Hades Throne Room
Moment To Moment
Life really lives only for a moment – then we die. We believe that we live scores of years but actually it’s really just for “a moment”, then maybe another and so on. All that really supports our supposed “life” and its continuity are memory traces or audio tracks and photo images of past dead moments. Moment to moment – is really all there is. Everything else is just a mélange of thin and faded memory traces supporting the “reality” of a life within this daydream. Moment-to-moment. It’s all we really have.
Futility?
What if a green blade of grass and a luscious ripe peach dangling from a branch, suddenly became conscious and self-reflective? There’s a good chance that they both might take a good look at their circumstance and utter the very same chagrined phrase; “the utter futility of my life!” For, what is their destiny? The blade of grass will grow up as one indistinguishable tiny stalk among billions of other almost identical forms, and then will be trampled, sliced by a mowing machine, or grazed upon by a cow. As for the peach, a similar fate, as the flesh becomes ripe and sweet, it might be plucked by human hands, pecked by scavenging animals, or ignored and slowly rot until the shriveled remains eventually drop to the ground. Both, however, have an important part to play, and neither complains as they silently accept their lives and participation in the larger process. Within this “natural perspective”, any thought that what happens to various participants might be somehow pathetic transforms into an appreciation of the grand wholeness of the mystery of life. The utter pathetic, futility of it all! Yet, to realize this is also to realize that you don’t have to “save the world” or anybody else for that matter. You’re suddenly off the hook! What a tremendous relief it is, not “being responsible!” This means that you can simply putter along as you are without guilt because you realize that you did not make this world, you did not create yourself, and you can’t even control your individual reality. You’re no longer responsible! You are simply a tiny bubble in the great circulating cauldron of life. Enjoy the “utter futility” of it all, because it can be wonderfully liberating.
The Dance
An interchangeable dance of energy and mass — “elan vital” is the life energy that animates form. When it departs, form collapses and disintegrates, eventually becoming recaptured and reused when the life energy again sweeps through. It’s the kaleidoscope of life twisting through all possible permutations of creative arrangement and activity. Everything must be tried and played out in this cycling of evolution where nothing is ever perfect, fixed or completed. “Arise and collapse” is the way of life, the way of nature. Thank you Heraclitus.
Violence
Violence is an acceleration of life, similar to fire as rapid oxygenation. Both result in transformations. Devastating fire and the possibility of Phoenix rising exemplify the mythic need for humiliation and destruction to activate a transformation. For if the annihilation is not consuming, the new life may be contaminated by remnants of the old (rage and revenge as wildfire).
Expendable
Do you realize how quickly you’ll be forgotten? Think of your relatives, the successful ones and how important they were to you at one point and how they’ve now faded into a dim wisp of recollection. What if they had never been born? Would it have really made any difference to the world? And if you had never been born? Is there anybody or anything really necessary and not expendable in this world? Tell me, who or what is so important to life? How about you?
Forces in Our Life
When we activate forces in our life we can never control or predict the outcome – being a good surfer is the best we can do, riding the waves of change. ‘The best laid plans’ – War, relationship, business, projects, travel – we must always be ready for the constantly unfolding surprise. Opening Pandora’s box – the Furies will fly regardless.
Doing Just Fine
The greatest possibility offered to youth is that if they have vision, discipline and adequate scholastic preparation, they can “change the world.” But why would anyone want to do that? With just a little serious thought and observation it should become obvious that the world is constantly changing all by itself. Does it really need help from you? I think if it does, then it will ask and you will be enlisted; but it is highly doubtful that any of your “goody” ideas to make it “a better place” will be met with much enthusiasm. Why not relax and give up feeling so personally responsible for the current state of affairs? You are not responsible or expected to try and run things, you know. The world begot you and it will be finished with you quite soon enough. Remember that it has gotten along quite nicely without your help for the last 30 billion years, thank you very much. So relax and try to enjoy a bit of your oh-so-brief sojourn on this planet. It will still be here and doing just fine long after you are gone.
To Mean or Not to Mean
The need to find the meaning of life — why is it so important? Meaning is what, for most people, seems to make life worth living. Without meaning, we have difficulty justifying the continuation of an “empty” and “useless” life. A life without hope and meaning seems to be not worth living; but what is really lost? Control primarily, the need to believe that life is coherent and sensible, and that we are important and vital to the process. We need to know that there is a design and that we have a place within its unfolding. Without this meaningful control we are thrown into not-knowing — and where will that nihilistic surrender transport us? Into madness, suicide, psychic collapse? Possibly; but possibly also to a place of amazing acceptance, freedom, and appreciation for life just as it is — whatever or however it may appear. Shakespeare said it best in MacBeth: “life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.” It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!
A Better Life
You, my friend, have traveled the world to Morocco, Antarctica, and Tonga, among other places. You own an apartment in Paris and several houses in the states. You’re well educated and have run several businesses. You’re an airplane pilot and racecar driver. I, on the other hand, have never left my hometown in New Mexico, except once to take the bus to Albuquerque. When I finished high school, I got a job in the post office, where I still work today. I drive a rusted ’64 Dodge Dart. You’ve been married to several beautiful women and have a couple of great kids; you’ve made millions and only lost a few. I lived with my mother until she died last year and now live alone. I don’t read much, but love to watch TV. I manage somehow. So, I got to wondering the other day, thinking about the two of us. Do you think that your life has really turned out better than mine? It does make you wonder…
You’ve Finally Got It!
You’ve finally got it — the clarity, the understanding. Life and the whole world suddenly make sense. You’re enlightened, and you know it! Now you can share your insights, become a teacher, gather students. Sorry, not yet. All you’ve got is a big dose of hubris and ego inflation. You’re more stuck than you could ever imagine because “you believe” and are now simply blinded. Oh well, back to the kindergarten.
