Things be what they be
Rumi
Preface
In august 1989 I started writing down short sentences and aphorisms that I seemed to grab out of thin air or thought of while meditating. Sometimes they came automatically in bars after downing a couple of beers.
I took note till "it" was over and typed out the notes the very next day when I was often surprised at my own words and, sometimes, had to wonder what they really meant.
I started going over former notes and various writings of mine in search of similar numinous phrases and brought them together in the first two chapters. From then on I just went with the flow without any concept of where it might lead me. With this came a great sense of well-being.
I was standing at some bar when the final words came and I knew they were the last, i.e. the "work" was done. On writing out the last sentences I felt intensely happy and fulfilled.
The inspiration that over the centuries came to us out of primordial nothingness (so full of essence) has to be filtered by our brain. Thus it becomes tainted and painted by our personal pathology, by our "biography".
The divine can only manifest in the human sphere. Sense must be put into sentences. For what is formulated well here I am grateful, for the less happy turnings of phrase my personal psychological limitations are to blame.
The Epilogue came into being when a few years later a friend offered to bind the pamphlet, which started me off for a short while again.
Some remarks
Philosophical questions are best answered thus: I believe in nothing but I take everything into account.
No room for doubt upon the bridge.
It's a small step to the stars.
Separate from separation.
It's better to talk "around" a mystery than "about" it.
If you've got your fingers in too many pies, chances are they're all up in the sky.
It's a sweet and lovely day when the moon leads you astray.
Drop your load at the roadside and don't worry about what's to become of you.
The masochism of man is the sadism of his god-image.
When a man needs to hide he'll hide in a woman.
For those who only have a hammer the world is one big nail.
Humility is the crown, the crown is humility.
The tiny Yes cancels the monstrous No.
Forget the weary words and all the hurt as you slip beneath the wings of the biggest of all birds.
Love sways in slender boats on endless rivers.
The reality of a given situation is the sum total of the perceptions of the participants in that situation, and moreover, of the discrepancies between the various perceptions. This is the real force-field of that particular moment.
So much of what happens and that we consider wrong is not that at all, only the sadness we bring to it makes it so.
The book in the eyes of he who went can hardly be read by those who stayed.
Thow are always standing by, somethimes glancing at each others' eye, and speech is not their alibi.
Some more remarks
He who is his own best friend is a lover of the world.
Be wary around the people who blandly answer "of course" on being asked whether they're happy.
A prophet places no advertisments, neither does he read any.
And on and on the archetypes are going by on our eternal hunting-grounds.
One man's truth is another man's nagging.
You are older than your reflection in the mirror.
Not all islands are potential volcanoes.
When in need of a shield, consider love.
Life is a free ride but we insist on paying anyway.
You need a body of feathers and a mind like a knife.
This also is thge nature of reality: consistent contradiction.
All things being their own matrix they must perforce be their own definition.
Your strong dislike for other people's shortcomings should be seen as a softly probing question, a tongue worrying a bothersome tooth (but whose mouth is it in ?).
Unbounded love of mysteries will tend to make you wary of questions.
Forgetfulness is dread of remembrance.
Meditation is the real whisful thinking: heartfelt and disciplined thought concerning your deepest whishes may well make them come true (and through).
Dire straits lead to deep rivers and dear answers.
The moon is a seductive mirror, but is has the power to reduce. The sun is a productive mirror, its optimal power is conducive. You are a mirror to your brothers, now see !
Pertinent questions steer clear of self-serving answers.
Ah the love awaiting and ready to craddle the mind prepared to break its shell.
The woman tending the well will amply slake your thirst, she need not tell you about the properties of water.
Some not quite implausible questions in a quite plausible universe.
If war is the answer, what on earth was the question ? If love is the outcome, what on earth was the problem ?
The theatre of ego is empty, what the hell are we doing on this stage ?
What will you do, when you reach that age of great unrest, like a mental pest, where every word is like a test ?
