Life After Life

In spite of watching the ebbing tide take away all my plans and dreams of a successful life as an illustrator with it, I knew that life still had meaning. I just needed to find out what it was. When I painted I became so absorbed in my work that time stopped. It was pure experience, and I could not imagine anything that could be more precious. From the depths of my heart I implored the unknown to offer me something, which could take the place of painting. Only then could I let it go without a devastating feeling of loss. Never before had I felt the need to act upon a dream in waking life and began my search for the 'dream cathedral'. An advertisement asking people to visit a priory and join a Buddhist Community. After meeting my Buddhist teachers I realised that my wisdom eyes were also blind. But my prayer to have something to replace my painting had been answered. I had been given a new set of paints: stronger, brighter and more vivid than any seen before and a blank canvas, the canvas of my mind. A little flutter of excitement ran through me. I would have to nurture this feeling until it was strong enough to soar into the empty sky and fill my mind with new and exciting ideas. The whole world was now mine to explore. But how could I paint the future? Through meditation. On an extended ramble through the pathways of my lives I discovered that this life is just one link in an unbroken chain reaching back into the past and forward into the unborn future. Like a sculptor I can shape the future links through my actions in this life; paint rainbows in the empty sky with paints of wisdom and compassion.