February 15: Parinirvana Day

Today was a fairly somber holiday, but not in a bad way.  February 15th (in some places, February 8th) is the date, in Mahayana Buddhism, when it is said that Buddha attained Nirvana.  As most know, Nirvana is achieved by leaving the physical body behind and stopping the cycle of reincarnation.  In short - dying.

The purpose of the holiday is to contemplate death and work towards understanding impermanence.  I will keep the entry short for on main and serious reason: our contemplations were difficult and serious.  It was a worthwhile, but very private exercise.

We did one other thing, that was a BIG thing for us.  For months we'd talked about getting our meditation room set up.  In honor of the holiday, we worked hard to get a safe and comfortable space to meditate together in our front room.

Out lovely in progress shot.

It turned out beautifully and we've used it almost every day since.  I'm exceedingly glad for this holiday.  Both Justin and I had important and meaningful conversations about death.  It did, however, take a day or two to emotionally recover from.  That's all I'm going to say about it, but I will just reiterate that it was definitely a worthwhile exercise.