Fragile, Precious, Infinite & Inexhaustible Life

The 5 kilometers wide asteroid named '4179 Toutatis"

Cosmic Close Shave

Phew, we dodged it ! Yesterday, 12/12/2012,  the Asteroid 4179 Toutatis  passed "near" the earth at "only" 7 millions kilometers. It is it's closest position to the Earth and it reached it, yesterday Wednesday, in the morning.

If this kind of Asteroid hits Earth, it is likely that the humanity will be wiped from this Planet. So, the prophets talking about a doomsday for this December 2012, were about to be right, but thanks God, Toutatis was 15 times the Earth-Moon distance away from us.

A radar image of Toutatis Asteroid, worthy of a Sci-Fi movie !

But let's avoid declaring victory to soon, this big stone make a tour around the sun every 4 years and it is listed among more than one thousand PHA (Potentially Hazadrdous Asteroids ) ! Which means, even if these asteroids are not of concern for the Earth now, they are closely watched, if they change their mind and come visit us ! Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, likes to play sling with asteroids, modifying their orbits... So it is not excluded that Toutatis or another asteroid slams into Earth in the future. It would be not the first similar event we experience. 65 millions years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth eradicating Dinosaurs and 70% of flora and fauna from the Planet.

The Orbit of the Asteroid crossing Earth's orbit a 12/12/2012
and passing just at 7 million km from our Planet

Each time I think to cosmic hazards the Humanity, the Earth could encounter, coming from the Cosmos, I remember the following verse in the Quran :

أَوَلَمْ يَنْظُرُوا فِي مَلَكُوتِ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ مِنْ شَيْءٍ وَأَنْ عَسَى أَنْ يَكُونَ قَدِ اقْتَرَبَ أَجَلُهُمْ فَبِأَيِّ حَدِيثٍ بَعْدَهُ يُؤْمِنُونَ

Have they not observed the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and all that Allah has created and that their term of life might have drawn near After this warning from the Prophet, what will it be that will make them believe? (Sura 7, Verse 185)

Preciousness and Fragility of Life 

I have written this article not to induce fear in you or to add grist to the mill of doomsday prophets. No, at all. There is a shallow reason and a profound one. The superficial reason is to have fun, to feel good. Since we, human beings, like sometimes to feel a brief fear just to better enjoy our life. This is why there is horror or catastrophic movies. It is our dualistic mind functioning in all its splendor !

The profound reason is I'd like to stress the fact that Life is too precious. Too fragile. There is no warranty, no insurance policy at the cosmic level. A Life which has lasted for billions of years could be wiped in a few hours, months or years, that is to say, an eye blink for the Universe.

We can observe this at each level. For example, a seed can remain several weeks in the soil. Then after the rain season, the seed start sprouting. A little plant struggle to break the cocoon and finally emerges from mud, from the soil. With the help of the sun, the little plant grows and finally become a beautiful flower or a blade of grass. Then, suddenly, an unconscious man walked on with his big boots, or a sheep passes through the area; and the flower is gone.

The Life is so fragile, with no security. The more insecure it is, the more enjoyable and flowering it is. Freedom and aliveness have always the shadow of insecurity. This is  why man's mind is trying to eliminate this insecurity. By doing so, it is killing Life, it is killing Freedom.

Dear fellow human being, you probably chose to come to this planet knowing well that Life is insecure and without any warranty. But after growing in the body and in the mind, you have forgotten. Your identification with mind advises you to live in a beautiful prison with the illusion of security. You hoard for the future. You sacrifice the present moment, the family, the friends for a hypothetical future. But at the end, there is no real security, since there is death. So dying tomorrow, 30 or 70 years later doesn't change anything in the fact that Life is insecure. So why not enjoy Life every moment ? Why not forget all the future, throw out all the past ... And be present, here and now ? Every second we live in this planet is a precious and fragile moment. Don't waste it. Every moment is beautiful, even the moments of suffering ... You can always find something beautiful in Life, so enjoy it. Stop your mind, open your heart, be vulnerable to Life, don't struggle, go with the stream of Life. Then every moment  will become a blessing, a celebration, a deep prayer. What ever you do, do it with awareness, with presence, with love and gratitude. You are eating. Beautiful. Enjoy your eating. Be grateful. Be loving. And the lunch or the dinner will become a prayer, a pure happiness. Your are walking in the street. Enjoy your walking. Hear the beautiful sounds around you. See the marvelous diversity of colors and forms of human being passing in the street. Be aware of the beautiful clouds in the sky ... and your walk become an intense moment of prayer and blessing.  This is how to transform each simple doing into a beautiful being.

So an awakened human being doesn't really care if the asteroid  4179 Toutatis will hit Earth today or tomorrow.  He has chosen to experience this Life in this Planet with its implied insecurity. So he enjoys every moment and when the hour of saying goodbye comes, he enjoys this too; since he knows well that the adventure is not terminated. It will continue in other more and more exciting existences. The Life is not only Precious and Fragile, it is also Infinite and Inexhaustible. And we are Life.