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Showing posts from March, 2017

The Easy Way

Do by not-doing, not forcing, but directing. Use only the necessary effort at only the necessary time in only the necessary way. Do not try; simply do. If you make a mistake, it doesn't matter, except that you have new knowledge to help you. Anticipating leads to stuttering and tripping over oneself. Do not think while doing; simply think, then do. To achieve flow of routine, finish the cycle by preparing for the next. Water shapes earth in time. Earth shapes water in space. Extremes yield extremes. The narrow, winding, middle road leads to unity. Don't counter extreme with extreme to bring balance. Bring balance by aligning, flowing, connecting, increasing mass and inertia, stabilizing, centering. If things are overwhelming, zoom out. If things are underwhelming, open your eyes and be grateful. When you are tired of nothing, create something. When the water is too still, skip a pebble.

Labels

Labels are imaginary boundaries. They don't exist, but they determine how we see and treat them. When we name something, we make it separate in our minds. We forget this separation is imaginary. When we name things uniquely, we see them as unique. When we use the same name to describe many, we see them as the same.

Mono and Stereo

"Mono" means one, alone, single. "Stereo" means solid, three-dimensional. One gives rise to two. Two gives rise to three. To truly experience depth, we require at least two perspectives. The conflict between the left and right eyes and ears creates the experience of perceiving three dimensions. "Type" means "a category of people having common characteristics." "Characteristic" means "a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify it." These are mutually defining words; each gives rise to the other. What exactly is a "stereotype"? "A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing." Notice "image" and "idea." Notice the word "oversimplified." Notice the word "fixed," as in "solid." "Solid" as in "unchanging," which people ...

Fractal Time and Space

A period of time is both a length and a cycle. An iteration is the both the same and different. Every line is part of a larger curve. Every curve spirals along a line. The soul desires to be like the spirit. The son desires to be like the father. Order and chaos are reproduced. Chaos and order reproduce.

Common Difference

If you find you don't agree with a single word from someone's mouth, you haven't yet begun to see from that person's perspective. If you find you agree with every single word from someone's mouth, you haven't yet found the edges of that person's perspective. Knowing one truth does not make another untrue, since all truths are actually features or silhouettes of truth.

x = y

Every perspective is true, if you know what you're looking at. Every word makes sense, if you know what is meant. You can find y, if you know x. If you know the equation. If you know y, you can find x. If you know the words, you can make sense of the meaning. If you know truth from every perspective, you can find it in everything.

Ambiguity

Truth is limitless, but language has limitations. In truthful language, we are as precise as we are able without conveying more detail than we know. Therefore, the amount of detail that can be knowingly conveyed is limited by the speaker's knowledge. However, details from other perspectives merge to redress the limitations. They correct each other, revealing the balance that reveals the truth. If we already have the detail, we don't notice the gaps. We are not led astray by ambiguity. But we are inclined to become oblivious to the many forks and pitfalls in the roads we choose to travel on the way of truth.

Seeds of Truth

The seed begets the tree which yields fruit. The truth begets understanding which yields perspective. Is there more than one truth then? Must we worry about which seed we plant? If the seed is indeed truth, then there is only one seed. The seed leads to fruit, but we must eat the fruit to find the seed within. Fruit does not last long. It is best consumed between ripeness and freshness. A fruit that goes uneaten spoils. Perspectives are temporal. They are best used between comprehension and novelty. A perspective that goes unused invites corruption. The only decision to make is which fruits to eat. Don't eat rotten fruit.

Empathy

As we accumulate and assimilate more and more perspectives, we tend to let go of and forget less useful, more distorted perspectives. Empathy is the ability to identify and make use of others' perspectives. To practice empathy, practice looking at things from diverse perspectives at once. Don't look at the perspective, because then you will be inclined to judge it. Use the perspective to interpret, then translate the interpretation.

Now

The past is what was existing, but exists no more. The future is what does not yet exist, but will. Now is all that does exist. Past exists only when you drag it into the present. Future exists only when you anticipate and worry ahead of time. They exist only when you make them exist. When they exist, they are no longer past and future, but facets of the present.

Questions and Answers

A question without an answer is a vacuum seeking to be filled, but an answer without a question is an arrow without a target. To give an answer to people who need it, you must first show them their question.

Spirit and Oneness

The soul is the illusion of identity. The imaginary boundary between self and not-self. The soul is the physical expression of spirit, and is the accumulated experiences of the mind. Spirit shapes the soul when the soul heeds it, and is the accumulated experiences of all of humanity. Spirit transcends space and time, but soul clings to the past and future.

Truth and Non-Truth

Knowing is the result of experiencing truth directly. The result of deciding against denial. The only acceptable reproduction of truth. Truth that claims to be truth is not truth, but merely a perspective of truth. Truth must be experienced directly. Believing is an act of will, an agreement in the soul. An acceptance of a reproduction of a reproduction of truth. A stepping stone temporarily serving as knowledge. Non-truth that claims to be non-truth is aligned with truth. But non-truth that hides between expressions of truth is the corruption that grows beside truth as a strangling vine. Spirit recognizes truth as one remembers a forgotten fact. It cannot be persuaded against truth as the soul can. Instead, it yearns to free truth from all confusion and deception.

Fear and Faith

Faith is simply the product of your attention. Or, faith equals attention. The measure of your faith is the degree to which you can believe. Believing is an act of the will, a choice. Deciding is the essence of every act of will. To decide is to cut off other paths, investing no further faith/attention into other possibilities. Fear is attention given to worry-inspired thoughts. Faith in the opposite direction. Negative faith. Faith put into fearful futures creates footholds for malicious spirits, literally doing your enemy's work. This is why worrying is worse than nothing. Be nothing and let the spirit show you the way out. Be nothing by letting rational thought run its course into silence, then listening to the peace-inspired thoughts. Be nothing by recognizing the ego, remembering neither past nor future exist. There is only now.

Denial

Denial reveals an interesting truth. Adopting a new perspective can pose such a daunting task that one's rational mind surrenders by choosing ignorance. However, one need not engage the chaos as an enemy if one realizes that a change in perspective is not a sudden leap into battle. It can instead be a dance between the spirit and the soul, wherein the soul patiently revisits past perspectives, and the spirit illuminates old shadows therein.

Soul and Spirit

The spirit is who you are inside reality, outside of the physical world. It is the eternal consciousness that whispers its wisdom to the soul. It speaks in a still, quiet voice as intuition, or divine knowledge. It knows love and truth as one knows one’s own name. The soul is the persona stored in the brain. It is the operating system of the body. It exists as a neural network. It houses the physical will. One must choose to submit one’s rational mind to the intuitive mind. One must choose to listen to the spirit, and learn to trust it. Let the spirit win every dispute with the soul, as the parent disciplines the child in love. In this way, the spirit shapes the enlightened soul as sunlight shapes a tree.