I have a few mental maps about existence.
One is of all as Spirit, the divine, taking all the forms of existence.
One is of this universe as a seamless whole, unfolding and taking all kinds of local and temporary forms, including us and our experience1.
And another is what can be described as neutrality.
NEUTRALITY
If all is Spirit, or the universe, or Existence, taking all these forms, if all is a seamless evolving whole, then the local and temporary forms are, in a sense, inherently neutral.
Also, if there is something that moves through many incarnations2, that something experiences just about everything living beings can experience. It’s all part of a much larger tapestry. That too makes it all, in a sense, neutral.
It’s all local and temporary expressions of Existence as a whole, and it’s all threads in an infinitely rich tapestry.
ENGAGEMENT
At the same time, it’s also not neutral in the sense that it doesn’t matter what happens.
It does. To our human self, what happens definitely matters.
How we live our life, and the decisions we make, matters hugely to us, others, and the world.
To this human self, things matter. He values and feels passionate about certain things. And that’s worth living, loving, and sometimes fighting for.
MEDICINES FOR DIFFERENT CONDITIONS
These two views are medicines for different conditions.
The neutrality view helps me release some of my painful stories about what happens in my life and the world.
The engagement principle helps me stay engaged in life, and act on what matters to me.
Together, they help me live and hold my stories about it all a little more lightly.
IN MY LIFE
How does it look in my life?
A personal example:
Right now, I am in a phase with big changes – selling my childhood home, parents dying, starting a new life (?) in the Andes, and so on. It’s a time of reflection about my past, present, and future at a human level. With that comes, for instance, seeing when I acted on trauma patterns, which created loss and missed opportunities.
That brings up some remaining grief, although most of that grief was lived earlier in my life. At some level, I feel I made bad decisions. And yet, I also know I did the best I could at the time (if I hadn’t had those traumas, wounds, and painful beliefs, and if I had known and lived what I know and have lived, I would have made different and “better” choices.
I also know that everything – including what led me to those choices, and those choices themselves and living them – has infinite causes going back to the beginning of time (if there is any) and the widest extent of Existence (if there is a widest extent). It’s not personal. In this perspective, there is no room for anything personal. (Although it’s also profoundly personal, that’s the beauty of it.)
I viscerally get that it’s all the local and temporary expressions of the larger whole.
That’s the neutrality side of it. That’s where the neutrality view is medicine.
At the same time, I want to change those patterns in me. I am tired of acting on the same old trauma patterns that makes me lose what’s important to me before it’s time, or not seek out what’s important to me even if I can.
That’s the engagement side of it.
The world:
It’s similar when it comes to what’s happening with the world. The neutrality view helps me hold the collapse of ecosystems and the likely coming collapse of civilization more lightly. (Which is quite a feat and not always possible for me.)
The engagement view inspires and motivates me to protect our land in the Andes, put resources into our regeneration and food forest project, and connect with and learn from others doing the same, especially in the same area.
MIRRORS DIRECT NOTICING
This all mirrors direct noticing, although not of Existence as a whole!
It mirrors what’s here now.
What I am notices that the world, as it appears here, happens within and as awake space. It happens within and as the consciousness I am.
All content of experience is a seamless field, since it happens within and as what I am.
Any ideas about good or bad, and any ideas at all, are ideas. They are created by this human mind, colored by innumerable influences from culture and more.
That’s the immediate noticing, and it’s reflected in the maps and pointers I described above.
It’s reflected in the view of all as Spirit and systems views, it’s reflected in the neutrality view, and it’s even reflected in the engagement view since what I am is this human self too, and this human self and his life in the world matters.
NOTES
- All as Spirit is the larger view, and I also include the universe as a seamless evolving whole view since that’s part of it, and it’s more based in science and fits the worldview of more people today.
- If there is something that incarnates many times, and has many different kinds of lives both incarnated and not, then that’s not what we fundamentally or inherently are. That too happens within and as what we are. It all happens within and as the awake space we are, more fundamentally, to ourselves, and which forms itself into any and all experiences – including these many lives.