Mud Angels
Lately I’ve been writing a bit about my explorations into meditation and Eastern philosophy, and the response from readers has been very positive. I mention that because I’m always equal parts inclined and disinclined to publicly share my thoughts and feelings about life and the universe. For one, it seems arrogant somehow, like I think I’ve figured something out and am trying to educate the world. I haven’t, and if I come across like that, forgive me.
Another reason this depth of sharing makes me queasy is that I can’t help but imagine people rolling their eyes and thinking I’ve drunk some evangelical Kool-aid and become another deluded nitwit for having abandoned my strictly science-based atheism for some fairytale drivel. For the record, I have thought that of people before, so I get it.
On the other side of the coin, I know that it doesn’t matter what some people are bound to think. I find this stuff fascinating and at least some of my readers do too, so I should just do it when the muse strikes. Humans are communal animals and sharing is what we do. And, as I’ve often told people who complain about a Bizarro panel, “If someone is forcing you to read my cartoons, tell your parents or teacher.” (There was a time when I might have been tempted to say “policeman or clergyman,” but that would be absurd now.)
So I’ll put today’s potential over-share this way: here are some things I’ve found interesting about what I’ve been reading lately. Anyone acquainted with Buddhism will likely recognize these ideas but they are somewhat new to me. If you’re an expert and I totally screw this up, please let me know.
We live in a realm of opposites and it is best to accept that. This may not sound like much but this concept is huge.
We normally expend quite a lot of energy wishing away things that we don’t like or believe to be wrong. This kind of wishing is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die. The anger in us is the poison, the person or thing that we are aiming it at (that usually doesn’t even know we exist) is the thing we expect to succumb to our hatred, but never will.
I first learned this “realm of opposites” thing from Alan Watt’s book The Wisdom of Insecurity. The title suggests a perfect way to understand the theme; you cannot have “security” without “insecurity.” If insecurity did not exist, security would not be a thing you could conceive of. Security literally exists because of the existence of insecurity. To know this is wisdom.
And it’s not just security, everything is like this. Light exists in contrast to darkness, pleasure exists in contrast to pain, cold in contrast to heat, heavy to light, near to far, love to hate, smooth to rough, and on and on. If it were not for the opposing aspects of motion and gravity, our solar system would not exist.
Also appearing on that nearly infinite list of opposites are good and evil, of course, and here’s where I think it gets really interesting.
In Buddhism, it is said that to understand the nature of this Realm of Opposites, and to fully accept it, is more agreeable than resisting and cursing it. To “accept it” is not to say that you should not try to combat evil, only that you should understand that these things are simply part of the system, and there is no benefit to wishing there were no such thing as (pick something you hate.) In fact, you harm yourself by wishing it.
Buddha is famous for saying that attachment to earthly things is what causes suffering. (Or at least, that’s a paraphrased, over-simplified misunderstanding of something he may have said.) This idea makes many of us think things like, “Sure, falling in love with a Ferrari I could never afford makes me suffer, but if that’s true, are we not supposed to love our children because that’s also an attachment? “
I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly the point he was making.
What I think may be closer to what he was getting at is that suffering is the result of being attached to the way things should be as opposed to the way they are in this moment.
This can be applied to everything from lamenting a huge tragedy to fuming over being stuck in traffic. If you can find it within yourself to accept reality in each and every moment, and whatever emotions or consequences come with it, you will not suffer in the same way. This is where the saying, “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” comes from.
This suffering-causing attachment can also happen in the reverse by cherishing something so much that you are attached to it being that way forever; your relationship, your children, your body, your hometown, pop music, etc. How often have we all complained that something isn’t as (whatever) as it used to be? We all resist change but everything that is alive is changing in every moment, so to wish for something to never change is to wish it were dead. And even then it will change with decay and your memory of it will change with the years. You simply cannot have anything, good or bad, forever.
Now, I find this really interesting just from a philosophical standpoint, but I’ve also found it useful in my daily life. Adopting this attitude, trying it on for a while, I quickly began to realize it is true. “Realize” is an interesting word that I chose very carefully. You can “believe” something that you have no way of proving, but to “realize” something is to make it real. When something becomes real in your mind, you notice it in a different way.
So I’ve recently found that when I suffer some inconvenience or loss, or see the horrific headlines about climate change disasters, political disasters, pandemics, ignorance, racism, criminals not being prosecuted because they are rich, you name it, I find myself receiving it differently. I still see these things as injustices or tragedies and empathize with their victims, but I accept it as the way things are. It has always been this way and always will unless something incomprehensibly huge occurs to completely change the way the universe works. And I mean something much bigger than the extinction of the human species—long after we’re gone, this will still be a realm of opposites: life and death, fast and slow, strong and weak, wet and dry.
Saying it is true is not to say it is easy. Accepting things that cause us to feel crappy is hard and that’s part of what a meditation practice can help us with. But on the occasions when I have been able to accept something painful or distressing, observe the way it feels without judging it as good or bad, and remember that everything is temporary and life is change, it has felt less crappy somehow and in a different way.
I’m done now. Stop rolling your eyes.
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Something that never makes me feel crappy is Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons! Let’s find out what little realities he created this week…
Talking teeth are nothing new. Mine often talk while I’m asleep, or so my wife tells me.
Personally, I think “Impact” is the wrong choice for the font, also.
As Wayno discusses in his blog post this week, this cartoon is almost too true. If you want to sign up to get his free weekly newsletter with some exclusive fun stuff and a link when he posts something new, you can do that here. Scroll down a bit to the email form thing.
Apropos of nothing, “mapache” is what they call a racoon in Mexico and is one of my favorite words in Spanish. It’s officially a word in Spanish now, but it is actually from the Nahuatl word, “mapachtli.” Nahuatl was the language of the Mexica, commonly called the Aztecs, whose capital was an astounding city in the same location as what is now called Mexico City. Around a couple million people still speak Nahuatl and, though Spanish is the common language nationwide, there are 68 native languages currently spoken in Mexico and you can occasionally hear them spoken in the streets. The history of Mexico is really incredible, …well, the history of everywhere is amazing and Mexico is no exception.
Why does “agglomeration” need two Gs? It would be pronounced pretty much the same with only one. I just wonder if there was a time when England was overrun with Gs and they needed to find a place to put them all, whether it made sense or not.
Every time my dogs bark in the house, I wish they were mimes.
That concludes this week’s meeting of the Jazz Pickle Chuckle Club. Thanks for putting up with us once again. If you like what we do and want to help us keep idiotic clickbait and adverts off our site, please consider tossing a buck into one of the links below. Wayno’s dog will mime his thanks to you.
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