I'm not yet sure where this post maybe going but it's inspired by a conversation I'm currently having as well as I guess by Jed McKenna who's books i'm wolfing down like there is no tomorrow and after all there might not be one.
"Only that day dawns to which I am awake!" - David Thoreau
The eternal waiting for perfection for everything to be just right seems to be something that most of us get caught up in at one point or another. This permanently living a couple of steps in the future or reminiscing in the past is a sickness most of us are inflicted with. We chase all the wonderful and great philosophies that tell us to live in the present without understanding the meaning of it, that really if you want to be aware of life there is no other way but be present in the now! Neither past nor future exist as only that to which we are aware/awake, that which we can experience in the now can be considered as existing.
Society does a great job of giving us castles in the sky to chase. Still today the predominant ideal is the perfect family, the perfect career and alas thanks to capitalism we also need to consume all there is and have the best and greatest gadgets and best experiences possible. And so we start the chase planing and working to goals that are always ahead, somewhere out there. Sometimes they are so close we can almost touch them sometimes we plan for 10 years into the future without ever thinking how absurd this all is. Then one day our stable world with our permanent future thinking falls apart! Maybe you get ill, someone dies, your significant other leaves or vice verca, you loose your job anyway something big goes BOOM.
Now there are of course different approaches of how to deal with these life changing events but in my experience the following two are the most common (I'll shall leave out the nut cases that go chasing religion because that'll just sidetrack me on a different subject):
There is the optimist approach of: everything happens for a reason (not a bad start) and this is an opportunity for change (also not bad) and then they go out change a whole bunch of stuff around in their life and end up chasing a new castle in the sky this time with jungle hikes and artistic purpose. A new wild goose chase this time in multi color instead of black and white. It often involves reckless risk taking, the illusion of not caring for the future while already building new ideas to chase and the delusion that this exiting new time is living in the present.
On the other side we've got the more pessimist approach of: hiding from life and trying to micromanage everything. Getting obsessed with stability and security as the goal in life (after all that's what got blown apart) while at the same time living in permanent doubt as to whether these goals are actually achievable (now that's a good thought) after all giving the life changing occurrence which shows, you clearly can't account for everything. Ruled by fear they stagnate, no for no back but sure as Tartarus not in the present either. Their new castle in the sky of chasing permanence is equally illusive as the other.
However even without life changing events most of us are on either of these tracks just usually a tat more mellowed down. Regardless of whether you choose the adventure holiday with jungle slides or the farm cottage in a small village, whether you ignore you fears and doubts throwing yourself right into life or whether you let them rule your life it still boils down to the same thing and that is running away from the NOW instead of actually living the whole bloody thing!
Most important to realise is, that there is no stability and security in life as we live it in the deamstate! (Dreamstate in the simplest way of explaining meaning we are stuck in the Matrix or Plato's cave and hence nothing we do has meaning as we are just actors on a stage following a script ignoring the fact that over to the left is a door leaving the theater which we could take at any moment). As we can't predict the future and as we can't experience the future but only the NOW both concepts (stability and security) are inherently flawed.
Irrespective of whether we accept that we are just actors on a stage and reality an un-provable concept or not it's important to focus away from the unattainable idea of future perfect or perfection as we perceive it full stop.
Letting go of the accumulated ideals that society has been planting in our brains since we were born should be a daily goal and focus.
If you actually start thinking about it nothing from your core beliefs and values to the choice of your clothes has anything to do with you as an individual (if we want to even assume that there is an "I" but let's keep that can of worms closed for now) but is a sum of the influences you have been exposed to and the attachments you therefore created. So why not break them up and actually exam them for what they are worth! I mean it's all just a big bloody game may as well choose the pieces, that after examination still hold somewhat of an appeal, to make the game worth playing instead of mindlessly plowing along. Or of cause of observing the show from afar which would be the less fun, but always available option to take (remember the door is on the left just go through).
So lets just look at a few ground rules:
Everything starts with a breath!
But if we are not just contemplating these ideas but accepting them we will eventually get to the place where we can breath. The NOW! Living in the now where the future, and all the fear it usually holds, falls away as unimportant. Once we stop swimming against the current but actually float comfortably along it, not randomly drifting and being swept down, but even taking a stroke or two in the same direction things will align. When we accept what is, instead of thinking of a million ways of how we can make any given situation perfect with time (realize the potential we see in an unknown future) or keep our head stuck in a past which we can not change, we can finally open our eyes and see what we already have and start perceiving the world as it is.
This of course does not mean to abandon all thought of goals and wishes. It does not mean to drift aimlessly but actually quite the opposite. By not focusing on the unattainable future you can work on the, for our game/play, perfect present. Accepting the now as all there is also means acting in the now! For example if you are happy in your relationship (friends or otherwise) tell them you love them today and not tomorrow, if you are unhappy change it on this day and not tomorrow!
Don't hope for stuff to happen but act!
Act with clear purpose/intent and consciousness!
Be the arrow and fly true.
"Only that day dawns to which I am awake!" - David Thoreau
The eternal waiting for perfection for everything to be just right seems to be something that most of us get caught up in at one point or another. This permanently living a couple of steps in the future or reminiscing in the past is a sickness most of us are inflicted with. We chase all the wonderful and great philosophies that tell us to live in the present without understanding the meaning of it, that really if you want to be aware of life there is no other way but be present in the now! Neither past nor future exist as only that to which we are aware/awake, that which we can experience in the now can be considered as existing.
