Reflection on Buddhism and Ageing
As a child I remember wishing time away. School holidays seemed endless, birthdays took forever to arrive and adulthood felt impossibly distant.
Now the years seem to pass with astonishing speed. Yet instead of resisting that change, my Buddhist practice has gradually helped me accept it. Impermanence is no longer simply a teaching to understand but a reality to observe each day. Time has not changed; my relationship with time has.
Growing older has taught me that peace is found not by slowing time, but by smiling at each passing moment.
Haiku
“Young time is slow time,
A drag between every tick.
I raged against it.
Now in old age time races—
I smile with calm acceptance.”From “Stillness | Moments of Buddhist Practice in Verse” written May 2023
Stillness is a collection of haiku, senryu and short reflective poems inspired by my Buddhist practice, meditation, pilgrimage and the quiet moments of everyday life. Sometimes a few carefully chosen words can express what a much longer article cannot.