This used to be a favourite question of mine when working with law firms.
The partners, who had hired me, were always looking for answers to the most obvious things; I wasn’t.
As you can probably guess, my tenure was often short.
But what about life?
What of it?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
We arrived here unbidden, told remorselessly what to do and, at some stage, by dint of our conditioning (parents, teachers and the whole damn world), we started to see the world through a faux mask, namely, we used language to create images but we also created a story inside our head.
That damn thinking mind.
Not for everyone I’m sure (I wouldn’t know in any event ) but life, as we get older, takes on a quality whereby unless we’re doing, achieving and working towards something we slump or are sullen or worse still, depressed.
In short, we have to be distracted not to notice how little is actually going on.
It’s no wonder then that once we’ve climbed a few wrong ladders, we start seeking salvation, enlightenment or someone or something that can save us.
But again, what’s missing?
A more perfect life?
Happiness? (When is enough, enough?)
Status?
Peace?
Silence?
Equanimity?
In case it’s not already obvious, and I’m sorry to disappoint you, these don’t exist other than in the trail of corrupt thinking, which is no more than a product of our memory. Think about it like this. If the thoughts inside your head were streamed to you or came upon you in a foreign tongue a) you wouldn’t be able to understand them and b) you’d have no way of making sense of what you’re supposed to do. Compare this to your body. It doesn’t need anything, less still corrosive thoughts. It does its thing, always. I know it sounds childish but you don’t transmit thoughts to your organs to make them work and yet always demur to your thinking — what is thinking? — as if it’s the most important thing in town.
What am I saying?
I’m saying that you need to go a lot deeper than recognising and accepting the flow of thoughts into your head before you default to what you believe is happening. In short, you need to question what’s really happening as opposed to what you’ve been told.
But, like so many things I opine on, unless we have a proper exchange on this issue — one on one — I don’t suspect you’ll appreciate less still understand what I’m saying in these few words; and that’s not your problem that’s mine, in trying to communicate something that’s almost impossible to describe.
Anyhow, it’s that time again.
Photo by Rafael Leão on Unsplash