Will you come to Mecca, go for lust at first sight ?
Who'll catch the desert-fish ?
If god is a shout in the street, whose throat did it issue from ?
Isn't it utterly appalling to see that some fruit considers itself to have fallen beyond the pale of the tree ?
Anyone for tennis ?
The ego is the source of the imaginary difference between form and emptiness.
Those who can't share each other's joys might try their hand at each other's woes.
When you know the price of laughter, try to reap the joy of tears.
The guardian guards the inmates but the prison guards the guard.
When you holy heart's blood melts into your mind it will feed you the colour of the void.
If you're bent on saving the world, go save yourself.
If we could be the heart of song we would stop being just like tourist and finally see this place.
There's a storm on the ocean, there's a wind in the hills, there's a hurrican blowing, now do not run !
You'll meet a thousand beggars when you're looking for a saint.
Sometimes the living all look dead so it'sthe dead that needs must live.
Love steps out of all being wet with rainbows of life and presents us with the riddles of leasure and strife.
Things make sense because they come to pass and as such they become the effigy of our ultimate being.
A single bird sails on the air; it's singleness of being now, singleness of pûrpose.
This freedom one hears so much about is not a place you go to, it is where you are today.
The way to the mountain is through the valley. The way to the valley is via the mountain.
Be a terrorist for magnetism, be an atheist for godliness, be a healer of the schism !
Wait for the thunderclap silence over endless landscapes in your heart.
We are allowed our mistakes like any naked child is. And you know what child is like, it samples all the sights.
A good axe will outlve any man.
The goddess either leads you to reality or blinds you to it utterly.
The amount of self-destruction still evident is the signpost indicating the distance separating you from your true will.
Every valid question will eventually answer itself.
So much of human endeavour has a self-defeating impulse at its core, a certain blindness, working towards its own fossilization. Business for instance can be a positive form of interaction; still, today, the epitome of business is monopoly where the creative flow of business grinds to a halt. Entropy, and then some. The beauty of love, but then love as claim to possession which usually ends the essence of love. Entropy, and then some. It need not always be thus.
Take leave of hierarchical thinking, we are all unique and different, not better or worse.
The best informed man withdraws from the discussion, peacefully.
The tendency of release
The time spent in hell should make you weary of heaven. Be in between, and balance the two imaginary places in Nothing, sweet nothing.
Do not look for meaning or clear definition, that way lies a sad impermanence. Opt for reverberation and resonance, their homes are everywhere and everything is implicated.
Transformation engenders transformation, a potentially endless chain.
The seeming humility of anonymous writings often masks the ambition to be taken for divine utterance.
Those who night after night dream of the angel may consider themselves as part of the dream-consciousness of the self-same angel. It takes two to tango.
Should you find yourself habitually drinking in places called Safari, Shangri-La and the like, chances are you've never left home and you probably never will. So cling to mama.
You solve the riddle of the sphinx and what have you got ? Man. What has man yearned for all through the ages ? God. The razor's edge is for dancing, the nonorable person doesn't tiptoe across.
Your body is indeed your past, so there may be an ocean of physical pain and psychic sorrow there. Freedom is standing by its shore and realizing it might just be possible to cross it and live.
The one standing closest to the fan will get the most refreshment, the one who gets too close however is decapitated by the whirring steel blades. Such is the tantric gamble.
The existence of the universe cannot be denied. Still the phenomenon is a diffuse one, subjet to myriad definitions spawned in the minds of its myriad occupants. The imposition of one mind's definition on others is the way of organized religion and ideology, in other words, organized crime and perdition. One does not schematize reality with impunity.
Jacob lathered
The correct use of symbolism renders the symbol redundant, i.e. the reality of what is symbolized is eventually experienced or grasped. So-called realism where the word is taken for the thing could be considered as unconscious symbolism, promoting the division in the mind. "Self-destructing" symbolism makes for unity.
