Inquiry: Stories have only temporary and practical value

Stories have only temporary and practical value. (Temporary, limited and practical value, appropriate to some situations and not other. This too can easily become a belief. What happens if it does?)

1. True?
   Well, I do take it as true sometimes. It is a convenient story, and I sometimes go to it without finding what may be more true for me.
2. Sure it is true?
   No. It is just another story.
3. What happens if I take it as true?
   • I see any particular story – at least consciously – as if it only have temporary, limited and practical value, helpful in some situations and not in other.
   • If I take this story as true, I make it right and opposing or diverging stories wrong. I tell myself I am right and others don’t get it. I get arrogant.
   • I limit reality (in my mind) by this story, and limit what I can perceive and the ways I can act. I create another prison for myself.
   • I make the story into a should, and when reality won’t comply (which is inevitable), I create stress for myself.
   • When did I first have that belief? Well, the story came up during the initial awakening at 16. I have probably made it into a belief at different times since then.
4. Who would I be without it?
   • Open. Here now. Receptive. Curious.
   • Interested in the truth in this story, its reversals, and other stories on the same topic.
5. Turnarounds.
   • Stories have not only temporary and practical value.
     • No. Stories do much more. They create a whole world for us, especially when we take them as true. They filter the world, and the way the world if filtered is very different depending on the particular stories. They create a richness and diversity of experience. They help us appreciate existence in different ways, depending on the particlar stories we hold as true or use as guides. (Which in turn comes from and reflect individual experience, family, education, culture, subculture, history, biology, evolutionary history, the characteristics of this planet, solar system and universe, etc.)
     • Stories filter and create a richness of experience, which goes far beyond the practical.
   • Stories have eternal value.
     • Well, in the sense that the same stories tend to filter the world in the same way.
     • Also, in that taking a story as true creates the general symptoms of taking a story as true.
     • And finally, some stories may help us notice what we really are if we are, indpendent of our particular situation. (At least if we have the cognitive structures needed to grasp the guidance and investigate for ourselves.)
   • Stories are impractical.
     • Yes, if we get too caught up in them. If we forget they are tools, guides for attention and action.