C5 drummer and cyberphilosohack Adam Stewart on Zen in the Fen
Everything changes
Everything is connected
Pay attention
–Jane Hirshfield
This is my favourite quote, or haiku, and for me covers everything I need to know…how so?
The dredger (Komatsu PC210/LC Japan) appears in the photo as an isolated thing, and in your mind as an isolated thing, a tool to deal with the changing rivers that will no doubt burst their banks if the water rises too high. That river, from the sky, looks the same over many years, but it is not the same from one second to the next. And, the dredger is not the same, it is slightly worn out, has a sandwich pack on the dash, and a lower oil level.
Is that dredger really separate from us and everything else in the Universe? It was built by somebody who bought food from a shop you may work at, who did a tax return you may have helped on, from metal that came into existence over thousands of years…the driver may have helped you cross the road, you may have built or fixed the bike they used to get to work, you may have helped administer their booster injection. This model has 3G mobile data, which means it is connected over invisible waves in the air, that same air that you breathe. Everything is connected.
Our tendency is to hold on to a fixed organised life and halt it from changing (you also may be striving toward another better fixed place to get away from the fixed place you think you are in – either way, you want stability), to see ourselves being separate from everything else, as special. And then bury ourselves away in that way of thinking, resisting paying attention to things that don’t quite hold us steady.
This is natural, what we are taught growing up in the west, and a part of our survival instinct, but ultimately leads to unhappiness when things change outside our control and affect us… because… everything changes and we are all connected to everything else, it is a fruitless task to hold it steady.
If you pay attention to the world and to what is going on inside you, you may notice something. You may “see” what I am saying above is true. And, you may “see” that your wrangling mind and emotions are out of control but do heavily influence your decisions and actions. The solution is to just pay attention, nothing more. For example, you may have troubling thoughts and emotions which when just simply observed, lose their power, their edge.
Anyhow, enough of all that… have a great holiday, if you get a chance, and don’t be too hard on yourself and others (throwing a hot coal at your enemy will burn your hand! – someone once said that).