Sunday, November 08, 2015

trying to fit myself into 'the box'

Trying to squeeze myself into the box: judging myself 'bad' when I can't make it
Usually I squeeze myself into the socially acceptable box, of the ideal person
Social ideal person

when that does not work I judge myself as bad, pathetic, wrong, deficient, and I try harder.
It never occurs to me that actually I don't know who I am, what I truly want, and what my own energies are.  
I just assume I know all that. 
And if I am not the ideal person I think I ought to be, then it's  because I'm not trying hard enough, I'm not good enough. 

Social ideals are simple: heaps of money, good looks, admired by all, super smart, innovative, 'green', + whatever the current fashion is....
Can anyone really meet them ? 

So we try harder. 

Actually we can both, 
we can put a bit of our energies into the social role, but not all of it. 
If this is me:
full energies
it won't fit into the small ideal. 



What to do ? 
respect each reality, the social as well as the greater being I am. 
Neither try to be all one or the other. 
Middle path, 
Balance
easy ? 
no
Possible ? 
yes like learning to ride a bicycle.... 

Friday, September 18, 2015

The DiHydrogen Monoxide inspection

"Are your qualified and certified to handle DiHydrogen Monoxide Madam ?"

"I am, I did the course 3 years ago."

"And you completed a refresher course within the last 12 months ?"

"I did, here is the update stamp, and the receipt to the 'safe handling of DiHydrogen Monoxide Association' ".

The fat balding official made notes on his tablet computer, updated the master database and looked around the living room.

"Have all the members of your family familiar been briefed about HiHydrogen Monoxide safety procedures ?"

"I'm not sure what procedures you mean ?" Maria looked worried.

"Safe limits for ingestion, handling of hot DiHydrogen Monoxide, small children and DiHydrogne Monoxide Overdose ?"

"Oh yes, they all been told, and they very good at it. We have put them into the DiHydrogen Monoxide survival course and they love it."

The official looked around the flat briefly, and took his leave.

                             -o-

More information about DiHydrogen Monoxide here at DHMO
an organization dedicated to the regulation of DiHydrogen Monoxide.

Wikipedia DHMO information

Monday, September 14, 2015

biting off more than I can chew ?




The waterfall rushed in the background.
He stirred his tea, and looked at me.

“There is a way of stepping back from life,”  he said and looked at me.
“How so ?”
“I pretend that I am not part of the  life I know, that I’m far far away, watching things from a great distance.

I pretend to myself that I’m on ‘the other side’, I have no body, I have I am free, pure spirit.
I look at the colour, the physicality of this world. The ‘realness’ of the stones,”
He hit the stone wall beside him with his palm, “I see the water, the food  and I feel a desire to be part of it all. To be part of that world again.
It’s a deep longing, to dive in again, to go through with the adventure of a physical life and body.

Does that make sense ?”

I just nodded.
How could I tell him?
Better to be quiet.

“...and the adventure calls and calls.... I think about it.... I imagine being there... I play with different places, different times,... and then one day it just feels ‘right’. I know it’s time and I jump in... J

“Jump where ?”

“Here, this physical world, the hard ground, the water, the air, that sense of final realness, and yet it isn’t really final – or rather it is, and it isn’t. Both at the same time. “

I smiled at him.

“Come on, doesn’t the world feel like it’s hiding a tremendous, terrible secret ?”

I wanted him to go on talking, so I just shrugged.

“It’s a secret of terrible beauty, the things we see in this world are just the surface, it’s pretending to be one thing, waiting for you to find the key, the way in. The physical world wants you to find it.  It’s really simple, but you have to find it yourself. If someone tells you, you don’t get the benefit, you will just have to do it all again from the beginning.”

“Hmm.... I think I understand,” I told him, glad to be able to confirm his hunch.
I wasn’t allowed to say anything else. If I told him any more, it would only make things more difficult.
So I played the part he needed me to be:“I don’t get it. Why do we come here then ? You say it’s an urge, a desire. But when we are here, we don’t remember and we all just want to go ‘home’ leave behind this world of limitations. We dream of ‘escaping the cycle of death and rebirth, or to put it more bluntly, we just dream of leaving this ‘shithole of imperfection’ for the pure realm of spirit. Almost all religions treat the physical world as lower class, and something to get away from, because it’s impure, imperfect and all that kind of thing.”

He nodded.
“Yes they do.
But what if it’s actually not like that ?
What if the point is to see the true perfection in the here and now physical world ?”

I shook my head. It was kind of fun playing the part.

He went on: “Wait, just play with this idea: What if the whole point is to get beyond the idea of physical life as ‘imperfect’ and somehow lesser ?
I’m not saying this is THE TRUTH I want you to believe, I’m saying, play pretend. Pretend for the next five minutes that there is a way of being in harmony with this imperfect shithole of a world. There is a way of seeing it as perfectly imperfect.
Just take what everyone says and turn it around by 180 degrees.”

I looked at the waterfall. Water birds stood on the lotus leaves and stared into the water.
Then I looked at him again, his expectant face, watching mine.
“I get it,” I said quietly.
He had no idea just how close he was.

“It’s funny isn’t it ? We come here because we want that focus, to drill down into the thing we want to learn, and then, when we’re here, we spend all our time trying to escape again and go back to where we came from.”

He looked at me, as if reading a secret message on my face.
"Are we just scared ?
When I was 18 years old, I had this idea of going on a great adventure.
I left school, left home and hopped on a plane and flew to Denpasar.
We landed and I looked out of the window of the plane, soldiers with guns patrolled the runway.
It smelled weird.
I didn't understand the language.
What the hell had I got myself into ?
I felt scared.
For the next few months I just kept really quiet and followed the other tourists.
Back home, it all seemed like a great idea.
Leave everything, get out, and go on a great adventure.
Once I got there, the reality was a totally different thing.
Took me six months to relax and start to enjoy things.

Is it what what's it's like when we come here into this physical life ?"

"Yep, for most of us".