You and I don’t know what we are. Don’t know how we got here nor where we’re off to next. Yet we are forever tossing around our opinions about this, that, everything.
Look at the world news. Fear dominates, all of humankind paralyzed by the idea they’ll come down with COVID, become seriously ill, die. Meanwhile, social unrest grips the U.S. Countless people are either trying to rewrite history or blasting those who are.
None of these people know anything. Literally nothing. And none are getting out of this thing alive.
But that doesn’t stop any of them from going on and on and on about what is right, what is wrong, what must be done to rectify things. Some harken back to ‘good old days’ that never actually existed. Others pine for a magical future that also will never exist.
The other day I asked my son, “What would life be like if COVID suddenly disappeared and all races got along magically?” He reflected for a moment and said, “They’d bitch and moan about something else.”
You’re probably nodding along with this. Hopefully because you recognize, not that others will do this, but because you will.
Robert Adams: “Think of how opinionated you are right now. You have your ways. You have your ideas, your opinions. You stick up for your rights. What rights? You’re simply sticking up for your ego. You want the world to know this is me, and you’re making a big mistake, because you’re inflating the ego. The ego gets bigger and bigger and you think you’re more important than anyone else.”
I’ve received many gifts from the so-called spiritual journey, one of the most important is a small dose of humility. I say small because the ‘me’ keeps crashing the party, keeps insisting it has something to say (like this blog, which is becoming more and more difficult to write).
I know nothing about anything. I don’t even know HOW I know nothing about nothing (i.e. the very process of thought and awareness of thought and making sense of thought are mysteries). I don’t know why my hair grows or stops growing, why weird little moles pop up and some eventually will turn cancerous, or how the hell the ‘blind’ green beans in my garden know to find and grab hold of the bamboo teepees I built for them and start their inexorable climb toward the sun.
It’s ALL a miracle. But we goofy, ignorant, self-absorbed humans ruin it by racing around posturing and prancing and shouting about who we are and what we want and what we stand for and what we’ll no longer stand for. And if people don’t listen, well then we riot and burn, we shoot and kill, we invade and conquer. It’s what humans have always done. And always will do. At least if history is any guide.
I’ve got some news for my fellow humans: the universe doesn’t give a shit about you or your demands. It is utterly, beautifully indifferent. When ‘you’ die you will melt back into the fabric of space and time and energy, your cells or whatever repurposed for something else (hopefully something a lot more important like an oak tree or a dolphin).
So if I can offer any advice, it would be this: shut up. Literally shut your pie hole. Observe, watch, listen, surrender to whatever intelligence put you here, ask for help, get on your knees and humble yourself.
These days when I take my walks with the dog I find myself marveling at everything – simple pieces of quartz or granite, scraggly weeds and gorgeous wildflowers, the ticks that always find their way to my legs, and the trees quietly swaying and whispering to each other in the wind above my head.
Let’s all stop taking ourselves so seriously and be grateful for whatever this existence is, regardless of how crappy it might seem. If we’re here for any reason at all, says Adams, it’s to wake up to what we really are. And we’ll never do that if we keep running our mouths about a me we know nothing about.
