Friday 21 August 2009

Best State, Contentless, Hath A Distracted And Most Wretched Being, Worse Than The Worst, Content.


What confusion, what bedlam, the mind can generate. There may be nothing wrong with it, but feeling uncomfortable comes with it some survival-driven urge to feel better. Pain is there, "they" say, to tell you that something is wrong; something being wrong is only valid in the philosophy that life must be maintained at all costs - organic life - and it is a philosophy and code of conduct easy to understand, borne of the evolutionary programming to survive, and create more organic life. So mankind struggles and survives, driven both by the questioning mind and the unquestioning body, the mind often questioning the simple drive to live right out of existence. Push and pull, tug and tussle, conflicts arise, so many of them contained within the small vessel of the individual, even before the handy conflicts between individuals get a chance to rev up.

So what is the goal in all this? What is the point? The message is there is no point; no answers, no questions, and no one who needs them. Whatever happens is the point, or whatever appears to happen. If what happens is a serene existence - the goal of many a seeker - then that is what is happening. Perhaps, in that story, there is a pining for the thrust and pull and challenge of the human condition, lost now in a haze of love; the moral of many stories of redemption and dreams realised, is that the psyche can still itch to have a challenge to pursue. Challenges can arise, no matter how fulfilled and content the protagonist in the story is. Resting forever in awareness, the mind will whisper, sounds boring. Perhaps it is, but it is likely that, without much claiming or discontent arising, the boundlessness of existence can be more obvious. The story of your life is not "just" a story. Contained in every apparent happening is the wholeness of what is; and whether it is seen or not, matters not. Life as it is lived, however that is, is the perfect expression, the parable of what is so simple it cannot be described. Life moves around the center, flows by, and the center never changes. The center, awareness, oneness, the absolute, I Am, whatever the label, is what both seeks and hides behind the seeking. There is not much in the story, the strand of cause and effect, that can illuminate the absolute, although it is in the story that so many look for it. It is what makes the story possible, and what is the story, and what is everything. So don't worry about an "enlightened" life being boring; don't hesitate to seek for fear of what is finally found may not be the ideal. There is nothing to find; it was never lost; and all that bedlam of the mind is just as beautiful an expression of it as anything that seems to be.

14 comments:

Jason said...

"Life moves around the center, flows by, and the center never changes."

Just beautiful.

Your blog is one of the main reasons for turning on my pc every day whilst this mind wrestles and grapples with the contemplation of it's own demise.

What prevails over here after a lifetime of searching and struggling and of letting go of everything I thought to be 'me' and 'mine' is a contracted feeling in the pit of the stomach often accompanied by random thoughts about how to relieve or fix that sense of contraction or agitation.

So whilst this mechanism plays itself out, I'll continue to enjoy your site and it's wonderful offerings. Many thanks for sharing this beautiful expression of words and images, there must be enough here to fill at least one excellent book!

Jason

Lune said...

beautiful expression and detail, though still don't get the title, even though I pretend to.

It is all here; boring, wretched, joyous, impassioned, fleeting - revolving around the emptiness, in the emptiness.

x x x x

No One In Particular said...

Hey Jason, wow, if I was here I'd be overwhelmed with the generous praise! And what a privilege to be a reason to turn on your pc. Lune, I like the label emptiness, instead of center, source, etc. Should probably play around with that one as it echoes the blog title! And the quote, I guess I'd translate it as: "The best state is being discontent, and that state has a distracted and most wretched quality, which is worse than (what we have hitherto understood to be) the worst state- contentedness." It supposes a certain wisdom: that when you get your heart's desire (are content), there's nothing left to do, and that circumstance doesn't fit in with the human need to learn, grow, evolve; thus, you inevitably want something else. However, when you can't get what you want, the longing actually IS worse than contentedness. In brief I think it's saying we're never satisfied, no matter what's going on. And that's what all this nonduality stuff is apparently the remedy for!

No Plane Zen said...

It's all Bliss of Being.

No One In Particular said...

Indeed. A memory arises: in the midst of nearly unfathomable grief and turmoil, I said to my confidante; "This is living. I'm not waiting to live anymore. This is life." The raw emotion and pain were not pleasant, but not something to be run away from. There was bliss, bursting life, very obvious in the pain. The bliss of being is never far away; it only seems so.

No Plane Zen said...

I am lost in unfathomable, wretched grief until there is nothing left of me. Who can say what emergence is?

No One In Particular said...

Well, no one, and also, it matters not.

No Plane Zen said...

Yes :-)

Brenda said...

thanks for the bumblebee plug, shaker queen, and for what you have offered here. moments of satisfaction arise, then abate, creating cravings for more such moments. thus, insatiability arises and the bee keeps pursuing the pollen in order to have moments with its honey. ah, such sweet moments.

No One In Particular said...

Falling in love with it all can also arise.

Shanto said...

Thank you, No One In Particular, for an extraordinarily beautifully woven piece of dancing poetry of emptiness. I love it! ;-)

Writing centred around this nothingness is an art in itself, and looking into the mirror of your words makes me - in the best of all possible senses - unable to express what arises here. As a reflection, disregarding the question of causality's existence or non-existence, I want to express my gratefulness and love to you.

/Svante

No One In Particular said...

Gratefulness and love right back atcha Svante, vis a vis the mirror.

Lune said...

"we're never satisfied, no matter what's going on."

Oh yes, that hit the nail on the proverbial head, Shakespeare or no. I love that man, even more for the fact that I haven't a clue what he is saying most of the time.

I feel that about your writing too sometimes ;)

x

No One In Particular said...

I hope by that you mean you love this woman too!