Friday 18 June 2010

Thou Art Not Thyself; For Thou Exist'st on Many a Thousand Grains That Issue Out of Dust.

Sometimes what seems to happen in the course of a life and its story is a profound sense of emptiness. We are confronted with the proposition that our lives, our procreation, our work, and our beliefs are meaningless. Thus, our endeavours seem empty; our goals, superfluous. The mental anguish is intense. "An unexamined life is not worth living," said Socrates; so, afraid of the unconscious shuffle from task to task that can seem to dominate 21st century Western life, we examine our lives. It seems fruitful. False belief systems break down. We understand we have been telling ourselves fairy tales about our own character. Perhaps we are not the nice people we thought we were, or not nearly as bad as we thought. We question our judgement. We begin to see the conditioning that has seemingly influenced our choices, our avoidance, or our resistance. There may be devastating trauma to face, memories so vivid they come with sensory re-experiencing, or an unravelling of old assumptions...there may be a revelatory moment of comprehension, a veil lifting, revealing the untainted truth: time wasted may be seen to be time well spent; surface relationships revealed to be deeper than once believed; and a peeling back of the layers of defense against the world at large may be undertaken in earnest. Our egos are delighted to be engaged in such a worthy endeavour.

It is all happening now, however worthy and to the point it judged to be. Spare one of those heedless, unasked-for thoughts to the villains of the piece, just as indispensable as the heroes. Examined, unexamined, life is life. The mind's judgements about it all are neither worthy or unworthy, true or false; the energy of them is simply a miracle, and the ego that navigates it all is not "right" or "wrong". It is a gift, from the gift to the gift.


As this clip from I Heart Huckabees illustrates, there are a lot more fun ways to "still thought" than just sitting in a cramped lotus position for hours!

19 comments:

Cedric said...

Love that scene form Huckabbes, makes me LOL!

...and your image, beautiful as always.

Christine said...

One of my FAVORITE movies! Love it. lol

Leslie said...

LOL...bring it ON!! I think I'll switch my path...back-and-forth...back-and-forth...One looks a helluva lot more fun though.
XOXO
-Leslie

No One In Particular said...

Hey Cedric, Christine and Leslie, we can call this new way the path of LOL. My children would approve! Just call me Guru Sri Rofflmao.

Leslie said...

Sri LOLita!...definitely my kind of path. I love these movies. Too bad the flavor and essence of cyber-popcorn can't come through. Or can it?!

Ash said...

"It is a gift, from the gift to the gift."


beautiful..thank you beautiful Suzanne for this that you share....wonderful! :)

Colleen Loehr said...

Your words are always like a liberating stick of dynamite blasting away the spiritual cliches that have filled up my brain.

I like your ruthless willingness to question all assumptions, it's like epinephrine to the sluggish, complacent pile-of-beliefs.

My ego is so good at dressing up in spiritual garb that I can have a hard time distinguishing when I'm bullshitting myself from when I'm not. Your posts are excellent at routing out bullshit, and for that I am thankful.

My favorite lines in this post are "the energy of them [the mind's judgments] is simply a miracle, and the ego...is a gift."

I like the artwork too, it has a richness that mirrors the inner world. I'm sure I will read this post again and get something new from each reading. Thank you Suzanne.

Admin said...

"Examined, unexamined, life is life. The mind's judgements about it all are neither worthy or unworthy, true or false; the energy of them is simply a miracle, and the ego that navigates it all is not "right" or "wrong". It is a gift, from the gift to the gift." ~Guru Sri Rofflmao.

No One In Particular said...

Hey Ash, thanks for that.

No One In Particular said...

Hey Nicholas, you can be Guru Sri WTF!

No One In Particular said...

Hi Colleen, wow! High praise, thanks.

Admin said...

I unknow everything. I don't know who you are or what this is. Not knowing is the only knowing that can be known without a conceptual overlay. ~Guru Sri WTF!

Wellness Education Institute said...

hey, no one!

your post is further proof (once again) that there are many paths to here, and that there's no-thing to (Really) do-be-do while we are getting nowhere.

huh?
:)
gotta go, sasquatch is on the loose again -- here in north carolina. this time, he seems angry.

smiles,
lenny

ian said...

I like the idea of my life being a fairy tale, I love this nonduality onesense. the comments are like gravy on a pie or tom sauce. Thanks for your blog It's like a ripple on a big pond,or a maze to get lost in.

No One In Particular said...

Hi Nicholas, once again, your pointing is clear as a bell...are bells clear?

No One In Particular said...

Hey Lenny, I guess there's about 106 billion paths to nowhere...the number of humans who have ever lived.

No One In Particular said...

Hi Ian, thanks for your comments, and I just love gravy, sauce, ripples and mazes.

Admin said...

LOL That's funny!

I guess bells have a clear ring to them? lol

And I love the interest 106 billion people who ever lived. You researched that?

No One In Particular said...

Hi Nicholas, purely speculative, Wiki as usual, there are too many variables to pin it down too minutely...estimates range from 80 billion to 165 billion. But of course, the real answer is one!