My way seems to be thinking, although I spend many hours in silence, at times.
The point I wanted to make here was that no fixed, final way of intereacting with the world is desirable. I have at times in my life sought out difficulty and challenge, with perhaps the most obvious example being that of the fitness system called CrossFit (www.crossfit.com) . At other times, now being one of them, I have felt a need to cultivate satisfaction. I wonder just how deep my pleasure could be sitting in a nice garden, on a fresh spring day, drinking jasmine tea with friends out of antique cups.
This is the Yin and the Yang. It is a cliche, of course, but one worth pondering a bit more. Edward de Bono spoke of what he called “catchment areas”, which is the tendency of our minds–as expressed through the physical, mechanical apparatus of our brains–to sort even things that are quite similar into either/or categories. The metaphor is that of rain, which will wind up in a very different river system, depending on which side of a mountain it lands. In theory, two drops can land 2′ from one another, and wind up hundreds of miles apart.
No final religious system is possible, because no lasting perception is possible in a world subject to evolutionary and constant change. We cling to religion, to use a memorable phrase in a new way, because we cannot stand the truth that living is like walking. Our walking, our movement, figurative and literal, can never cease until we leave the Earth. Yet, you can take pleasure in walking. You can even take pleasure in hard, sustained, uphill–oh let us use the word TRAGIC–walking.
The solution to pain is in the pain, and in no small measure includes the pleasure of humoric irony, companionship with others, and the simple joy of breathing.