Musings

Musings

DirtySciFiBuddha24 Comments

I’ve tried to pin down whether existence is transactional (every gain must be paid for with suffering and/or inconvenience), or transcendent (everything I need is all around and within me, if I only relax and open myself to its presence). Maybe I’m a pollyanna, or maybe I’m just tired after trying out years of draining, grind-culture elitist self-flagellation (nothing is good enough unless you come in first, then you may get a small pat on the back before moving on to the next beatdown), but I now favor the transcendent. Sure, I’ll put forth outward effort, but I’ve become convinced that I can manage my inward state by staying present and open, which seems to correlate with synchronicity and fulfillment.

24 thoughts on “Musings”

  2. I like this insight/musing. I prefer the transcendental myself. Staying present is a challenge for me, but it seems to be the only existence that makes the most sense to me.

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  3. The universe is – for sure – in a constant state of ‘exchange of substance’, by which new things arise, but it is the ‘self’ that sees this as transactional, and attributes inconvenience or suffering. To relax into hope is also a feature of the self – albeit a more positive and less stressful state. If we embrace life as just a process – not a test – we can transcend both of those self-attached states of mind (and others besides). But that route also has us seeing that none of ‘our’ desires, fears or even understanding is really our own: those things merely pass through us, from society around us. All of our ‘self’ was merely painted on us by the process of living.

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    • Well put! I believe that relaxation of identification leads to an emergence of true self, which is present in all aspects of the process. It also leads to immense relief and fulfillment for the more individualistic or “smaller self,” or so I believe

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  4. I WISH I could be a Pollyanna, haha!! I do believe in endeavoring to stay “present and open”…and the Bible tells me “suffering” builds character, is a teaching experience…so I’m more or less settled in that. It also states that my “faith is rewarded”, so that encourages me greatly. I need rewards😊 Midweek Blessings to you!

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  5. I haven’t solved that one. But there seems to be something to the postulate that the Universe is reflective (a reflexion? reflectionist? sorry, not native English speaker). For example, whenever I am stressed it seems like problems just keep pouring in (objectively, like punctured tyres – not just my subjective feeling). When I try to stress down, like listening to ambient music, there is this tendency for some of the problems to seemingly fade out (like my son’s skin infection which wasn’t so bad like we first thought). And so on. Is this an experience I find myself with repeatedly? Yes. Is it objective science. No. Probably never can be. The search goes on …

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  6. it may very well be that it can be different things….for different people….at different times….at different circumstances in their lives….when it comes to different people….at different times in their lives….and who have different circumstances. that’s the easiest way I can put it.

    it sounds so relativistic but, as our perspective of vision is skewed and tricked by an object’s velocity at certain distances away from us, i would gather to say that our emotional perceptions are skewed naturally by the distance between our soul and the soul we think we can perceive in another.

    nevertheless, enjoy the day Buddha and i hope some good comes to you. Mike

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    • I think you’re right, to put it simply. If we didn’t have different perspectives, different emotional and intellectual interpretations, there would be no use for us being different people, and the same solution would work for everybody.

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  7. I learned at the age of nine after working like mad and giving up a lot of things that I liked in order to get all A grades on a report card and the only thing I got for it was this comment from my dad “Okay. Now let’s see if you can do it again,” that the transactional outlook was shit. Doesn’t mean I’ve perfected the transcendental outlook by any means. But for sure, I prefer it. The way our society is set up, the way we have to live our day to day lives paying for one thing or another in some way doesn’t make it easy to take a more transcendental path. Great Musing!

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  8. I’ve learned to adjust expectations (that is to say I don’t have any) and to be more present in the moment. I don’t think that far into the future anymore because it isn’t promised to me.

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  9. I’m getting old, now, and the future is getting shorter, so I’m trying to live in the moment.

    I believe that we have everything we need to live a fulfilled life, but also everything is balanced, just as in nature (at least until humans messed it up, and look where that has got us).

    Often we look at the future, and based on what has happened in the past we predict an expectation onto what hasn’t yet happened. That makes us stressed, which in its turn adds to our life pressures. Often (not always, though) things work out better than our prediction. Thus the worry and stress was all for nothing.

    So living in the moment is what we should all attempt to do. Not easy, though.

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    • Good points! I like to abide in my lack of knowledge, the fact that I don’t know what’s going to happen. Often, I’ve made myself miserable because my ego demanded things should happen a certain way and I refused to allow it in my mind.

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