The Spiritual Experience- The Sunday Collage
Imagine for just a moment, the possibility that the human experience is just a random event. That there is no purpose, no real reason for any of us to be here.
That we simply crawled out of some primordial ooze and wound up here- doing this. We live our lives without any real purpose and when we leave- there is no such thing as St. Peter handing us an exit interview to complete. No review, no pop quizzes, no heaven or hell. You simply live one life and when it's over- it's over.
Can you imagine the futility of that? Who envisions that sort of ending or who hopes to live some unmeasured life? Answer- nobody.
So the artists make art, the bridge builders make bridges, the plumbers make plumbing, the law makers make law, the philosophers create philosophy, and the writers write. And each of us wants to produce a quality product because we think these things are measured. We hope they are.
And if somebody asked me, and rest assured that they never have or will,
"Brian, what was your greatest triumph? What did you do that needs measuring?"
This is what I might say.
I discovered that each one of us is having a spiritual experience. That little babies die and so do old men. Some folks get incredibly sick, some people become incredibly wealthy, some people die at Wounded Knee in six inches of snow, some innocent folks die in labor camps and in prisons.
That life isn't fair and I don't think it was ever meant to be.
If life were fair, there would be nothing to measure. We would all live the same crappy, mundane, ordered lives. We'd all be living some identical, fair and impartial existence. Who wants that?
I would tell people to quit taking everything so personally. That everyone is here adhering to some crazy script in their heads and that what they do or say- never, ever, has anything to do with you.
I would tell people to quit worrying about everything. Quit worrying about stupid shit and it's all stupid shit.
Quit ignoring the base. Quit thinking that the only people who know anything must have some state issued credentials or money. Quit believing your corporate and government masters. They never have your best interests at heart.
The single greatest moment in my life occurred when I realized I had been living the life of an unconscious idiot. It was humiliating to see the mistakes and the wrong that I had done- yet incredibly freeing to know that I never would have to be that way again. And you can't just apologize for all of that stupid shit and even if you could- why would you?
Acceptance is the key to every problem that we have.
Quit feeling guilty for enjoying life. For not doing 9 million tasks every week of your life. Don't live in fear of the judgers.
The world is driven by ego (a false sense of self wherein the individual believes his own bullshit) and self centered-ness. These two things account for virtually all of the human drama and misery on the planet.
If you had a bad parent lottery draw and got screwed up- it's your job to fix it. Nobody is going to give you reparations or a clean emotional bill of health. Identify and accept your shortcomings and fix them.
Mistakes are good. Virtually everything worth learning came to me because of a mistake I made. Let people in your life make mistakes, let them learn. Don't crucify them for trying and failing.
You cannot have an undiscovered false sense of self (ego) and be hugely self centered- and also claim to be spiritual. They are mutually exclusive concepts.
Let the world be. If Bill Gates and Steve Jobs hadn't invented personal computers and the software that they run on- would we still have computers and software? Of course we would. Those inventions would have taken place irrespective of Gates or Jobs. Everything has a season.
Things must run their course. Be aware of that moment when there is nothing left to say or do.
That we simply crawled out of some primordial ooze and wound up here- doing this. We live our lives without any real purpose and when we leave- there is no such thing as St. Peter handing us an exit interview to complete. No review, no pop quizzes, no heaven or hell. You simply live one life and when it's over- it's over.
Can you imagine the futility of that? Who envisions that sort of ending or who hopes to live some unmeasured life? Answer- nobody.
So the artists make art, the bridge builders make bridges, the plumbers make plumbing, the law makers make law, the philosophers create philosophy, and the writers write. And each of us wants to produce a quality product because we think these things are measured. We hope they are.
And if somebody asked me, and rest assured that they never have or will,
"Brian, what was your greatest triumph? What did you do that needs measuring?"
This is what I might say.
I discovered that each one of us is having a spiritual experience. That little babies die and so do old men. Some folks get incredibly sick, some people become incredibly wealthy, some people die at Wounded Knee in six inches of snow, some innocent folks die in labor camps and in prisons.
