Sit

Sit

Just sit there and enjoy your cup of tea –or coffee if you prefer.
You could think about the unfathomable, indescribable mysteries of reality
(you could even attempt to describe them!)
Pin down more adjectives concerning the nameless, ever present existence enveloping everything.

But your drink is getting cold…

Then there is the matter of death:
The elusive, illusive, much alluded to ‘great equalizer’
Perhaps you could further mankind’s quest for answers?
There are more unsettled things:
Love, peace, consciousness, faith, and more

Sometimes I prefer tea to answers
-darkness to light
-mystery to resolution
-present to past or future
And in the moments of true clarity and stillness I know:
There is no need to seek answers when they are all around you,
Only a need to open up and let them enter you like a warm cup of tea on a cool fall day.

The Observer

The Observer :

Reality passes through the filter of conscious for all, but the lens of distortion is not quite so thick for the true observer. He perceives; then preserves –imbibing actuality without digestion. The observer absorbs his environment without disturbing it. The situation constantly transforms, but its account is eternal.

Reality seeps into his pores and is exuded with the steady rise and fall of respiration. The passivity is deceptive. Deep concentration is summoned and channeled into a most worthy endeavor. The moment is soon over and it no longer exists anywhere but the mind of the observer. Its validity is solely dependant on the reliability of his senses.

Reality has not changed, but the observer has. Though his objectivity is unwavering, it has forced him to lose control –as any truly equitable party should when faced with the unassailably verifiable. Being a true observer means this: focusing on reality to the point that you do not merely perceive it, but become it.

Pain

Pain

Pain is caused by unwillingness to change.
Release the prisoner within and experience Freedom!
Inflexibility is the chain barring us from full existence.
Loosen it and be liberated!

Accepting Reality is this:
Being able to acknowledge new circumstances,
And the responsibilities that they bring.

Beyond the debate of free will and fate,
The point has been missed.
We sometimes influence our outcome;
But we always determine our perception of it.
Which of the two is more important?

Perspective

Perspective

What is left when the mist vanishes?
Does “What could have been”
Not meet the same fate as “what was?”
Both are irrevocably lost to the past,

Beyond our worries, doubts, and fears
Is the Truth that we are completely fulfilled,
But only as much as we let ourselves be.

If we let the illusion of potentiality cast a greater shadow
Than the Reality of occurrence,
Transcendent perspective becomes impossible.

Not in spite of circumstances, but because of them;
Be at peace.

Unknown

Unknown

To receive guidance is to be good;
To dwell in the unknown is to be great.
Once the path is fully illuminated
We know only where we are going
And not where we can go.

How can we say we chose the ‘right’ path
When only one was available?
Who can achieve enlightenment
But those who are initially in the dark?

Stop seeking answers and start seeking the Truth:
Which transcends the relevance of questions.

Unity

It is only through the other that we can truly recognize ourselves -
No longer bound by time and space we are one.
We are forced to abandon the illusion of the False Self
As we become what only the True Self is capable of being.

In experiencing this unity we are able to transcend all;
And can return to the original Universal Oneness
Untethered by the restrictions of the illusory current reality.

Unity always creates and never destroys -
We lose not ourselves, but our sense of separation and division.

Wander

Wander

Divest the mind of all images and beliefs
And ascend into obscurity without the burden of concepts.

Wander in the darkness and mystery of Faith,
Follow the dimly lit path into the unknown:
Spiritual discovery waits along the way.

Empty yourself of every created thing
And be filled with True Love.

Chance Does Not Exist*

Chance does not exist. It is only a word we use to disguise our ignorance. Consider a coin toss. Before the coin is flipped, we say there is a 50/50 chance of it landing on either heads or tails. That is, it is just as likely to land on one as the other. But this is simply not true. From the moment the coin is flipped, depending on the height it is flipped, how fast it rotates, the weight of the coin, and countless other factors: the coin was absolutely, 100% going to land on one of the two sides. When I pick up a coin to decide who goes first or whatever, it seems fair because no one knows which side it will land on, but how fair is it? From the moment I picked up the coin –even more, the moment the coin was made –it was always going to land heads (or tails, of course). Now consider a coin with heads on both sides. I flip it and know for a fact on which side it will land. The only difference between the two coins is my knowledge. The reality is there was never any ‘chance’ that the two-sided coin would land on anything but whatever it landed on. If I made a “coin tossing machine which factored in every variable and ensured the coin to always land heads-up, we no longer call it chance, but how is it different from a typical coin toss? The answer is knowledge. The machine flips the coin and to the untrained eye there is an equal chance that it will land up or down, but the reality is different.

This is a silly demonstration, but think about where else it applies. As we move backward in time (mentally) we sometimes think about “what could have been,” but was there ever any other option? If I flip a coin and it lands tails, I can mentally recall the coin toss and wonder what would have happened if it had landed on heads all day, but that was never going to happen. It’s like watching a movie you have seen before in reverse –there was no other ending other than Jack dying in the frigid waters as the Titanic sinks to the bottom of the sea. There was no way, based on the velocity that I tossed the coin, angle it was tossed, force of gravity, etc. that there were any other alternatives than one –the one reality that actually happened. Now think about a big decision in your past (or a small one). What if you had taken that job? What if you had moved? What if you had taken Chaucer instead of Children’s Lit? The very reason I met my future wife is because I looked at two college classes and arbitrarily picked one. Looking back, it seems random or like a stroke of chance, but the reality was that nothing but me choosing that class was ever going to happen. Based on my current mood, internet speed, course requirements, and innumerable factors I was going to pick that class.
This seeming determinism is scientific, in fact. In quantum mechanics, there is a principal called “Quantum Superposition” which requires that an object exists in both states until it is measured. Just like the coin toss, the universe seems random until it is measured. I believe that Einstein was correct in asserting that God doesn’t play dice –or if He does, he understands the outcome of their rolling. So even at its most fundamental state, it seems probability is a myth. The implications for this, especially theological, are enormous. Why should we care about the future when it seems as though our actions are irrelevant? I believe that, to the contrary, our actions are more important than we could ever imagine. Without them, nothing could be accomplished. There is a purpose in every little thing as well as every big thing. The world would not exist in its current state, or where it will be in the future without actions. Certain things “need” to happen in order for other things to happen. The sounds very vague, but every great event in the history of the universe, from the beginning, to the fall of Rome to the French revolution, to me typing this right now has happened because of something else before it. When something is very important, we say it “needs” to be done. Maybe everything we do and will do are things that “need” to be done.


*I'm partially playing Devil's Advocate here, trying to work some things out.

Perception

Perception

Perceiving something does not make it true
Any more than not perceiving it makes it false.
We are what changes –not Reality.

Some Reality we cannot or will not recognize,
And deny it as a blind man denies light
Or a deaf man denies sound
-Only perceiving part of it
And excusing away the rest.

The epiphany comes when we accept Reality
And realize that it has always been there:
Waiting for us to change.