Meditation: "The Stars Will Continue Shining"

I was fretting about several things this morning, wondering whether I would be able to get a particular job done and whether a certain person would survive a recent setback, when this thought suddenly came to me: The stars will continue shining. As I pondered what it meant, I grew increasingly less worried and fretful. I began to see – or rather, remember – that, no matter what happens in my individual life, the grand, infinite universe will continue on its merry and absolutely perfect way. Yes, the job I was worried about and the friend who was suffering were important concerns, but no more important than all the numberless events just now happening in the endless universe. I realized that I had been overly anxious earlier in the morning because I had been taking a totally insular view of things. You might say I had been seeing things as though I and my two problems were the only important things in the universe, and that we three were completely disconnected from the rest of reality. As ridiculous as that viewpoint sounds, it’s one that I’ve fallen victim to many, many times in my life. Luckily, however, the wonderful thought about the stars rescued me from that old trap. As I sat in my empty classroom pondering the great fact that the multitudinous events in the universe will continue to unfold in harmonious ways for all eternity, I felt myself settling down into a wonderful state of tranquility. I relaxed in the understanding that whatever happens with the job and my friend will be for the best, just as whatever way the stars happen to shine is always for the best. And the stars will always be shining, no matter what happens in my life on this relatively miniscule planet in this comparatively tiny solar system.