Practice Fugue

We want to have it both ways: there is only the present moment, but. There is only the present moment, but I should understand that better than I do. There is only the present moment, but I need to drop the baggage that I bring to it. There is only the present moment, but I need to be responsible for what happens next.

You cannot win. You absolutely cannot win. You will die before your time, or you will get old and suffer and lose your friends and loved ones and then die; you will waste time, you will misunderstand, you will be misunderstood. And that's ok. You don't need to win. You've already won. If you can read this, you've won. Why? Because the one who is reading this is not separate from the entire world. What else did you want to win?

Well, a quiet place to live would be nice. And a trip to someplace beautiful. And a nice girlfriend or boyfriend. And a cure for the illness of someone close to me. And meaningful work.

We want to have it both ways: there is only the present moment, but. There is only the present moment, but I should understand that better than I do. There is only the present moment, but I need to drop the baggage that I bring to it. There is only the present moment, but I need to be responsible for what happens next.

There are people who say, ok, well, come sit with me if you want to. We don't have to talk about this, necessarily. We don't have to do anything about it. There's not really anything we can do about it. And we're in good company. What was the problem again?

Well, a quiet place to live would be nice. And a trip to someplace beautiful. And a nice girlfriend or boyfriend. And a cure for the illness of someone close to me. And meaningful work.

You cannot win. You absolutely cannot win. You will die before your time, or you will get old and suffer and lose your friends and loved ones and then die; you will waste time, you will misunderstand, you will be misunderstood. And that's ok. You don't need to win. You've already won. If you can read this, you've won. Why? Because the one who is reading this is not separate from the entire world. What else did you want to win?

There is only the present moment, but I should understand that better than I do. There is only the present moment, but I need to drop the baggage that I bring to it. There is only the present moment, but I need to be responsible for what happens next.

There are people who say, ok, well, come sit with me if you want to. We don't have to talk about this, necessarily. We don't have to do anything about it. There's not really anything we can do about it. And we're in good company. What was the problem again?

Quiet, beautiful, boyfriend, girlfriend, cure, meaningful, die, suffer, lose, waste, misunderstand

That's ok. We're in good company. Pay attention, now, because I don't want to repeat myself.

Confusion has its cost

Autumn clarity
Down Second Avenue, a
Jewish bakery

The conditions of our lives conspire to keep us thinking that our minds are observing the world, that the world has its existence as our minds conceive it yet somehow independently of our minds. Maybe that's been an adaptive trait on balance, but I think it also causes a lot of trouble. (Compare with hemoglobin S, which can protect from malaria but also cause a lifetime of painful sickle cell crises. Ok, now please stop comparing.)

Thoughts are sort of a demanding client. We figure we'd better listen if we want to stay in business, but we also know at some level that we can't meet every unreasonable demand. When birth and death really assert themselves, we drop that phone without so much as an "excuse me." But if we come to see how birth and death never stop asserting themselves, maybe our manners can improve a little.