This is one part of my brain talking to another.
‘There is no such thing as a moment in time. Time flows
without ceasing. The instant something happens it becomes a memory, and so
there is actually no current reality. Memories are dead things, phantasms, the
most illusory of illusions. Memories are even less than photographs. At least
the halide deposits on a photograph are three dimensional; memories don’t even
have that distinction. What you should be valuing is the ever-growing volume of
experience that’s being deposited in your consciousness. Experience is a
resource, a tool to guide you in the business of living, and the business of
living is little more than steering a course through a choice of imagined
realities. Memory is only the shadow of the tool; the tool is experience.
Memory encourages you to look back; experience takes you forward.’
‘These imagined realities feel pretty real while they’re
happening, especially when they hurt.’
‘Of course they do; they’re supposed to. You’re here to play
the game, and play it you should. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t pay too
much heed to memories. They’re rarely of very much use in themselves.’
‘OK, I’ll get on with playing the game now, shall I?’
‘By all means.’
‘Tell me one thing, though. Where is all this experience
leading me? What’s the end of the road?’
‘Experience will tell you that when you have enough of it.’
‘Oh, I see. Can I go now?’
‘Yes.’
4 comments:
I have been wondering about something similar lately, more in relation to what am I doing all this learning for (studying versus experiencing life)?
It seems as though I will never be able to learn everything I want to learn about, but surely at some point I should be making use of my knowledge? Or is being a lifelong student a valid occupation?
I can only offer two personal views on this, Helen.
One is the pragmatic one - that life is just a game we play, a matter of passing the time, and that it doesn't matter how you pass it as long as you're deriving some satisfaction from it.
The second is the idealistic one as taught by the Vedic school - that the consciousness moves on from body to body through a succession of lifetimes, gaining experience until it's ready and willing to come off the dense physical wheel and move to a higher one.
They both make sense to me and I don't think they need be mutually exclusive, so I try to marry the two. I have no idea whether I'm getting it right or not!
Thanks! Hopefully I am raising my consciousness and maybe that of others who I interact with.
I believe it's a commonly held Buddhist view that everyone who raises their consciousness adds a little more beneficial energy to the human condition. I'm hoping that one day we'll reach critical mass and people will stop going about hurting each other.
Post a Comment