Society does a great job of giving us castles in the sky to chase. Still today the predominant ideal is the perfect family, the perfect career and alas thanks to capitalism we also need to consume all there is and have the best and greatest gadgets and best experiences possible. And so we start the chase planing and working to goals that are always ahead, somewhere out there. Sometimes they are so close we can almost touch them sometimes we plan for 10 years into the future without ever thinking how absurd this all is. Then one day our stable world with our permanent future thinking falls apart! Maybe you get ill, someone dies, your significant other leaves or vice verca, you loose your job anyway something big goes BOOM.
Now there are of course different approaches of how to deal with these life changing events but in my experience the following two are the most common (I'll shall leave out the nut cases that go chasing religion because that'll just sidetrack me on a different subject):
There is the optimist approach of: everything happens for a reason (not a bad start) and this is an opportunity for change (also not bad) and then they go out change a whole bunch of stuff around in their life and end up chasing a new castle in the sky this time with jungle hikes and artistic purpose. A new wild goose chase this time in multi color instead of black and white. It often involves reckless risk taking, the illusion of not caring for the future while already building new ideas to chase and the delusion that this exiting new time is living in the present.
On the other side we've got the more pessimist approach of: hiding from life and trying to micromanage everything. Getting obsessed with stability and security as the goal in life (after all that's what got blown apart) while at the same time living in permanent doubt as to whether these goals are actually achievable (now that's a good thought) after all giving the life changing occurrence which shows, you clearly can't account for everything. Ruled by fear they stagnate, no for no back but sure as Tartarus not in the present either. Their new castle in the sky of chasing permanence is equally illusive as the other.
However even without life changing events most of us are on either of these tracks just usually a tat more mellowed down. Regardless of whether you choose the adventure holiday with jungle slides or the farm cottage in a small village, whether you ignore you fears and doubts throwing yourself right into life or whether you let them rule your life it still boils down to the same thing and that is running away from the NOW instead of actually living the whole bloody thing!
Most important to realise is, that there is no stability and security in life as we live it in the deamstate! (Dreamstate in the simplest way of explaining meaning we are stuck in the Matrix or Plato's cave and hence nothing we do has meaning as we are just actors on a stage following a script ignoring the fact that over to the left is a door leaving the theater which we could take at any moment). As we can't predict the future and as we can't experience the future but only the NOW both concepts (stability and security) are inherently flawed.
Irrespective of whether we accept that we are just actors on a stage and reality an un-provable concept or not it's important to focus away from the unattainable idea of future perfect or perfection as we perceive it full stop.
Letting go of the accumulated ideals that society has been planting in our brains since we were born should be a daily goal and focus.
If you actually start thinking about it nothing from your core beliefs and values to the choice of your clothes has anything to do with you as an individual (if we want to even assume that there is an "I" but let's keep that can of worms closed for now) but is a sum of the influences you have been exposed to and the attachments you therefore created. So why not break them up and actually exam them for what they are worth! I mean it's all just a big bloody game may as well choose the pieces, that after examination still hold somewhat of an appeal, to make the game worth playing instead of mindlessly plowing along. Or of cause of observing the show from afar which would be the less fun, but always available option to take (remember the door is on the left just go through).
So lets just look at a few ground rules:
- No one is perfect and equally all is perfect so stop worrying so bloody much
- everyone has problems and fears as we are all trapped in a dream but you can change its landscape if you dare/know how or accept them for what they are which is irrational script directions for our character to enact
- the right time doesn't really exist as there is only the now so be awake to it
- security and stability are illusions trapping us in fear of the unknown
- doors don't open when you want them to because they are always open we just don't perceive them to be so
- waiting around for everything to line up with our plastic ideal of perfection is plain pointless, this includes that absurd notion of the perfect partner
- we are all alone so get used to and comfortable with yourself
- we know nothing and can't prove a thing outside Cogito ergo sum - I think; therefore I am (or more correctly I am therefore I think as am-ing comes before thinking )
- we are all on a roller-coaster and the ride will end at some point so enjoy it while it lasts
Everything starts with a breath!
But if we are not just contemplating these ideas but accepting them we will eventually get to the place where we can breath. The NOW! Living in the now where the future, and all the fear it usually holds, falls away as unimportant. Once we stop swimming against the current but actually float comfortably along it, not randomly drifting and being swept down, but even taking a stroke or two in the same direction things will align. When we accept what is, instead of thinking of a million ways of how we can make any given situation perfect with time (realize the potential we see in an unknown future) or keep our head stuck in a past which we can not change, we can finally open our eyes and see what we already have and start perceiving the world as it is.
This of course does not mean to abandon all thought of goals and wishes. It does not mean to drift aimlessly but actually quite the opposite. By not focusing on the unattainable future you can work on the, for our game/play, perfect present. Accepting the now as all there is also means acting in the now! For example if you are happy in your relationship (friends or otherwise) tell them you love them today and not tomorrow, if you are unhappy change it on this day and not tomorrow!
Don't hope for stuff to happen but act!
Act with clear purpose/intent and consciousness!
Be the arrow and fly true.
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