Flickering
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2011
- Messages
- 1,118
This is my first principle of psychospiritual exploration, which is the means through which I approach spirituality and philosophy.
Whatever my thoughts, my beliefs and my understandings, they do not change the reality of the things I believe in.
Moreover, they are only models. They are not the reality itself.
In this sense, they don't matter. They aren't a necessary part of you.
You can shrug them off like so much baggage, if you so choose. You can accept the truth that you don't know and you have no control.
This may sound undesirable to a lot of people, especially the more intellectual types, who will tend to be drawn to a board such as this one. But you will find if you focus on it that there comes a curious sense of release. You will notice it is familiar because in it you rediscover something childlike. A lack of need to define yourself. No compulsion to try to control this life that is happening to you. The worry of it soon fades from your mind. It becomes apparent there was nothing to be anxious about in the first place.
Alan Watts calls this zen state a true kind of faith in the universe. Which is to say, if you have 'belief' in a God or in an afterlife to hold onto, that isn't faith, precisely because you're holding onto it so tight. It means you're not trusting the universe, refusing to surrender to what it's actually doing.
To the enlightened mind, he says, it's possible there's some 'continuation' of this particular journey when you die, or that there isn't. But you don't need to concern yourself too much with it. Because it isn't what you're doing now, and so it isn't important. In fact if you pry too much, you ruin it, spoil the fun. No wonder so many seekers have gone crazy on the way.
Someone in another thread (I can neither find the thread nor the person) in some big talk about the nature of reality, life after death and so on, said "When are you guys going to realise it doesn't matter?" I found this striking and the more I thought about it, the more it resonated with me as the most practical, honest answer in the midst of so much speculation.
And don't get me wrong, I do love to speculate. There's a lot you can discover simply by indulging your imagination. But I try to come back to a basic and fundamental principle that it is all just speculation. That what I truly have is nothing more or less than what is actually in front of me, right now.
Whatever my thoughts, my beliefs and my understandings, they do not change the reality of the things I believe in.
Moreover, they are only models. They are not the reality itself.
In this sense, they don't matter. They aren't a necessary part of you.
You can shrug them off like so much baggage, if you so choose. You can accept the truth that you don't know and you have no control.
This may sound undesirable to a lot of people, especially the more intellectual types, who will tend to be drawn to a board such as this one. But you will find if you focus on it that there comes a curious sense of release. You will notice it is familiar because in it you rediscover something childlike. A lack of need to define yourself. No compulsion to try to control this life that is happening to you. The worry of it soon fades from your mind. It becomes apparent there was nothing to be anxious about in the first place.
Alan Watts calls this zen state a true kind of faith in the universe. Which is to say, if you have 'belief' in a God or in an afterlife to hold onto, that isn't faith, precisely because you're holding onto it so tight. It means you're not trusting the universe, refusing to surrender to what it's actually doing.
To the enlightened mind, he says, it's possible there's some 'continuation' of this particular journey when you die, or that there isn't. But you don't need to concern yourself too much with it. Because it isn't what you're doing now, and so it isn't important. In fact if you pry too much, you ruin it, spoil the fun. No wonder so many seekers have gone crazy on the way.
Someone in another thread (I can neither find the thread nor the person) in some big talk about the nature of reality, life after death and so on, said "When are you guys going to realise it doesn't matter?" I found this striking and the more I thought about it, the more it resonated with me as the most practical, honest answer in the midst of so much speculation.
And don't get me wrong, I do love to speculate. There's a lot you can discover simply by indulging your imagination. But I try to come back to a basic and fundamental principle that it is all just speculation. That what I truly have is nothing more or less than what is actually in front of me, right now.
. We need to inquire about ourselves, this is where the world is.