The Stoic Seed

(A cartoon script, actually…Yes, yes…I do that TOO :-P  Versatile unASLEEP, Huh?)

So which are you?  Which school do you subscribe to?

Are you part of the “Nothing to do …everything is already perfect” school of  thought

Or

Do you believe in the power and calling to Create and direct your life and world?

This is a hard one to understand, and inevitably seems to send people scurrying into different groups. We like for things to be either this, or that.  But forcing things into categories is what gives birth to misunderstandings. But luckily, most of this misunderstanding can be directly attributed to one tiny slip:

Time. 

Yep.  It’s Time’s fault.  Because time does not actually exist.  And neither does space, for that matter.  Einstein  coined the term ‘Time-Space  Continuum’ because the two are actually slightly different facets of the same thing.  What is time and space?  And if it doesn’t really exist, then why the heck is it here?  It’s for  Placement, for lack of a better definition. Placement.  Order.

Time and space is what allows me to be here, while you are there.  Otherwise, we’d be something like this (stuck together) It also allowed me to draw this video before you watched it.  Most convenient, wouldn’t you say? If it were not for the sleight of hand that time and space provide us, we wouldn’t be able to discern me from you, here from there, now from later.  This trick of smoke and mirrors allows us a place in which we may experience our experiences as we do.  Otherwise, they could not be experienced as we do in this dimension. 

Which leads me to my point (I did have one, by the way)

Our tendency to latch on to one school of thought or the other has caused us to overlooked the  fact that time and space do not truly exist – even Einstein agrees: (quote) and therefore, this is all actually happening simultaneously.  Really.  It’s a mind-melter, I know, because to us and our little 3-dimensional world, it is a Paradox, A paradox is a statement or proposition that seems contradictory or absurd but in reality, expresses a possible truth. In truth, sitting complacently and doing nothing is really quite like actively creating and doing things, because everything is actually all going down at once anyhow.  ‘Actively creating and directing’ is no different than ‘sitting there complacently like a leaf on the river of life’ because either is exactly the same without time. 

This is a tricky topic, I know – and a volatile one for many

But whether we are quietly complacent or actively creative,  both are just an experience we’ve chosen, are they not?  Just a particular perspective and the subsequent set of matching actions.    It is only when we stir in the concept of Time and Space that one can even be imagined as ‘sitting stable and stoic’, or ‘actively directing and creating’.

Because in truth, ‘sitting stoically’ or ‘actively creating’ are both just an experience pressed upon the canvas of Time.  In truth, neither is more active or less active -without Time and Space, that is.  They are just experiences, perspectives we’ve elected for ourselves.  Mind melting? I know.  It’ll be okay.

So, now where are your separate schools of thought on this?  Evil giant throwing matches on schools, laughing.  It’s all same, isn’t it?  Acceptance and Change are BOTH just experiences pressed upon our canvas of Time.  They’re both just a particular perspective and the matching set of (seeming) actions, so perhaps our focus might be better directed at what we are choosing to reveal to ourselves.  What is our true nature?  What are we tuned in to be?  Because sitting stoically is one tuning choice, just as actively creating is yet another.   And, as you may guess, the songs that your tuning plays will sound quite different from someone else’s, that’s true.  But each is still a song.  It’s your song.  And together, our symphony.

As Buddha said

“A string wound too tightly will break.  And a string not wound tightly enough will be too slack to be played.”  It is the Middle Way that produces the most pleasant song.

The Middle Way.  Neither, and both -  All at the same time.

What is a stoic?

A Stoic is A member of a … school of philosophy…believing that God determined everything for the best and that virtue is sufficient for happiness…. calm acceptance of all occurrences as the unavoidable result of divine will or of the natural order.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company

"a Stoic achieves happiness by submission to destiny" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

Or does he?

We must neither submit and go quietly into the night, nor must we rail against the unfolding of what has been called forth.  We must find the Middle Way.  And though it seems a paradox, it is Movement, forever joined together with repose – and this is what we call the Dance of Life.

Yes, it’s very hard to discuss it, and perhaps even more difficult to try and think about.  But it can be known.

To illustrate a bit further, here’s a little story about a stoic seed learning about what he truly is:

The Stoic Seed Learns to Proceed:

once there was something

that didn’t know what it was

so it searched

and searched

for the truth

He thought he was a rock

but discovered he was not

Then He thought he was a plane

but found he couldn’t fly the same

And then He thought he might be a bee

but found he couldn’t make honey

And so he sat

where he was at

and closed his eyes

and looked inside

and to his surprise

he saw that, indeed –

he was a seed!

Now he knew

what did he choose to do?

He buried himself into the soil. “After all, this is what a seed does, isn’t it?” he thought to himself, 

“I know what I am. 

I need no further plan.” 

Rain soaked in and tried to awaken him

“No need,” he said, “for I’m a seed.”

I know what I am.

I need no further plan.

The sun came around and warmed his ground

“No need,” he said, “for I’m a seed.”

I know what I am.

I need no further plan.

And the seasons came and went without him, for he chose to ignore them all.

But by his choosing not to change,

 he chose not to grow,

and by this, he chose a different path. 

In this case, he chose the crow.

 Complacent no more, the seed desperately desired a different path,

and wiggled out of the crows clutches, and he wiggled out quite fast

He fell back onto the earth, his shell now cracked from his great escape,

and landed in the mud, rolled over and thought sarcastically “Just great”. 

The weary seed closed his eyes and dreamed of where he’d rather be,

and of what he’s rather do,

of what he’d rather see.

 And his dream swirled within him,

and then began to unfurl

and when the seed finally opened his eyes,

he found himself looking at a brand new world.

He smiled and looked around,

again complacent with where he stood.

 But now he knew the power that lay within

and finally saw

that it was good.

The End