25 responses to drinking and 0 ideas for mindfulness. It’s just basically being here. Sometimes you’re at work and it’s shitty. So be in the shit. You don’t have to like or relish it, just be there, really there. Other times you’re with your family and it’s wonderful. It makes a great story to think about what your daughter’s future will be, but for real life just be there, with her. Just be here.
As I read your piece I was reminded of my own frustrations with feeling like I had arrived somewhere, a place of peace and wholeness that finally spoke to a deeper sense of self, only to return have to return again to circumstances that were the opposite . After several decades of this (and being reminded of it by your post here), I see any progress towards being able to find a permanent arrival more like a series of experiences folding over on themselves that results in a layered experience, much like the stages of a developing embryo. Or as one writer here puts it, a spiral: "Revisiting the past makes us feel like we’re not making progress, but this is an illusion... As we progress, we revisit old chapters even though we are in a different place along our trajectory. The more we revisit these chapters, the more we build upon them and slowly over time, there is a deep transformation of things. It’s in this way that progress is not linear, it’s a spiral." (Metanoia)
I think Western culture pushes the notion that spiritual progression is linear, when it's not. As Alan Watts hinted - "the reason you're the quaking mess is because you're trying not to be the quaking mess."
Reading this after reading "Going Nuclear" felt like a flashback. What a beautiful place. I have many memories from similar places, one in Pennsylvania as well. And what a miracle, really, that we are on this rock floating in space, and from time to time we get to just chill by a lake, at the edge of green forest, warmed by our sun and protected from it by our magnetic field. I'm not an atheist, but I'm not religious either. But still, even if all of this is truly meaningless happenstance, just gravity making a flamboyant donation to entropy, and nothing more, it still means everything to me.
25 responses to drinking and 0 ideas for mindfulness. It’s just basically being here. Sometimes you’re at work and it’s shitty. So be in the shit. You don’t have to like or relish it, just be there, really there. Other times you’re with your family and it’s wonderful. It makes a great story to think about what your daughter’s future will be, but for real life just be there, with her. Just be here.
So…there are no responses on some of these older pieces because they were deleted when I went nuclear.
I do appreciate you getting them back up with some comments now.
Such wise advice…I struggle there…going to keep practicing.
Thanks so much for your comment Jack.
As I read your piece I was reminded of my own frustrations with feeling like I had arrived somewhere, a place of peace and wholeness that finally spoke to a deeper sense of self, only to return have to return again to circumstances that were the opposite . After several decades of this (and being reminded of it by your post here), I see any progress towards being able to find a permanent arrival more like a series of experiences folding over on themselves that results in a layered experience, much like the stages of a developing embryo. Or as one writer here puts it, a spiral: "Revisiting the past makes us feel like we’re not making progress, but this is an illusion... As we progress, we revisit old chapters even though we are in a different place along our trajectory. The more we revisit these chapters, the more we build upon them and slowly over time, there is a deep transformation of things. It’s in this way that progress is not linear, it’s a spiral." (Metanoia)
I think Western culture pushes the notion that spiritual progression is linear, when it's not. As Alan Watts hinted - "the reason you're the quaking mess is because you're trying not to be the quaking mess."
Yes I love the idea of spirals....everything is absolutely not linear.
Thanks for reading this old one and thanks for reminding me of this idea again.
The rings of the spiral getting tighter with each pass!
Reading this after reading "Going Nuclear" felt like a flashback. What a beautiful place. I have many memories from similar places, one in Pennsylvania as well. And what a miracle, really, that we are on this rock floating in space, and from time to time we get to just chill by a lake, at the edge of green forest, warmed by our sun and protected from it by our magnetic field. I'm not an atheist, but I'm not religious either. But still, even if all of this is truly meaningless happenstance, just gravity making a flamboyant donation to entropy, and nothing more, it still means everything to me.
You're pretty good at catching things because my lake to home implosions have happened more than once. :)
And yes, how lucky are we that we get to see the beauty of the world and it can steal us away from our troubles, even briefly.
thank you for reading, Jay, looking forward to getting to know you more.
You're the best. And so wise.
Thanks so much for getting a comment on all of the stuff that went nuclear.