Life: (3 of 3) spasms & growth, tradition & beyond

I think I’m in the midst of some kind of intellectual spasms at the moment. I had been chained and confined (my energy channeled) in academia for the last 5 years, and now, my dissertation completed and taking only two graduate courses, I feel a certain intellectual openness.

Of course, that is not necessarily a good thing. I could just flounder, absorbing bits and pieces from a dozen different perspectives without understanding them as whole systems, and fade out into obscurantism.

It’s moments like these that the stillness and repose of the Japanese flute, Zen poems, and herbal tea hit me like a brick wall.

Be still.
Sit.
Breathe.

Quit ravishing new information like the mad man in the (spiritual) marketplace. Sip it, savor it, swallow it, feel it.

Be still.
Sit.
Breathe.

Wild mind, monkey mind, discursive thought, speculative metaphysics. Let them go. You cannot claw your way to the empty center which is Truth.

Be still.
Sit.
Breathe.

And as it is, so let it be. Now. Forever.
Spasms subside, growth ensues.
Tradition points the way, it is up to us to look beyond the finger.