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Michael's
Mixt!
Michael
is a freelance contributor. The
opinions expressed here are his
own and do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of
insidecostarica.com.
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IS ANYTHING EVER AS IT SEEMS?
By Michael Jean Nystrom-Schut
(This is the introduction to a year 2000 book called KEEPING IT REAL IN AN UNREAL WORLD: Staying as real as possible in a world of illusion.)
One
Is anything ever as it seems?
In this twisting, turning world of half-illusion, we probably are doing well when we try and keep our perceptions and experiences as real as we possibly can.
Or do we?
In reality, life is a series of dark caves, and we are (metaphorically) like groping cave walkers, with only flickering flames or fading flashlights to guide us along our bleary way.
It's already tricky business to negotiate a rendition of reality in even a few scattered aspects of our lives, so doing what we can to stay real, and depicting as many accurate images of life as we realistically can, are fairly certain to be helpful matters along the way as we go…aren't they?
During the vast majority of our participation in what we might easily call the great illusion of life, we seem to be always coming to know that what we thought we were seeing, we weren't really seeing after all. Our realities call for constant re-vision, and the same holds true for our other senses as well - what we merely think we hear, smell, touch, taste…it's not true, we're really not.
It turns out that so much is being filtered through the subjectivity of our minds and of our personalities. In reality, the whole set of processes is just one individual "take" on the matter.
How can we be so sure that it is as we have concluded? Our egos are stubborn about what we think it all means, but deep within us we sometimes catch glimpses of knowing better.
Does that make sense at all?
From a profound space within us, once in a while, at least, we get to see through the charade, and embrace the superfluous nature of our common existence.
Life, by that nature of being such an illusory guessing game, keeps us continually in the shadow of doubt. While on an ongoing basis we are revising what our current reality is from what we had previously thought it was, and this turns out to be something required of us to do, otherwise we get caught up in a previous time and space, and get even more out of touch with all that transpires around us.
The (veiled) truth in the matter remains that in the minute we settle into one particular viewpoint, or "reality," another cognitive counter-force presents itself as being still more of the real thing.
So we promptly switch to that newer impression, and we are quite normal to abandon the old illusion, and gravitate towards what we consider a newer, clearer reality.
This happens at least until that one begins to erode…in favor of yet something else.
Follow me?
Frustrating?
No, not at all…its just part of how life works, and there need be nothing frustrating at all about that.
Life is life.
Isn't it?
What is going on here does not necessarily constitute a good thing, nor it is of course a bad thing. It's all just our reality unfolding, and getting busy at the work of unraveling.
Life turns out to be a matrix of juxtaposing realities, whether we ever see this clearly, or not.
The continual and perpetual state of flux and change that goes on in our lives is also going on all over the universe at all times. Nothing is standing still; nothing is remaining constant. Thus, we are right to conclude with the question of whether anything is really ever as it seems, and also to wonder if what we merely think we see, hear, touch, smell, know (and on and on and on endlessly) is not that after all.
All of this is what we know as the intricacy of the weaving web of our lives, and all of it is very much okay.
There is no reason to become confused or bewildered about life. Life is a confusing, bewildering thing, if you really think about it, that is, so usually we just don't think about it.
But that doesn't satisfy our curiosities not to think about it.
We are wise to strive to see the clarity nestled away in the Whole of life, and that the people and places and things we encounter in the wonderful adventures of our lives are very different than we might first imagine, and changing all the while still.
Part of the great voyage of our mortal escapade is experiencing the continual delight of seeing that what we thought it was, after all was said and done, turned out not to be it at all.
Read that again, please.
See if it makes more sense the second time around.
So…as we become comfortable with that which, by its nature, is not really very comfortable, we grow more and more…comfortable with it.
The bewilderment and confusion of things not being what they seem to be is something of which we can reconcile. It's essentially a matter of accepting the idea to do so, and then practicing the doing of it.
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