False Certainities

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 We stand transfixed at a crossroad, at the intersection of two streets, one called  “Asking” and the other, “Something”. That is, we’re always Asking Something about our life and the living of it. We stand there at the perpetual red light, waiting for the cautionary yellow to proceed or for the ultimate answer – a  green light! The problem is we’re kinda colorblind; we can’t be sure what we’re looking at, can we?  After all, life’s  all about those pesky nuances, isn’t it?

Well, no, not exactly. At least, not if  a different approach is taken to this crossroads  dilemma; not if life comes at us from the other side of the street. Not from our Asking Something of it, but from that place of Something Asking. Something asking not only “what’s going on here? but also, “who is asking?”.

Then the lights change, sort of.

Suddenly, if we’re sincere and really  open to seeing things the way they are, all the lights turn to shades of green; we can step off the curb, we are freed to move in any and all directions at this busy intersection. That’s scary, of course, because who knows what will happen?

Well, to tell the truth, nobody knows what will happen! That’s why we rarely move off the curb. No one in their “right mind” does that! What happens is, a few of us are pushed off the curb… right into rush-hour traffic! Right into reality!

Now reality, it turns out, isn’t anything like we think it is. Not even close. That’s  because what we thought was real, was all about a “me” defining “my” world and therefore being defined by it in a kind of vicious circle. After all, we – our mind-made sense of self – are the ones that imagine the whole thing and make our life a serious series of problems in search of answers. We think, therefore we are  in this dilemma.

“ To know reality, you cannot stand outside it and define it; you must enter into it, be it, and feel it.”

                                                    Alan Watts

So what happens when we step off into uncertainty? Of course, the answer lies in the question – who knows, it’s uncertain!  And here’s another uncomforting truth: there are no streets with streetlights; they’re all imagined and no one is in control of this traffic…especially, you! So while you thought you were standing there waiting and watching for those “greens”, forget it! Its all chaos!

So we stand on what we imagine is a concrete curb in a concrete world until we’re pushed off into unconcrete uncertainty!  Is that a description of death, perhaps?  Well yes, in that, if we are internally driven to know the truth at any cost,( and some few are) then there is an uncertain unknowing, we’re kind of nailed-by-the-truth to the cross of our beliefs. And for some, it all happens with about as much grace as a hammer!   And all you can do is relax…the hammer knows where it’s going!

The good news is that once you know your mind and its trance-inducing powers, and truth has removed what poisoned it – the idea of a separate and isolated person is transformed into a lived expression of reality. Into that clear awareness which we are, naturally.

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