No guarantees

“It’s the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee.”
~ Nicholas Sparks

We live in a universe of possibilities with no guarantees. The combined effect of imagination, attitude, behavior, and fate determines what transforms from the possible to the probable, and less often the actual. “Close, but no cigar,” may be your most reasonable expectation in life. You are a player, not a guarantor, within the universe of possibilities; the co-creator of your experiences, without having a say in the final outcomes. That is the house rule, whether you accept it or otherwise.

The unknowable reality

“Look at the tree in front of you. Are you actually looking at the tree or is thought looking at it? Hear the crow cawing. Are you listening to it, or are you identifying the sound with the bird? Can you look at somebody without the image that you have about that someone?”
~ J. Krishnamurti

Alan Watts and a subset of other philosophers, such as J. Krishnamurti, traded in the typical workings of the human brain for a reality without thoughts, mental images, symbols, and other brain sponsored filters and coloring. Their core ideal was to not confuse the map with the territory – a common slogan for this movement back in the not so distant past.

Being a Krishnamurti fan back in my college days, I would often sit cross-legged in front of a big old tree, attempting to perceive it without any previous mental or emotional associations with the word “tree” or its image. However, as Krishnamurti would have likely pointed out, my effort to perceive with an empty mind would be filled with expectations – thoughts and images – of what a tree without memories of trees would look and feel like, and so any effort was doomed to failure, and it was. My noble effort was just as ridiculous as trying to hear and know the sound of one hand clapping, another one of those koans or puzzles offered by the thoughtless thinkers of the past – the gifted or practiced ones who “supposedly” achieved empty mindedness.

Continue reading “The unknowable reality” →

Unfinished

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
~ Lao Tzu

Despite the inevitability of change, you pursue the finished in people, places, things, situations, and achievements. However, nothing is ever finished, despite your habit of seeking the finished within the unfinished, your desire to finally ARRIVE and say this is my place, my time, my lover, my body, my property, my talent, my success, my legacy, etc.

Continue reading “Unfinished” →

Camouflaged impressions

I’ve noticed that nothing is what it seems, and that I’m never too old to be fooled by something or someone. Never fully trust a first impression, nor any subsequent impressions for that matter. There is always something you’re not aware of, maybe the unpleasant surprise waiting for you, camouflaged with impressions.

Temptation

Social media question (paraphrased):

Original sin does not make sense. Eating the fruit would have enlightened Adam and Eve as to what was good and bad. How could they have known it was bad to disobey God, before taking a bite of the fruit?

My metaphorical response:

Adam and Eve are like children, who don’t yet comprehend the consequences of not listening to one’s father. Alternatively, we could view them as naive, inexperienced adults, indifferent to an authority’s warning about a risk or potential danger. For example, without the physical experience of being burned, the warning against playing with matches often goes in one ear and out the other.

Continue reading “Temptation” →