In The Zone

     Chaos is a no-thing which presents itself as elusive to the individual(s) who would aim to harness it. We are caught up in this constant flux between Chaos and Order. A little bit of the one spills into the other; and vice versa. There's this constant mixing that transpires. Somehow, the Old and the New are at constant odds with each other. There are areas where the Old and the New shake hands whilst there are other areas where the Old is heavily resistant to the unfamiliar that presents itself in the bosom of the New. In the midst of these transactions, the mind vacillates between things it thinks it knows based on data gleaned from the Past and the actions it considers worth taking in regards to some uncertain future based upon the things that were assumed to be known.

    We evolve at a pace which is right at the average between those who are behind the flow and those who are are ahead of it. The best position to be in the midst of all this would be somewhere in the middle -  riding it. But you can't very well know the flow you are riding if you haven't taken a deep look into both Past and Future. That's the paradox of it all. If one intends to master the flow, one must master Time.

    Past and Future are concepts which we project out into the world in order to reconcile lessons learned from the Past to navigate potential scenarios in the Future. Knowing that there are elements of "fear" and "desire" that keeps the rest of the Animal Kingdom (discounting the human factor) in some state of balance begs the question as to how much our lessons from the past are innate in our DNA and how much they are crystallized in the stories we tell ourselves which grant some form of connection, meaning, and/or ultimately direction.

    The narratives we share that establish a sense of belonging and cohesion for our "group" often run the risk of "othering" outsiders. And if somebody within said "group" questions the veracity of such narratives (or perhaps relegates themselves to a gnawing curiosity that wonders if they could be more than the stories that their elders regaled them with) then they run the risk of being ostracized from the "group". And herein lies the friction between the shaky past and the uncertain future.

    It takes great courage for one to step out of the realm which they were born into. And, usually, it's best done when they aren't the only ones taking on such a task. But what when one traverses the whole globe and begins to empirically realize that every group has stories of their own? Once one discovers that they can reorient their own narrative and once one sees that there are a select few in each society secretly chomping at the bit to discover a wider world than they had been thrown into, as well, one truly realizes that a shift in narratives is indeed possible. 

    Those left behind in the "group" deeply immersed in their comforting stories tend to be resistant to new ideas. It's not that they are ignorant of life in general but that they have allowed themselves to be convinced that the way things have been are the way they should be. Ultimately, they never fully questioned the narratives that saturate their paradigm. Our "groups" are, often times, skewed by the whispers that fall upon our ears which we tell each other regarding what that "group" over there did and sometimes we neglect what our "group" might have done to that one - even if there might be things we'd done that might have caused that "group" to act thusly.

      Setting aside the nuance of those somewhere within the realm of the semi-sentient, the thing that sets sentient beings apart from non-sentient beings is that while we both aim to protect the longevity of posterity, sentient beings are far enough advanced to be able to contemplate what they are doing, why it is being done, and that THEY are doing anything. We have the ability to question the status quo or tease out that which is truly good from that which is truly evil. While traditions point the way to help guide us on discernment, if we proffer up too much credence to them, we debase our own divine ability to think for ourselves! 

    One who thinks for one's self and formulates new possibilities will indeed receive pushback from others within their own society. The problem at hand is that the one who has actually given their world some deep thought can be just as dedicated to the preservation of the species as those stuck in their stories. But that individual can't expect the others to realize the things which they have discovered. There's a lot of "that's not us" or "that's not what we do" at this juncture. If one is not careful, they might find out that a target is on their back.

    So we are stuck between what was, what is, and what could be. The more people who fall in line with the "could be" crowd, the greater weight given to shift the scale to a more forward looking world. The more people who fall in line with the "what was" crowd, the greater the shift to the backward looking world. Both are useful in their own right. The "what was" crowd knows what has worked. The "could be" crowd sees what has the potential to be better. The one who knows what was and what could be while knowing where one is right now is the one who rides the flow.

    Chaos occurs when both the forward looking and backward looking crowds completely reject each other. This is where annihilation runs its course. Even the backward-looking crowd might consider itself more forward looking than some other society. And on we go in the "dog-eat-dog" sort of society which we have grown accustomed to. Order is that which we establish amongst our societies however much they expand or contract and it is also the culmination of whatever outcome proceeded from any given chaos at any given moment. 

    This dynamic interplay occurs quite frequently on some scale. And, it all starts from the bottom up. What we see up top is a crystallization of apparent Order formed out of some Chaos from the Past. Everything we see is the realization of the potentialities that led it all to be what it all is in its current state. One could spend their whole life writing a book just simply trying to track every entity that made the appearances that present themselves to the author as what they came into being. And yet the author would be wise to never forget to calculate their own perception of such appearances. This pattern of the accumulation of thus-nesses recurs all throughout the Universe. We sentient beings just have the gift of the faculty to see it.

    We are products of the Universe coming into being. Thus, we are of the same Nature as the Universe! In this way, we are literally the eyes of the Universe looking at itself! So we can compile all those who busy themselves with the future and those who busy themselves in the past, and we can see that there are always eyes looking around some facet of that Ultimate no-time Time that permeates the whole Universe. If we're worried that somebody is looking over our shoulder, it's probably because out of the infinite array of beings, somebody has to happen to notice our existence whether that certain someone is looking through the lens of the past or the future in regards to us specifically or in regards to some collective movement.

    So, how can it be that in a World literally full of eyes - sentient and non-sentient alike - the human experience can still be such that one can feel utterly unnoticed? Simply by the fact that though we see a thing, our mind only knows the thing seen based on what it understands of similar things which it has already experienced. In a World full of people making their judgements of observations, so few actually simply see a thing for what it is. To suspend judgment of a thing, one can allow whatever that thing is to become fully salient. 

    Imagine being able to live your whole life like that! Where, while our intellect may be able to distinguish the mountains from the valleys, we carry on every step as though it was something new to be discovered - or, better yet, to just walk by a tree and simply be there with the tree. Imagine attending every moment with open arms and an open mind as though walking gracefully really was the Path well worth taking. Could we then suspend the movement of the Macrocosmic Pendulum and all the infinite microcosmic pendulums swinging from Chaos to Order?

    Perhaps, we'll never stop the Chaos. Perhaps the Order will always keep a tighter grip than is necessary just to keep those abiding within it comfortable. Regardless, the surfer would be nothing if they allowed the first wave to crash upon them and they just gave up. How could they then be called a surfer? If we are swept up in the multitudinous pendulums, the current will easily suck us in to the deepest depths. But, if we ride the major waves, all of a sudden we learn to navigate the motion of the World with better precision. To always treat every moment like a practice for the next one is to learn the art of what it takes to Master the greatest Skill of Life - Living.

    Who alone has the power to stymie any bit of Chaos that rears its heads? Even if Chaos is stymied, what if something in the Order being thrown at the Chaos is the very thing sustaining the flow of Chaos in the first place whilst sustaining some mode of said Order? How often is a band-aid applied to a wound because the cost of the apparent real remedy is projected as being too much to afford? Both Chaos and Order are True, thus Truth is Higher than the both; furthermore Truth has the power to create both Chaos and Order. So, what if one could be liberated from both Chaos and Order, and just sought Truth in - well - everything? Wouldn't that be the better course to take? Couldn't we then glean both the good lessons and the bad lessons of the Past and be honest with not just the group we were born into but with our very own selves?