I believe that synchronicity exists - that it is mysterious and not given to human manipulation just as love is not manipulatable, but something to become aware of as deeply as one’s sensibilities allow. Today there were two posts that came up on my “news feed,” always a source of knowledge to hold at arm’s length like a venomous reptile or drunken thug. One was a quote from Muhammad Ali - “I don’t believe in taking the right decision; I believe in taking a decision and making it right.”, the other Oscar Wilde - “I have to make everything that has happened to me good for me . . . There is not a single degradation of the body which I must not try and make into a spiritualizing of the soul.” As a wise prize fighter, it is easy to understand how Muhammad’s orientation would sound willful, even brash, where Oscar’s more passive, however penetrating awareness might sound resigned - It is the role of self in each quote that intrigues me. Muhammad’s declaration got a rise out of me, sounding so contrary to my current “following the flow” discipline from the Tao, yet not. His remark is at the core of the Tao honoring self-knowledge, and inspiring right action of “non-action.”
Oscar’s statement is more Zen at many levels: accepting the essential nature of existence without judgement - even harkening to Lao Tzu’s question of whether one has the patience to wait until the mud settles to see clearly. Each is predicated on a profound self-respect that i find lacking in so much of the media content i allow myself to study. First the mechanics of online activity, i remember the 1st time i’d heard the expression “click-bait;” it was from a visiting 14 year old nephew - it was an expression i instantly understood. We were both guests at my mother’s home, and i don’t see him often; communication was awkward; for example when i asked what he was studying in school, he replied “Physics;” i then asked what interested him most, and his reply was, “I’ve learned it all.” If you don’t believe me about synchronicity; that awkwardness i felt then was not terribly different than the strained friendship i have with a young fellow who will occasionally pick up items for me and just left; he the husband of a very kindly couple and toddler to whom i try to contribute how i may; times are hard everywhere, but especially where i live. The easy rapport, one hopes for when searching for solutions trails off into silence and i cannot press · where there is too much pain to talk.
One of those paradoxes - that very vehicle of language that has allowed me at best to communicate with myself, and at worst to incite thinking in others. Were i wise, i could find language which when read allows the reader to sense more readily that which had already occurred to them - The sky is blue, was it always that blue? Her eyes have language about them, if i could only learn their vocabulary. How can such a smile feel so dangerous? Rhetoric is a dangerous study if it is taught as anything but a lens for self-perception. When people are trained to parse stupidity in others, a flawed duality creates winners and losers - a specious objective in a world collapsing under the glut of greed at what’s commonly referred to as its pinnacle, but which is near as i can tell is little more than a cavernous morass of acquisitive pimply bean counters surrounded by a shit pot of beans.
Not very kind, i know - here’s an irony for you, and i’d be very surprised if i were far wrong. Due to a lack of cultural sensitivity and simple emotional stupidity my young friend may very well conceive me as a member of that same cavernous morass, and what’s most troubling is he might be right. Every time i look outside of myself for what is wrong in the world i find some avatar of myself grinning back at me in one form or another. I’d read a quote by Mark Twain once that struck me dumb for its simple logic, and have yet been able to locate in on WWW.information_super.hwy “All those things i hate most in other people, i find in myself to greater or lesser degree.” I am an Omnist no doubt, though RTF spellcheck hasn’t anointed it a proper word, just yet. The more varied my hunt for spiritual logic gets, the more crossover i find; it is a hopeful discovery suggesting i might be on the right track.
There is no enlightenment that doesn’t occur within our own Buddha hearts, and every person; you meet in your journey possesses that same Buddha heart. Lao Tzu said “what is a good man but a bad man’s teacher - what is a bad man, but a good man’s job;” Thich Nhat Hanh distills it further and just describes right action, “I see you; I feel your suffering; I am here for you; I suffer; please help me.” I don’t know if this is what Leonard Cohen means in “Villanelle For Our Time” when he describes a, bitter searching of the heart. I do know that the deeper i go into my own questionable behavior the more painful it becomes; yet like the itch you have to back into a sharp corner to scratch because you have no one to turn to - when i face full front my pain honestly and try to understand from whence it comes, the answer invariably is - me · There’s an irony; by that logic the most effective way to lessen another’s suffering is to help them to dwell in their own suffering. Tell me again how god is not a woman with an obnoxious sense of humor.
jts 02/12/2020
http://stoanartst.blogspot.com
all rights reservedou f
∞
No comments:
Post a Comment