April 9, 2009
- When your aim is for a certain level of perfection -
and you make a mistake that you refuse to acknowledge, the universe will hold you in place until you recognize that the mistake was yours. No matter how small (or large) it might have been.
Because that’s what you’d asked it to do…
From Rumi:
Never lose hope
if the Beloved pushes you away,
if He shuts the door on you, don’t go,
be patient and wait!
It is your patience that will
draw him back.
If he blocks all your roads,
be sure
He will show you a secret way
unknown to others.
the universe will hold you in place until you recognize that the mistake was yours – this is the most profound understanding and explanation of human experience as I understand it. It just wont go away, wont go away, wont go away, until… you learn what the message is. And if you hang up the phone before the message is finished, it wont go away, it wont go away, it wont go away…
And there really is no alternative :-)
Comment by Pavel — April 10, 2009 @ 9:39 am
Thanks Pavel!
If the universe desperately wants to be happy through us (and why wouldn’t it? we’re pretty great creations.) why wouldn’t it keep showing us what we’re doing wrong? There’s no other game in town, but we’re still free not to play if we don’t want to.
Comment by Ian — April 10, 2009 @ 10:26 am
I go through this same thing all the time and it makes me angry. I get angry before I get despondent or depressed. I get depressed too though eventually.
I want there to be a personal force of the Universe sometimes and other times I just want there to be me and my own free will.
Comment by Ted — April 10, 2009 @ 6:25 pm
Ted, at this point, I’m not sure if there’s ever been any difference between those two things… I think it’s that same interpenetration you were talking about on your blog…
Comment by Ian — April 11, 2009 @ 10:52 am
I should get a blog just for writing about weird personal struggles and stuff. Spiritual type stuff.
But anyway, this Pisses me off:
“Just do what you feel you must do. Do it the best you can and trust that you’ll be looked after. Believe me, it’s true. I’m an old man, and I’m not in the habit of giving irresponsible advice.” Six months later I quit my job in an advertising agency and have been gainfully unemployed since!
That’s a quote from Buckminster Fuller to this Magic River on RBF
It really doesn’t seem to be the way things have been working out in my life lately. Seems like a crock. Or maybe its one of those things where you have to take really dangerous risks and then you will be provided for at the last minute. If that’s true whats the point of that? Why all the tests?
The opposite perspective is a cold unfeeling universe and the need to look out for yourself because no one else will. I think that leads to Malthusianism and fear of scarcity and the dog eat dog mindset.
Comment by Ted — April 11, 2009 @ 11:01 am
I know what you mean, Ted. It’s not an easy thing to struggle with this kind of stuff, and it’s probably not supposed to be. I think the key to what Bucky’s saying there is the “must”. He doesn’t use “should” and he doesn’t use “want”, he uses “must. But “must” is actually a pretty hard thing to define.
It’s a great article though, thanks for the link.
Some key things I got from it:
“I hope you don’t succumb to disappointment. These things take time. Right now we can only try to cushion the impact.”
as Bucky pointed out, these Great Pirates (his name for the fortune-hunting, empire-building colonizers who have shaped the course of recent centuries) produced global navigation maps and introduced the concept of a continent- and culture-bridging spherical world through purely selfish, greedy motives.
Bucky pointed out was that no true scientist will ever describe anything as a “mistake.” In experimental procedure, all results lead to deeper understanding, whether “positive,” “negative,” or “ambivalent.”
Comment by Ian — April 11, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
Yeah,
I love that article too. I love Bucky. Well, I think about “what you must do” he describes elsewhere that its related to things you were curious about as a kid. I really don’t think I am confused about what I must do.
It just doesn’t look like the universe is coming through for me. Or maybe its just me being scared it won’t.
Comment by Ted — April 11, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
Dunno Ted, but good luck nonetheless!
Comment by Ian — April 11, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
In 2003 I quit work to spend six months writing a book (cos I heard Terry Pratchett say that, if you can write two pages a day, it only takes six months to write a book). Then I went and got another job… and spent eighteen months in the Abyss. Then at the end I met a teacher who in three days pointed me on the right road. Strange days.
Comment by speedbird — April 14, 2009 @ 3:31 am
Sometimes, that’s exactly what it takes. Abyss, dark night, conscious suffering whatever you want to call it, there’s a place for that too, I think.
speedbird, just curious, what kind of teacher did you find? No need to give any answer whatsoever, just if you happen to be so inclined. :)
Comment by Ian — April 14, 2009 @ 9:49 am
Got sent on a three-day training course from work. I have to say I was very suspicious. But they guy in charge turned out to be into all sorts of interesting stuff. It was nominally on the subject of ‘Transactional Analysis’, which is basically about how to consciously get on with people, and is a very interesting take on the subject; but we ended up talking about hypnosis and seeing ghosts and drug-induced states and all sorts. All relevant to the subject, as it turned out.
They say when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I guess it was one of those things.
Comment by speedbird — April 14, 2009 @ 11:35 am
Yeah, maybe I was in an abyss. I don’t know. Not that things are any better, but I feel better. Its just that I hate working for other people but don’t know how to work for myself yet and make money.
I figure I can either work two jobs (one for myself one for somebody else) and not let working for myself remain forever a non money making hobby, or else….I don’t know what…These magic things that supposedly happen to people by btaking a bold leap of faith haven’t happened to me yet.
Comment by Ted — April 14, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Well, there’s also the bible story of Jesus being tempted in the desert, by Satan, where Satan tells him to jump off the roof of the temple so that God will prove Jesus’ messiahood by saving him. Jesus says, “you shall not attempt the lord your god”.
So maybe that’s more relevant for you, Ted? Dunno… Maybe there are different leaps that need to be made, or maybe you need to find someone to act as a teacher for you (it’s a role the other person agrees to take on for you, not any acknowledgment that they are inherently better than you), like speedbird talks about.
Or maybe these things just take time. What exactly are you expecting the universe to come out and do for you?
And speedbird, it’s really weird you mention Transactional Analysis. I’d never heard of it before this morning, when I found a link to this from the latest incarnation of Tim Boucher’s research blog… Will need to look more into TA I guess!
Thanks for sharing, it sounds really interesting. And “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” is damn true, but it sucks before it happens.
Comment by Ian — April 14, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
I would like the Universe to help me be my own boss and make a living with my creativity.
Comment by Ted — April 14, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
Well, if you’re trying a certain plan of action and it’s not working, maybe ask the universe to show you why not or what is getting in the way…?
Comment by Ian — April 14, 2009 @ 2:56 pm
I sorta did. Do you know much about runes? It looks like a positive reading. I did a diamond spread and got this:
perth
ansuz/uruz
inguz
Comment by Ted — April 14, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
Looks promising, but perhaps you will have to struggle with your mouth/messagebefore you can uncover the secret of inner transformation…
:)
Comment by Ian — April 14, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
ansuz wasn’t inverted though…
Comment by Ted — April 14, 2009 @ 3:35 pm
Yeah, but ansuz just means mouth/message.
It was next to uruz, hence the struggle (the whole “right of passage” idea)
Comment by Ian — April 14, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
> I hate working for other people but don’t know how to work for myself yet
Well, I came to the conclusion that a job has to have intrinsic value. It has to have value of itself. If you’re just working to get money so you can do something else with it that isn’t work, that doesn’t work. Better to have a job that you can scrape by on, that when you’re doing it it feels like the right thing to be doing.
*
TA is pretty cool. There’s a fair amount of BS talked about it, but I reckon I saw some of the real deal on my own trip.
Comment by speedbird — April 14, 2009 @ 6:35 pm