Countercultural

In light of the first of the Four Noble Truths (Life is suffering), shouldn’t birth be swaddled in sorrow and death elicit a sober joy?

Death is the opposite of birth, not Life. Life has no opposite.

Happiness

This is the secret that time draws us away from: Nothing we can find, get, achieve or accumulate will make us happier than we are right now.

Wisdom from an empty mind

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

The “I don’t know” state disables ego and frees consciousness to perform its wonders.

Wisdom has no thought process.

Notes on control

We are not in control. Most men don’t understand this. Reason? No credible person sat them down when they were boys and spelled it out.

Knowing I’m not in control, I am a stranger to disappointment and bitterness. I am not what happens; I am to whom it happens.

The responsible man is response-able. He responds to Life. He does not react. Re-action is the forte of the fool. We cannot step into the same river twice.

Look at me

Ego isn’t just the Big Strut. According to the ancient enneagram, ego exhibits in nine different ways. In its most veiled manifestation, ego is shyness. Shyness courts attention in order to reject it.