourselves of illusion to see realistically
and lighten up when the ego is taking itself too seriously. In this way we
can dissolve our deluded view of ourselves and the universe until we
arrive at the radiant infinite openness of our original unprocessed natural
state, our genuine being that is aware and empty of fantasy.”
We found the following piece within the hundreds of pages of his work.
Power of positivity
“If you have food in the fridge, clean clothes on your body, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep. Then you are richer than 70% of this
entire world.
If you have money to spend and can go wherever you want, you are among
the 18% of the worlds wealthiest people.
If you are alive and have more health than illness, you are more blessed
than the million people who will not survive this week and will die.
If you are able to read and understand this message, you are more
fortunate than the 3 billion people who cannot see, cannot read, or suffer
mental retardation.
Life is not about the stress of our pain and our sorrows. Its about the
thousands of reasons we have to be grateful that we are so very blessed.
When we are content with what we have; rejoice in the way things are.
When we realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to us.
But then, what if I’m wrong? What if being positive makes no difference?
Then we still become better people. Can you think of a better way to live,
than in gratitude? Can you think of a better way to be than to be kind,
loving, compassionate, respectful, courageous, truthful and forgiving.
Even if I’m wrong can you think of a better way to live your life?
I couldn’t, I can’t, I continue…”
Although it is true that we have lost a good friend. In the last few weeks
me and my brothers have talked about the ability to seek out the positives
in the matter, instead of focussing only on what feels unfair. There are
people in this world who lose someone in such a manner that they are not
given time to make sure that the person knows how they felt. We are
thankful to have had at least some time with him to show him with action
that we love him. We are thankful that this has happened when we are not
in lockdown anymore and can share this celebration of his life with all of
his friends. We are thankful to have shared a million laughs and that my
dads life was rich and complete. In the last few days at one point as he
lay down with his eyes closed I leaned over him and said “we had some
good times didn’t we dad, and we laughed until it hurt” A smile came
across his face and he said “Oh fuck me didn’t we just”
My dad was a huge Monty Python fan. So now we will sing the song,
always look on the bright side of life.
Words by Neil Watkins:
Following one of our countless conversations where we tried to pin down
the foundation truths that this reality is constructed upon. My dad sat and
wrote the following piece of writing. I remember when I went to see him
soon after. He was bursting with pride to show me how he had
encapsulated that truth onto paper.
“In life we all keep searching for the right answer, but there is no right
answer. Everything is relative rather than absolute, that is the truth of the
matter.
When we meditate we strive to keep going deeper and deeper peeling
away the layers until we reach the centre. As we peel away the layers we
unmask our many personas. First we peel away the layer of the body, then
we unmask the mind, going deeper we unmask the psyche. We all have so
many masks its as if every day of our life has been halloween. But when
we remove our masks we shed our fantasies about ourselves, others and
the world and eventually we can know and see what we actually are.
By doing this it helps us to empty ourselves of illusion to see realistically
and lighten up when the ego is taking itself too seriously. In this way we
can dissolve our deluded view of ourselves and the universe until we
arrive at the radiant infinite openness of our original unprocessed natural
state, our genuine being that is aware and empty of fantasy.”
We found the following piece within the hundreds of pages of his work.
Power of positivity
“If you have food in the fridge, clean clothes on your body, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep. Then you are richer than 70% of this
entire world.
If you have money to spend and can go wherever you want, you are among
the 18% of the worlds wealthiest people.
If you are alive and have more health than illness, you are more blessed
than the million people who will not survive this week and will die.
If you are able to read and understand this message, you are more
fortunate than the 3 billion people who cannot see, cannot read, or suffer
mental retardation.
Life is not about the stress of our pain and our sorrows. Its about the
thousands of reasons we have to be grateful that we are so very blessed.
When we are content with what we have; rejoice in the way things are.
When we realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to us.
But then, what if I’m wrong? What if being positive makes no difference?
Then we still become better people. Can you think of a better way to live,
than in gratitude? Can you think of a better way to be than to be kind,
loving, compassionate, respectful, courageous, truthful and forgiving.
Even if I’m wrong can you think of a better way to live your life?
I couldn’t, I can’t, I continue…”
Although it is true that we have lost a good friend. In the last few weeks
me and my brothers have talked about the ability to seek out the positives
in the matter, instead of focussing only on what feels unfair. There are
people in this world who lose someone in such a manner that they are not
given time to make sure that the person knows how they felt. We are
thankful to have had at least some time with him to show him with action
that we love him. We are thankful that this has happened when we are not
in lockdown anymore and can share this celebration of his life with all of
his friends. We are thankful to have shared a million laughs and that my
dads life was rich and complete. In the last few days at one point as he
lay down with his eyes closed I leaned over him and said “we had some
good times didn’t we dad, and we laughed until it hurt” A smile came
across his face and he said “Oh fuck me didn’t we just”
My dad was a huge Monty Python fan. So now we will sing the song,
always look on the bright side of life.
