Is there anything in life which you

[The2ndWheel]

would like to see left to chance? Anything you'd like to see left to the unknown? The imagination? Or at this point, do we just continue to go all out to know and see what happens?

[bryant69]

1. Let the Mystery Be

Everybody's wondering what and where they all came from
Everybody's worrying 'bout where they're gonna go
When the whole thing's done
Nobody knows for certain,
And so it's all the same to me
I think i'll just let the mystery be

Some say once gone, you're gone forever
Some say you're gonna come back
Some say you rest in the arms of the savior
If in sinful ways you lack
Some say that they're comin' back in a garden
Bunch of carrots and little sweet peas
I think i'll just let the mystery be

Some say they're going to place called glory
And i ain't sayin' it ain't a fact
But i've heard that i'm on the road to purgatory
And i don't like the sound of that
I believe in love and i live my life accordingly
But i choose to let the mystery be

by Iris Dement, but also performed by 10,000 Maniacs with David Byrne.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Warpy]

2. It took me many years to get to the point

I am now, when I can wake up every morning and look at the immensity of the universe we live in, and say "Surprise me!"

One chichi shop I used to go to for cat box deodorant (incense) would have psychic readers from time to time. I don't think they quite understood why I'd just turn down free readings.

I really don't want to know. I don't want to control it. I want to be surprised.

[knowbody0]

3. I get a tickle in my tummy

when I wonder what's just outside our universe.

[Demeter]

4. The Weather--so long as no man can control it

It's when you are screwed over by your fellow human, be he friend, foe, or total stranger, that I want advance warning.

[jokerman93]

5. One of the most rewarding ways to live

Good question. Sometimes for me the answer would be - everything. Of course that's only sometimes. Usually I'm (a little) less bold than that. :-) But you raise an interesting point as a matter of principle.

Actually, I've come to believe one of the most rewarding ways to live is to walk out into the world and say "Yes!" to whatever comes. Running the rapids is dangerous any way you go at it, but ironically, relinquishing control as you run the channels gives you the best chance of surviving with a good story to tell over a beer or a bowlful later on. Will living like that make you a millionaire? Get you a fleet of SUVs and a sailboat? A lifelong vacation and a McMansion in a gated community? Probably not. But it might just bring you wisdom in the end.

Something about going where angels fear to tred...

Here in the West we fetishize these concepts of "knowing" and "control", as if life isn't possible without them. The fact is, these ideas aren't inherently necessary or even real. Knowing and control are features of a world view and ideology that represent the apotheosis of the ego. Capitalism, imperialism, proselytizing religions, warring belief systems, nationalism, the good ol' Protestant fallacy of striving and attainment, all seem to feature these concepts of certainty and control as absolutely essential for any kind of meaningful life. I call bullshit.

Try living without control long enough for the fear to run out. Long enough for that voice that says, "It isn't possible to live this way!" to grow quiet. This is unimaginable to those of us indoctrinated into an obsessive world view in which only certainty and goal oriented achievement can give life any meaning. Seems as though in a world view like the dominant one in our culture, mystery is minimized and there are only objects, functions and results left to pay attention to. Very Newtonian and mechanistic if you ask me.

I minored in Anthropology in college; interested in Shamanism and older, more mature cultures that feature relationships with the world that differ profoundly from our own. Traditional people would probably be baffled by our way of life, beliefs and system of values - all that insect-like "control" and cloying "certainty"! In fact, I think someone like Tony Robbins (I love picking on the poor guy as an icon of our culture's particular dysfunction - Mr. Success - the giant within! The infomercial!) would be regarded as insane and probably dangerous by many traditional people.

What if the universe actually has its own goals? What if what we think we "know" and "control" doesn't amount to anything at all in the end? Getting the ego out of the way utterly might mean being able to relinquish all claims to control and knowing. What if living without goals, if we had the stamina, brought us finally into a different flow of life altogether? Maybe living that way could bring us to a radically diiferent kind of stability, and way of experiencing life we could never anticipate; uncharted waters - i.e. everything else we'd never considered.

The place where the fun begins...

Lacan might call that "reality".

Living "in the Dao", like that would undoubtedly be dangerous. The "machine" of society is likely to take a big chunk out of anyone's ass who has the audacity to turn their back on all that exalted certainty. But what if giving up "knowing" and "control", and riding the rapids could bring us ultimately to understanding what "true" will is really all about?

Hey, anything's possible...

J

B-)

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