In some other cultures and countries it’s not yet New Year.
For those following the Chinese lunar calendar it falls on the 12th of Feb, for ‘Persians’ the New Year, Nowruz, begins around March 20 – for Parsis it’s August 16/ 17th…lots of different ideas about the timing of new beginnings!

Maybe you remember a talk James gave – as I remember it quite well it was probably a Macclesfield talk – when he was laughing at the idea of getting rid of four o’clock or some other time that was deemed unpleasant. ‘You don’t have to say “Stop the clock! I just can’t bear four o’clock” … four o’clock is going by itself.’

Recently we have heard, very much, ‘I’ll be glad to see the back of 2020’ ‘Thank God 2020 has gone!’
With that there seemed to be assumptions that all the difficulties would end as the clock strikes, and the New Year will be inevitably better than the previous year.

But relative reality, the world of entities, as it is usually construed, does not work like that. With that view, what happens now is inextricably linked with what has happened in the past and is always shifting and changing. There is an interconnecting web of causal factors through time leading to an inter-dependent, inter-linked network of effects arising in the present,
and what may seem a better year for some will, no doubt, seem far worse for others.

Yet 2020 was a year of our limited life-span, one that we won’t have a chance to experience again; and every moment of those manifold unique experiences has vanished, gone forever, all by themselves…
To say it was a ‘rubbish year’ denies the rich complexity and variety, and
truly, any memories of 2020 or before are thoughts arising now – currently in 2021…and are also vanishing

Some neighbours recently said to me ‘I’m just waiting ’til it’s over and life can begin again and we can get back to normal’.
Marking time, or passing time or wishing life away… when you realise how swiftly it flies… seems a terrible waste…
Given the option, would we really rather have been anaesthetised for the previous 365 days than choose to live them, to fully experience whatever movements, joys and sorrows and all, arising and passing? There is such a big difference between enduring life and living.

Many years ago I picked up a piece of photocopy paper from the floor of our derelict new home. The chimney had just imploded and a couple of centuries of soot lay over everything… I turned it over and it said:

Out of the gloom a Voice spoken unto me and said
‘Smile and be happy, things could be worse’
So I smiled and was happy and behold… things did get worse.
That was my experience!

However, true happiness arises not from accentuating the positive or an optimism that ‘things can only get better!’ or ‘counting your blessings’ all of which can change our mood (and gratitude for everything is a good place to start)…. but with a dharma understanding, from wisdom.

And a few days ago I found, jotted down on an envelope in a kitchen drawer, a quote from James which is a distillation of a buddha’s teaching:
‘The root of dissatisfaction is attachment to experience based on a misunderstanding of the nature of experience.’

Yesterday at the shops I met a man and a woman, one carrying a paint can the other bags of material for stuffing…’I see you’ve got stuff for your projects in hand’…’Well, what else is there to do…?’ she said.
It was a bit too cold and windy for suggesting exploring the statement above!

2020 has come and gone and we did whatever we did, but what’s more worthwhile for 2021 than to deeply realise what a correct understanding of the nature of experience would be?
That realisation and the ensuing freedom from dukkha that the dharma offers would be the best ever birthday present to yourself and the world…as you would become ever fresh – new beginnings with every moment of the Year.

Some new dates to hear about all this:
James’ on-line teaching program recommences on Wednesday 20th Jan…rolling through to March
Check under Events on the simplybeing.co.uk website