Life is what happens...

Reader question:

"What does this - Life is what happens to us when we're making other plans - mean?"

My comments:

This is a remark attributed to Beatles star John Lennon, who said: "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

Lennon is long dead, but, relevant to us today, what he said remains an apt description of career-driven, goal-chasing men and women in the city.

Have you ever heard someone say they'll be happy if they "have a car"? Then they have a car but say they'll really be happy if they have a bigger one.

In a similar vein, they say they'll be happy if they have an apartment, a better job, a beautiful mate, a million dollars, and so forth ad infinitum.

Or, does this sound like you and me?

Anyway, people who think this way are usually making great plans for themselves. They are those who often have trouble having a good time. They may have better plans but plans, you see, are inevitably for the future. People who have their eyes and minds fixed upon the future are prone to be absent-minded about what's going on now. What's going on NOW is life. This is it.

This is real. The future isn't. People who seriously plan for the future are often disappointed, even if their goals are met because they then have greater goals.

Most of the time, however, their goals are not even met. Their plans don't work. Have you ever heard of this grandma-style advice: If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans? In other words, God has plans for you and his plans always beat yours.

In China, you may want to replace that "God" with "Mother Nature", "Buddha" or "the Tao". Don't plan. The laws of the universe won't let you get away with your foolish dreaming and scheming. So take it easy.

As a matter of fact, Mother Nature won't intervene. The Christian God may punish you for making foolish (unrealistic) plans from time to time. Buddha won't. Instead Buddha lets you punish yourself. This is similar to the Chinese Tao. The Tao doesn't punish, knowing rewards and punishments are carried out any way in due course. All in good time.

If your plans don't work, you should know that you probably don't deserve what you plan about. Not only that, people who plan a lot probably don't even deserve what they have now. They have a mind so fixed on the future that they tend to ignore the beauty/ugliness in the details of everyday life.

I'm talking about the little things, you know, a stick, a stone, the end of a road, the sun, the moon, the light, the sound of the night, the sound of a thrush, the sound of the wind blowing free, a spear, a spike, a drip, a drop, the end of a tale (borrowed from the lyrics of the Waters of March).

Alan Watts once said (I paraphrase): "There are three people in the world, the aristocrat, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The aristocrat lives in the past - they're like potatoes because their best part is underground. The proletariat lives in the present because they don't have anything else. And the bourgeoisie lives for the future - they are the eternal suckers."

And many of the petty bourgeoisies in Beijing, in case you fail to notice, are in the Starbucks. They are probably making plans while, very likely you know, wishing they were somebody at a place somewhere else.

I hope they just sip and savor the coffee they have on the desk, being happy with its sweetness, and its bitterness also and enjoy themselves while the coffee is hot, creamy or icy, as the case may be.

To wit, don't plan to be happy. Just be. There's no way to happiness, as they say. Happiness is the way.

Don't get me wrong, now. I'm not advocating not having a plan for anything. The city is also crowded with of people who are out there just to "have a good time". These people don't even have a clue what's going on.

They'd better be making plans.