May 23, 2024
Principle 5. Acceptance. Fourth Week.
If day and night, summer and winter are well with you, you have surpassed the contradictions.
Last time: Inner War — Inner Peace
This Time: The Illusion That Things Don’t Change
Over the last three weeks we considered the principle in general terms, in light of the past, and of the present. We also looked for cultural references related to the idea of acceptance. We asked others about how they understood the principle. Then last week we tried to come up with our own version of the principle.
Behind this effort, or perhaps more accurately “copresent” with it, we are always trying to amplify our vision of how we can turn the principles into a dynamic and permanent meditation. That is to say, into a practice applicable at every moment of our lives. In that way we go on shaping a style, or way, of engaging with life.
This Week:
To Do List
-This week we turn our attention to trying to apply the Principle of Acceptance to what we believe (i.e. imagine) the future holds in store.
- Consider this principle in terms of what you think, or hope, or fear your future holds.
-Play the game of Explain It!
You can find the rules for the game below
Here’s some ideas to consider this week. We can discuss your questions, insights, and discoveries in our next meeting.
General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
Here are some personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.
In previous weeks I’ve focused on the meaning of day and night, and the other pairs of opposites as just that, opposites. We’ve also looked at the meaning of contradiction and what it means to overcome it. So far during my attempts at these weekly meditations my thoughts have drifted quite far a field — as they tend to. Continuing further along this path it seemed to me that besides being opposites, day and night, the seasons, etc are, each one, also moments in a cycle (for example, the Earth’s rotation on its axis, or moments in the orbit around the sun). And I realized that one of the very basic illusions that condition my thinking is, what Silo sometimes called “static naturalism”. That is the belief that what is at this moment always has been, and always will be (it’s static), and that’s how things are (naturally).
Until very recently, even with the world changing right under their eyes many people still clung to the idea that “it’s always like this”. And in a sense, that’s true but Heraclitus the Ancient Greek philosopher taught: if there is a constant that constant is change itself; ‘everything is in movement’. And from where we sit that movement often seems like a series of cycles. Empires rise and fall. Civilizations are born and die. Day follows night and night is followed by day. The Winter comes and goes making room for summer once again.
But today, that apparently static world seems to be moving. Few people now feel, “everything is as it has always been”, or “things have always been this way”. On the contrary, many feel the anxiety, the anguish, of teetering on the edge of… well on the edge of something.
Who would have thought, even a few years ago that, what seemed like eternally stable ground beneath our feet could suddenly turn to quicksand. Once, examples of freedom and possibility — at least for a majority of their citizens and would-be-citizens. Now, with their corruption, manipulation, discrimination, and violence on display without disguise. Many thought a war in Europe would never be seen again, or that Nazism, and Stalinism would resurface and bloom. Now of course everyone can see how long-standing internal divisions have widened into chasms threatening that nation’s stability. And we all seem closer to financial, ecological and nuclear catastrophe.
Do these enormous instabilities herald the end of a world, or the beginning of a new one?
This principle brings me to consider that perhaps this moment that I embrace or reject, celebrate or loathe, is a really moment in a larger dance where what was wet becomes dry and what is dry becomes wet, the old fades and the new arises, the decay of death makes the ground fertile for new life.
In fragment DK22B60 of his (fragmentary) writings our old friend Heraclitus is recorded as saying:
The road up is the road down.
The Game of the Week.
Explain It!
The rules for this week’s game are simple and summed up in its name.
Here are two possible approaches (there could be many others). Like with the game of Ask! we need to engage another player (or players). If I can manage to talk to someone that’s great but if I can’t, whether because of my personal circumstance, shyness, etc. I can write down my thoughts in a brief email — whether I send it or not is another matter. The point is to put my thoughts, and intuitions into a form that is suitable for sharing.
Of course, just as with other games, I might find myself with no one to play with. For example, in this case, no one whom I can either ask their opinion, or tell mine. Such a situation might well be an opportunity to reflect on what that absence implies, and perhaps even take measures in enrich my social environment.
Another thing this game has in common with the game of Ask About It! is that it’s a game! In this game our interest is on engaging and communicating. Convincing, preening, recruiting, etc. are outside of the goals of the game. Rather, you are simply sharing your interpretation of something you find interesting.
Remember:
“Here are joy, love of the body, of nature, of humanity, and of the spirit.”
Silo_ The Inner Look I:II
Worth Repeating:
“If you are not indifferent to the pain and suffering of others, in order to help them you must bring your thoughts, feelings, and actions into agreement.”
Silo_ The Path
Coming up:
Next week we’ll turn to Principle 6, also known as the principle of solidarity.
Note:
The winding road pictured here is the “caracol” the “snail” that winds up the mountain pass connecting Chile and Argentina. These notes have been posted on Facebook and sent to our email list, and, on my website www.dzuckerbrot.com
Here’s somethings to consider this week. Our next meeting will be a chance for an interchange about your thoughts, insights, examples and questions.
You’ll receive a reminder the day before the meeting. We hope you can join us.
And then…