It is perception and perception only that determines the value of your universe. So if you take things at face-value, the quality of your perception will determine your enjoyment of what's in front of you. Escape from sado-masochism.
A sea of information is a delight for those able to swim, i.e. who know how to deal with and process that information optimally. The others are most likely to drown.
A little arrogance will cure any amount insight.
If it weren't for the lighthouse on the shore, the ocean would often be unbearable.
You cannot win if you do not play, this is the optimist thinking out loud. The pessimist; you cannot lose if you do not play. The enlightened materialist knows reality is the play and he plays beyond gain and loss. And play is Now.
Whether you rationalize or irrationalize your situation, it cannot significantly change unless you yourself do.
Cherish also the moment of sadness, each moment has the potential of the Moment, so the energy invested there from time immemorial can be your vehicle of joy and as such lead you beyond the concept of the series of moments into the Now.
All I say here in such apodictic manner has been said time and again before and if I were to dissimulate my feelings of bewilderment and despair I would be lying and it is lies that are the bane of the seeker who must needs be lost should he wish to find himself.
The angel smote Jacob, and each of us in turn is smitten. This is a mark of distinction, our birthright. Our wound is our weapon of peace.
The joyous walk
The measure of a seeker's succes is the measure of his joy.
The paradigm and the parameters of change should remain blissfully uncharted perhaps; experience lived beside and beyond definition.
Opinions seldom partake of love, insights on the other hand ...
The temple reverberates to the rhythm of your breath.
To fit the explosion of fettered and unfettered energy in everything and everyone around us into the concept of and pressing need for humility is the great task set our perception and experience.
The reality of loneliness is the best medicine, it is the remedy for the loneliness of reality. This is honesty beyond the naive, this is the dignity of values.
The world honours the needs of those who honour their ultimate "alone-ness". Paradoxically, the totality of those needs is called joy.
The joy of the walk is in the creativity along the way, all along the way, at the beginning as at the end. The creativity is the walk and the joy is the constant creation of the walker and the walk. Being in step here is called love.
Don't refuse to refuse refusal.
The inspired view of any powerful image is the transport of the rainbow of that image into and onto its manifold untold manifestations and secrets, now no longer secrets but gates to more and more possibilities.
Cross the bridge with humour, smiling beyond ill-will and condescension. Cross each bridge with humour.
I look around and see you all as indomitable energy, should my eye be clearer you would all be light to me, some as light infused with shadow surely, but oh, the beauty of the shadow also ! We must needs be light and shadow to be whole.
If I were able to be true to my will, my true will, the only way to be and breath would be love. As yet I am that possibility (but some possibilities exclude all others by the sheer power of freedom). I stand naked as I should beyond the joy and sadness of this moment.
The said is not the seen. The formulated not the felt. The worlds are beyond words. Symbols are signals and signposts. Chastened I stick to the love of what is. There are no secrets. Looked at attentively all that is shows you no more than all that is and can be.
August/September 1989
Epilogue
Rejoice in the blessed inevitability of everything.
Were determined to experience free will which we use in order to balance our determination.
Staring at somebody else's navel is more agreeable.
Only awareness, loving attention, will pass through the eye of the needle.
Immanence and transcendence are simultaneous and linked.
Were the sum and end-result, the dynamic of so much longing, and then of our deepest longing. In that flame we burn.
The idea of the earth being perfect if it hadn't been for humanity is all too human. The earth did and does need us utterly.
The identification with pain and sorrow narrows down the space you need, the limitless space that is your birthright.
Perfection may seem attractive, but the longing for it is utterly destructive.
Those thinking in terms of good and evil may take it that they're worse than the next person to the extent they believe themselves to be superior to them.
Senseless it makes sense. Wishless wishing. Peace and plenty when your heart is finally empty. So good. Plenty. Empty.
When the inside lights up don't open your eyes to see if it's the outer sun. Don't measure the inner by the outer and vice versa...Maybe later ...
April 1993.
