When I look in my son's eyes, I see pure, undiluted wonder. As we grow older, it's hard for us to imagine being back at the beginning, looking at the universe with fresh, unjaundiced eyes but, for him, it is the only way to see. It seems we can access that same sense of wonder any time, no matter how old or young we are, by suspending our knowledge and beliefs about the nature of life.
"Ooh, it makes me wonder..." - Robert Plant
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Ob La Di
Life goes on. Any conceptual footholds that I once might have taken refuge in are washed away by the flow. I am a father now. Indescribable seeing that little one born, the tiny chest heaving... life goes on.
After his birth, it struck me that many absolutist and transcendent philosophies (such as Advaita Vedanta and certain schools of Buddhism) are rooted in a fear of living. They call the world an illusion and tell the seeker of peace to control their passions and cultivate detachment. The approach could be summed up--"nothing touches." I like coming at it from the opposite angle. Instead of denying life and calling it "unreal,“ seeing that everything touches, living the reality of constant change and transformation. Detachment is a cowards way. Why seek some philosophical or physical opiate to dull one's feelings? Why not feel deeply? Is there actually a separate self that can withdraw safely into itself at all or is there only living, in it's fullness and completeness? The true path of transcendence is into the heart of life, not away from it.
This is an imperfect, linguistic representation my view at the moment, subject to change, of course!
After his birth, it struck me that many absolutist and transcendent philosophies (such as Advaita Vedanta and certain schools of Buddhism) are rooted in a fear of living. They call the world an illusion and tell the seeker of peace to control their passions and cultivate detachment. The approach could be summed up--"nothing touches." I like coming at it from the opposite angle. Instead of denying life and calling it "unreal,“ seeing that everything touches, living the reality of constant change and transformation. Detachment is a cowards way. Why seek some philosophical or physical opiate to dull one's feelings? Why not feel deeply? Is there actually a separate self that can withdraw safely into itself at all or is there only living, in it's fullness and completeness? The true path of transcendence is into the heart of life, not away from it.
This is an imperfect, linguistic representation my view at the moment, subject to change, of course!
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