Wow! Thanks for the link to the interview with astronomer, Michelle Thaller. So happy she ignores the choice of many of her colleagues to just "shut up and calculate".
A stripped-back zen, for me, comes closest to clear seeing...
It is, to me, clear that our dissatisfaction is heightened by fixating on our thoughts and reacting to the resulting story as though it were a statement of fact.
However, the ability to think in the abstract is also advantageous to us as humans....
In any event, there's nothing we can do to prevent this process from happening - it's just how our brains function. Like it or not.
So, yes, when we use specific terms to describe how we interpret reality, or say that love underlies it...we have already strayed into the story - which is inevitable. It's just helpful to notice when it's happening.🫶🈚️
so glad you mentioned, several times, "tired". the whole process of wanting, clinging, seeeking is exhausting. if we live long enough, we may be given the gift of relaxing into the herenow. thanks joan. i hope your recovery continues well. and thank you for that inspiring painting.
Bit of a random association, but I'm reminded of the so-called "hard problem of consciousness" and the scientist who continue to cling to the notion that "if we just keep digging, we'll eventually figure out how consciousness emerges from 'matter'".
Deep gratitude, Joan, for your unrelenting, full-on honesty and crystal clear contributions to my self-improvement journey. 😉
Really enjoyed this, Joan. I especially appreciated your resistance to turning spirituality into another self-improvement project. The simplicity of just being this moment as it is, without trying to convert it into attainment or cure, feels clear, grounded, and refreshing. Thank you for putting it so plainly.🙏🙏🙏
A far cry from the numerous charlatans "peddling" their spiritual cures for the army of seekers whose real objective is the desire for all the consequences of life which don't suit them to be magically taken away.
I am so grateful that you are doing better after surgery. Reading this, I was right with you every step - until you said our actions "are a choiceless happening of the whole universe." How could I possibly know that? I can see that it is choiceless, but beyond that I simply don't know. I also don't know that there is "a bigger picture, the wholeness of being, seeing that we are not separate." I just experience what I experience, and that is sufficient—it has to be. No need to add the grasping for ground - imagining that I know something about the universe and how it is. I thought that was the point of the first part of the post.
I endeavor to stick with my own direct experience. I discovered the absence of choice by careful observation. The fact of a bigger picture beyond my own life, and the interdependence of everything, all seems obvious to me now. Science speaks of ecology and quantum entanglement. But in simply observing life as it is, it seems obvious. Maybe not immediately, since the conceptual grid of separation and solidity is so strong in us. But the more closely we look, the more obvious it becomes. I don't see this as some kind of solid ground, but more as the Buddhists do, as emptiness or groundlessness—the non-solidity, non-persistence, unresolvability and ungraspability of anything and everything. However, I take your point that making any kind of statement is potentially doing the very thing I was questioning. And anything I say might be wrong. Cluelessness is certainly the bottom line, and yet, we're not other than this whole universe. But if it isn't your experience, I would never want you to adopt it. And I appreciate your questioning of it. 🙏
...and it is exactly this perspective that makes your writing so attractive and valuable, in my view Joan - an uncommon open-heartedness. Go well mate. 🫶🈚️
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Yes, it is very tempting to draw conclusions from our experience—that's all we have to go on. But it's essential to remember that not everyone's experience is the same - so even close observation may not lead to the same conclusions. Our conclusions are as groundless as our experience. I greatly value your writings and observations—and find some of your assertions somewhat inconsistent.
Well, consistency has never been my strong point. Someone once said that consistency is the mark of a petty mind, or something to that effect. And Whitman: I contain multitudes. Since being home from the hospital, I read a beautiful memoir by the Catholic writer Jim Finley that touched me very, very deeply. And it's all about God, to which I seem able to also relate. I watched many videos of him as well, and totally resonated. So...consistency is not my thing. I dance between different perspectives and experiences, my mind changes many times, and in one article I'll write about God and in the next I sound more like Robert Saltzman. Alas, this seems to be how "Joan" is. Variable, shifting sands. Unpindownable. And yet, I do find some consistent threads in my work, perhaps especially the simplicity of being just this moment, as it is.
Thanks for this, Joan. I am recently diagnosed autistic with ADHD traits. I have spend my adult lifetime going from one ‘spiritual’ group/practice/philosophy to another as my hyper-fixation on one is sooner or later overtaken by the next. It’s exhausting and I am often very ( and obviously unfairly) frustrated with myself for being unable to really ground myself in one place. And yet here I am. It often makes me feel sad. So reading this today when these feelings are acutely present for me is helpful. There is something so obviously good about simply being with what is and not trying to gild that lily by making it into something ‘special’ or adding layers of intellectual conjecture to it, exciting as that can be sometimes. So I’m inspired to read this today. Thank you.
It’s all so easy. Well maybe for a few seconds. 😊😏😔Thankyou yet again Joan I would enjoy being adjoining waves in that endless ocean. Love Mike
We already always are inseparable waves. I was listening last night to an astronomer talking about quantum entanglement: https://youtu.be/RGbZsE7qFgw
Wow! Thanks for the link to the interview with astronomer, Michelle Thaller. So happy she ignores the choice of many of her colleagues to just "shut up and calculate".
"Not this, not that"...Great doubt.
A stripped-back zen, for me, comes closest to clear seeing...
It is, to me, clear that our dissatisfaction is heightened by fixating on our thoughts and reacting to the resulting story as though it were a statement of fact.
