Friday, September 2, 2011

Perceptions

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed. - Blase Pascal
That's the opening quote in a book I am just starting, Incognito by David Eagleman. The book was recommended to me by a friend and I can already see it is my kind of book. The quote says so much.

Our inability to see the nothingness as well as the infinity seems to play a significant role in our tendency to hang on to ideas that have nothing to do with anything other than they keep us 'safe' from what is.

We define ourselves and our world with thoughts about who and what we think we are, trying desperately to convince ourselves of the veracity of these thoughts, yet knowing deep within that they are simply fleeting, ephemeral ideas floating in the sea of infinity.

Thoughts come and go, as do these bodies we temporarily inhabit, so clearly they cannot be what we are. In truth, I am unable to comprehend what I am. I can only play with the thoughts that seem to be inherent in this life expression and rest in the infinite nothingness from which they emerge.

All the busy-ness of this mind and the world has no meaning other than that which is perceived within the limitation of mind itself.

So why hang on so tightly to that which has no substance? Why not simply dance with ideas, take them for a turn around the dance floor and release them. There's always another coming our way.

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