Market

I was running some errands today after an appointment where I ended up at my favorite grocery store, the Metropolitan Market in Proctor, a northern suburb of Tacoma, Washington. I finished shopping and taking the groceries to the van, and went back from my double shot mocha.

While standing there I was suddenly taken by all the activity around me. I went blank and just stood there and let my mind absorb all the sights, sounds, smells, etc., especially the people. Just watching and listening to all the people going about their lives seemingly oblivious to everything else outside their attention.

It was an interesting experience to just stand there taking it all in, and reminding me it's something we rarely, if ever for some people, do, to see the world around them realizing you're just one of many, and to imagine the greater immediate and bigger world beyond your own.

The grocery store is the best place to see the world, the whole expanse of human geography on a global scale to bring you all those products and all those people working there with all the customers going about their lives in one place, where you are.

It's a gentle reminder of the whole world we live, all there before you, if only we pay attention.

Answers

Answers lie not in those most like us, for they only reaffirm what we already think, but lies in those unlike us, even opposite of us, for they will show us the infinite choices we didn’t see let alone imagine.

A Thought

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Living

Living shields us from the pain of dying, but in the end, always loses.

Alone

"I am always alone, I am never alone."

So said a National Park ranger about his work in Yellowstone National Park in the winter where you can totally escape any presence of humanity except the snowmobile you need to get there, but once there you are totally surrounded by everything but anything human.

This applies anywhere and everywhere to anyone and everyone, it only takes the presence of mind to see it and sense it. You can be standing in the middle of Times Square and say the same thing about being in the presence of something completely man-made.

It's just up to you then and there.

If you try

"You can't always get what you want,
  but if you try sometimes, you just might
  find you get what you need."
                         - Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

Self and God

Believing in a God, or the God if you want, because you don't believe in yourself won't solve your problems, and will only transfer the answers from yourself to some false imaginary prophet who will only keep you from dealing with the real issue and problem, yourself.

Believe in yourself and you will be stronger than any ideas a God can provide.

Do Not Mistake

Do not mistake discussion for answers,

answers for solutions,

solutions for decisions,

and decisions for action.

Random Chance

Our individual life, our own existence, is random chance. The series of random events which gave birth to us as an individual, a person to live, hopefully, as best we can. The results of our efforts is the result of ourself, the times we live in and the experience we face and then act.

Our life could have been at any time and place in history, and it is only random chance that it occurred when it did, and the real question each of us must answer is what we do with our life, those moments we have. What do we think and feel. What do we decide. And what do we actually do.

And that isn't random chance. We are here by random chance but we don't act randomly or by chance, and we will depart this life by random chance. It's what in between life and death that makes the difference.

Everything else is random chance.

Life and Death

Death is the given, life is the option, and living is the choice.

Changes

It's the lesson about anything and everything in life found in the adage,

"Nothing changed and everything changed."

If nothing changed, how did everything change? If everything changed, how did nothing change?

Sometimes the lesson isn't what happened but what changed to cause it to happen, what changed when it happened, and what changed after it happened. 

If events cause change and change initiates events are events and changes the same? Or can we really  tell and know?

Work & Being

Remember, work is what you do, not who you are.

Verse One

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal Tao.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations.
These two spring from the same sources but differ in name;
      this appears ad darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

Tao Te Ching

This is the book I use for the Tao Te Ching and where I will post the verses from in the blog, along with occasional quotes or descriptions found in the book.

There are many translations of the Tao Te Ching by equally many scholars of Taoism, and they all seem to differ in the verses and words in the verse.

This means you can pick and choose which suits you and your interests in the Tao. But as they say, reading it is one thing, understanding it another and living it even harder.

It's the reality of the world we live in, which makes even trying better than nothing, and success is always relative.

The World

The world is what we know of it and what we make of it.

A Good Rule

A good rule has to be simple but flexible, but not too flexible to create more exceptions than compliance. A good rule has to have a provision to change and even abolish itself if it no longer fits or works. A good rule is universal but adabtable for nuisance.

A good rule lives but is not rigid in its ideology, values, or application. A good rule never needs explanation, reasons or excuses as it is self-evident and self-explanatory. A good rule is what it is, good and something to live by.

The Wisest Man

It's thought the wisest man is a homeless man for he knows what it's like to live without any possessions to burden one's desire for weath, he knows the indifference of the many who pass him by or the hate of those who speak to him in degrading terms, and he knows the charity of those who act out of compassion.

He is the wisest man for he knows the depth of the worst a man can be and be treated and knows the potential a man can achieve without the worry and burden. He is his own man unburdened by society's demands, unhindered by its norms, and unfettered by its values. Despite the life of the homeless man, he might be the wisest of men.

Character

The character of a person's thinking isn't the answers they give but the questions they ask.

Explanations

An explanation serves little purpose other than to give the person the appearance of a reason or an excuse, and only serves to make the person feel better when said but never answers any questions.

Noise

The quieter the sound the louder the noise. Silence isn't the absence of sound, but the overwhelming noise of oneself.