However, the ability to think in the abstract is also advantageous to us as humans....
In any event, there's nothing we can do to prevent this process from happening - it's just how our brains function. Like it or not.
So, yes, when we use specific terms to describe how we interpret reality, or say that love underlies it...we have already strayed into the story - which is inevitable. It's just helpful to notice when it's happening.🫶🈚️
Joan. Thank you. You have nailed it. Again!!
I hope that you are recovering well following your recent hospital admission.
So beautiful! and those 2 quotes you shared as so beautiful too. I love your writing, Joan. Thank you for sending these out so regularly.
I love that. Thank you! Hoping you’re enjoying your recovery🙌🏻
so glad you mentioned, several times, "tired". the whole process of wanting, clinging, seeeking is exhausting. if we live long enough, we may be given the gift of relaxing into the herenow. thanks joan. i hope your recovery continues well. and thank you for that inspiring painting.
If you mean the image at the beginning, it's a photograph, not a painting. It's by David Williams, a Scottish photographer.
ooops, yes, photographer! i checked out his website...wonder-full.
Bit of a random association, but I'm reminded of the so-called "hard problem of consciousness" and the scientist who continue to cling to the notion that "if we just keep digging, we'll eventually figure out how consciousness emerges from 'matter'".
Deep gratitude, Joan, for your unrelenting, full-on honesty and crystal clear contributions to my self-improvement journey. 😉
😎
Really enjoyed this, Joan. I especially appreciated your resistance to turning spirituality into another self-improvement project. The simplicity of just being this moment as it is, without trying to convert it into attainment or cure, feels clear, grounded, and refreshing. Thank you for putting it so plainly.🙏🙏🙏
🙏 Wishing you continued healing and health Joan!
Great stuff Joan. Telling it like it is.
A far cry from the numerous charlatans "peddling" their spiritual cures for the army of seekers whose real objective is the desire for all the consequences of life which don't suit them to be magically taken away.
To quibble a bit, they're not all charlatans - many have wholesome, if misguided, intentions. just sayin...
Refreshing and lovely - thank you!!
I am so grateful that you are doing better after surgery. Reading this, I was right with you every step - until you said our actions "are a choiceless happening of the whole universe." How could I possibly know that? I can see that it is choiceless, but beyond that I simply don't know. I also don't know that there is "a bigger picture, the wholeness of being, seeing that we are not separate." I just experience what I experience, and that is sufficient—it has to be. No need to add the grasping for ground - imagining that I know something about the universe and how it is. I thought that was the point of the first part of the post.
And there you go! What a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to conceive (use words).
I endeavor to stick with my own direct experience. I discovered the absence of choice by careful observation. The fact of a bigger picture beyond my own life, and the interdependence of everything, all seems obvious to me now. Science speaks of ecology and quantum entanglement. But in simply observing life as it is, it seems obvious. Maybe not immediately, since the conceptual grid of separation and solidity is so strong in us. But the more closely we look, the more obvious it becomes. I don't see this as some kind of solid ground, but more as the Buddhists do, as emptiness or groundlessness—the non-solidity, non-persistence, unresolvability and ungraspability of anything and everything. However, I take your point that making any kind of statement is potentially doing the very thing I was questioning. And anything I say might be wrong. Cluelessness is certainly the bottom line, and yet, we're not other than this whole universe. But if it isn't your experience, I would never want you to adopt it. And I appreciate your questioning of it. 🙏
...and it is exactly this perspective that makes your writing so attractive and valuable, in my view Joan - an uncommon open-heartedness. Go well mate. 🫶🈚️
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Yes, it is very tempting to draw conclusions from our experience—that's all we have to go on. But it's essential to remember that not everyone's experience is the same - so even close observation may not lead to the same conclusions. Our conclusions are as groundless as our experience. I greatly value your writings and observations—and find some of your assertions somewhat inconsistent.
Well, consistency has never been my strong point. Someone once said that consistency is the mark of a petty mind, or something to that effect. And Whitman: I contain multitudes. Since being home from the hospital, I read a beautiful memoir by the Catholic writer Jim Finley that touched me very, very deeply. And it's all about God, to which I seem able to also relate. I watched many videos of him as well, and totally resonated. So...consistency is not my thing. I dance between different perspectives and experiences, my mind changes many times, and in one article I'll write about God and in the next I sound more like Robert Saltzman. Alas, this seems to be how "Joan" is. Variable, shifting sands. Unpindownable. And yet, I do find some consistent threads in my work, perhaps especially the simplicity of being just this moment, as it is.
Thanks for this, Joan. I am recently diagnosed autistic with ADHD traits. I have spend my adult lifetime going from one ‘spiritual’ group/practice/philosophy to another as my hyper-fixation on one is sooner or later overtaken by the next. It’s exhausting and I am often very ( and obviously unfairly) frustrated with myself for being unable to really ground myself in one place. And yet here I am. It often makes me feel sad. So reading this today when these feelings are acutely present for me is helpful. There is something so obviously good about simply being with what is and not trying to gild that lily by making it into something ‘special’ or adding layers of intellectual conjecture to it, exciting as that can be sometimes. So I’m inspired to read this today. Thank you.
Thank you for this – just the reminder I needed it this morning!
I love your beautiful reminders❤️
Good one! Thanks Joan.
Thank you Joan. This morning I was listening to the Allen Watts podcast and he was talking about the Tao. Same same.