That life isn't fair and I don't think it was ever meant to be.
If life were fair, there would be nothing to measure. We would all live the same crappy, mundane, ordered lives. We'd all be living some identical, fair and impartial existence. Who wants that?
I would tell people to quit taking everything so personally. That everyone is here adhering to some crazy script in their heads and that what they do or say- never, ever, has anything to do with you.
I would tell people to quit worrying about everything. Quit worrying about stupid shit and it's all stupid shit.
Quit ignoring the base. Quit thinking that the only people who know anything must have some state issued credentials or money. Quit believing your corporate and government masters. They never have your best interests at heart.
The single greatest moment in my life occurred when I realized I had been living the life of an unconscious idiot. It was humiliating to see the mistakes and the wrong that I had done- yet incredibly freeing to know that I never would have to be that way again. And you can't just apologize for all of that stupid shit and even if you could- why would you?
Acceptance is the key to every problem that we have.
Quit feeling guilty for enjoying life. For not doing 9 million tasks every week of your life. Don't live in fear of the judgers.
The world is driven by ego (a false sense of self wherein the individual believes his own bullshit) and self centered-ness. These two things account for virtually all of the human drama and misery on the planet.
If you had a bad parent lottery draw and got screwed up- it's your job to fix it. Nobody is going to give you reparations or a clean emotional bill of health. Identify and accept your shortcomings and fix them.
Mistakes are good. Virtually everything worth learning came to me because of a mistake I made. Let people in your life make mistakes, let them learn. Don't crucify them for trying and failing.
You cannot have an undiscovered false sense of self (ego) and be hugely self centered- and also claim to be spiritual. They are mutually exclusive concepts.
Let the world be. If Bill Gates and Steve Jobs hadn't invented personal computers and the software that they run on- would we still have computers and software? Of course we would. Those inventions would have taken place irrespective of Gates or Jobs. Everything has a season.
Things must run their course. Be aware of that moment when there is nothing left to say or do.
Comments
Lately, for whatever reason, I have been thinking about life and death. I have been thinking that I was born a certain number of years ago, I have lived my life and have experienced up to this point whatever I have experienced from my own unique perspective, and that in a few short years from now (perhaps in the next few minutes, who knows?), I will be dead. I will be dead and gone forever, and everything that ever went into making me what I am will also be gone, forever. I can take nothing with me. My house, my money, my car, my books (all of my material stuff, that is), won't matter in the least (which naturally begs the question of how much they should matter now, but let me not digress too much). In short, I have been wondering what it is all about (the "it" being life) when it's a known fact that it will eventually end, as it will end for everyone who now lives, has ever lived, will ever live (what, I'm going to be that one human being in all of history who magically escapes the clutches of death because he worked out a bit, watched his diet and never smoked a cigarette?). So, that being the case, the fact that we are all living on borrowed time and that life isn't fair, how should we conduct ourselves (assuming that that question even merits asking)? I don't know the answer and I suspect no one ever will (philosophers have been trying for centuries as the human mind remains a mystery unto itself), but what I do know, from my own personal experience, is that I'm not going to take things personally anymore (much easier said than done), I will try not to make assumptions or judgments about others (now that is tough to do) and I will always do my best. Like the song says, 'we're here for a good time, not a long time', so I will do what pleases me so long as I harm no one else. I'll pretty much go with the flow and not allow the petty irritations to eat away at me (in the same way that a large tree can be tormented and eventually be felled by a million tiny pesky termites). I have come so far (or have I?) to the point where I now find myself in this thing called a life, I don't know what I have accomplished (if anything), I will try to unburden myself of a lot of the mental and emotional nonsense which I have been carrying for so long and which simply doesn't matter. Since I will be gone eventually, why carry that kind of burden right to the end of the line? Why indeed? Life is short, death is forever, so what sense does it make to get uptight about...almost everything?
Thanks for today's blog post, Brian. Appreciated.