“We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.”
— Alan Watts
Since some three thousand translates into action, “Yesterday’s terrifying maniacs” have seen through it. If there is a common thread to the postmodern current, it is well that we met. I, too, have felt lost, and longed for direction and maybe we learn a little, century by century. In a healthy society, they have slowly relinquished that control so that right now it is in our power, I can’t help the way I feel. Let the wind speak. This is paradise.
Blessings, G
“Get up, walk across the room and come back. Where are your footprints? They’re gone. So where are you? Who are you? When we try explaining who we are we sort of give recitation of our history. Forget it. That’s not you. It’s some story that’s already gone. We don’t know ourselves except by listening to our echos and consulting our memories.”
— Alan Watts
I am of the moment
I exist apart from time
not who I was
nor who I’ll be.
An eternal flash in eternity
fully expressed and expressive
then fractally wiped away
by the future selves
Drops in a bucket that
form a tidal wave
sinking back into the void
— G A Rosenberg
“You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.”
— Alan Watts
I am a wave upon the water
and I crash into your land
I may destroy all of your buildings
and you’ll never understand.
That nothing lasts forever
but some last more than most
the ocean and the mountains
are the last to give up the ghost.
I am a redwood in the forest
and I’m growing towards the sky
Tho I’m a slow Galapagos turtle
and no one can see me cry
I am a force of nature
and I will never back down
So keep yourself protected
never know when I’ll come around.
I may tear your world apart
that was never my intent
I’m just doing what I’m living
and I’ll do it till I’m spent
but I’m feeling mighty lonely
as I continue on my trail
I know that you’re a force too
won’t you teach me how to feel?
— G A Rosenberg
Click on images to see full-sized:
Swamp Seed by G A Rosenberg
Would You Fold on a Hand Like This? by G A Rosenberg
“And people get all fouled up because they want the world to have meaning as if it were words… As if you had a meaning, as if you were a mere word, as if you were something that could be looked up in a dictionary. You are meaning.”
— Alan Watts
We all want meaning. For some of us, it may merely be a matter of looking for something to define ourselves. They see themselves as being Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Satanist, Atheist or what have you so that they have an answer to what the world means even if it is someone else’s answer. Others seek long and hard to solve the so-called unsolvable questions about where we come from, where we are going and what it all means. They may, as I have, listen to as many different answers as possible mixing and matching until they have an answer to themselves as to the meaning of their lives. Still others may never be satisfied with any answer they have so they keep searching. Still others may have an inner connection to the truth. It might not be the full objective truth but it is their answer.
In any of these cases, it is not so much that each of these people have discovered the meaning of life as much as they have given life the meaning they need.
I do believe that there is objective truth tho I believe that while living in physical bodies we can only understand a part of the vast whole so that any meaning that we choose is at best only a partial understanding. Yet ultimately we are the meaning of our lives because it is around us and our beliefs that our lives are shaped.
Blessings, G
“No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
— Alan Watts
Lost in memories
of the child on my shoulders
reaching for the stars.
The feeling of connection
so real, so deep, so frayed now.
Tho childhood doesn’t last forever
and the shoulders weaken
and there is a pulling away.
Feelings of pride fighting with fear
yet still the link exists
tho so much else is lost.
Perhaps one day
it will strengthen
shared memories and meaning return
or passed on as we pass through the world
“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”
― Alan Wilson Watts
Faith, the shifting shadow of belief
Sure but elusive wraith
I’ve pursued you
unworthy suitor that I am
only to find you in the hearts of many.
Virgin pure harlot
that I long to hold
yet grasp at you way too tightly
knowing you exist
brings me warmth
even tho you are not mine.
Still I remain open to your charms
and wonder at the ever shifting hues
of your twin, possibilities
Now that is a lusty one indeed
and one that will never leave me.
— G A Rosenberg
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”
― Alan Wilson Watts
Listen. Can you feel the force of life itself listening through you? There is a river of being that flows through us and is part of us. Everything that we perceive is part of that river and if we shut off all the static, the judgements, the emotions that block that flow, we can watch and hear what happens. A universal perspective isn’t easy but its a great perspective to get into. Knowing for the time that we do it, there is no right or wrong just being. There is always time for what comes next.
Blessings, G
“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”
― Alan Wilson Watts
We humans tend to be a problem-solving species. When we see a mystery, a puzzle or something that doesn’t feel right our tendency is to work at it until we find a neat solution. Of course one of the biggest puzzles is our own being and why joy and fulfilment seem so difficult to come by. To render it more simply: “Why am I unhappy?” We try probing and prodding at this question and trip over our own feet. We work ourselves into a frenzy trying to find happiness and drive ourselves crazier and crazier. I have found that my happiest, most joyful moments have come when I have stopped worrying about whether or not I was happy and surrendered into the moment. It is almost as if I was pursuing an evasive butterfly that as I drew nearer, it would fly away but when I sat still it alighted on my shoulder. When we surrender our vision of what happiness looks like, we stand a better chance of not only finding it but gaining clarity on what was blocking our vision of it in the first place.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Travelling Light Over An Empty Plain by G A Rosenberg
“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.”
― Alan Wilson Watts
Perspectives
Heading towards destruction or salvation
Circling the drain or raising up the spiral
Is it the end of the world or the caterpillar’s cry
as he weaves his cocoon?
What if we lost our sense of right and wrong
and saw everything as being the path?
What if we stopped judging ourselves, our society, our planet
and worked on ourselves
in kindness and compassion towards others?
If we are all stars
then there are no wrong constellations.
If this is all illusion
a play put on for cosmic edification
then does it matter how the play turns out?
Will we not all take off our costumes
and makeup for the cast party at the end?
Is the difference between us and the stars
that we lend such gravity towards our existence?
Where we see injustice, is it truly part of the dance?
What is it meant to teach us?
“I simply feel that a human being must always recognize that he is qualitatively more than any system of thought he can imagine, and therefore he should never label himself. He degrades himself when he does.”
— Alan Watts
I am statements are powerful. When we use the words “I am” in conjunction with any other words, we say that we so identify with the object of the sentence that we use that phrase as a boundary of our existence. I am Christian. I am black. I am female. I am gay. I am straight. I am male. I am a follower of Thelema. Any and all of these may be true but what else are you?
We are all unique expressions of the all. Mapping ourselves in a one to one relationship with any one philosophy, religion or orientation created by another limits us. What’s more we also give others the power to limit us as well. Far too often, we dismiss each other with a series of labels as if to say that once we know that someone is a Heterosexual Conservative we know everything that could be of interest about her. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that she practices the Rites of Spring with a group on the equinox or talk about how she raised a child with Downs Syndrome.
We are all so much more than the sum of our labels. I find that I describe myself less and less with I am statements as the years continue onwards. I am and that is enough.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Moon Gazing But Missing the Big Picture by G A Rosenberg