I do believe truth exists, and, in fact, in many forms. There are constant truths, immutable to opinion or “alternate facts,” and there are personal truths, more malleable as once experiences the changes of life. My first comment is in response to the sense that my impression of the entire first stanza reads like the religious indoctrination of the types who believe you have to “let go and let god” in order to know true strength, to give away yourself completely and leave your “higher power” in control. I’m more of the notion that if you let “Jesus take the wheel,” you’re only going to end up in a ditch.
It seems like what you’re really discussing is the locus of control. I used to be fairly low on that scale, coming from the vedic philosophy of a belief we choose everything about our lives, even how we come into it, and who we will let damage us, by agreement made in light and love, to learn what we have chosen to be taught. Though, over time, I’ve come to see even that can be a form of letting go of responsibility. I do not my thought that one must take responsibility for every aspect of one’s own decision making that leads to circumstances of our experience is not super popular… I’ve certainly had that thrown in my face quite violently before. But I do believe we can choose to empower ourselves not to live as victims, and in so doing, we have greater strength to learn and grow from detriment as well from more triumphantly vanquished challenges.
My reference to concealment is an apparent misinterpretation of what you describe as “the ataraxia of wearing a mask that defines the role emptiness plays for the cask;” wherein I was under the impression you meant hiding your true self from others, and, even, by way of crawling into a bottle, from yourself.
As for compromises, my point is you will never find balance if you maintain a sacrosanct expectation - of well, anything, really. Expectation in general, but unyielding expectation, especially, is disappointment waiting to happen. Balance will never be found by believing things have to work out a certain way, because they most assuredly never will exactly. Balance can only by found by being flexible and receptive to whatever happens.
On a related note, as it happens, my name means balance.* ;-)
(*More specifically, it means mankind in the balance of harmony within his community and the natural world around him.)
Anyway, apologies for the multiple misinterpretations - people see things from the perspective they’re most familiar with, and mine comes from a very different place, so it hit me possibly differently than you intended.
Yes. Thank you for calling this out. The ambiguity of poetry compared to argumentation has really brought out this tension. I couldn’t agree more with you. Again to try and clarify my position here, if people believe responsibility is linked to surrendering their will to god, then I advocate fecklessness as a means to take true responsibility for one’s moral life.
And I basically agree with the entirety of your second paragraph.
Interesting to hear your interpretation of the line about ataraxia and the utility of emptiness. Of course I don’t want to discourage anyone’s interpretation. But my intended gist here was, it is emptiness that makes a cask useful because it is a container, and similarly there is a relief from anxiety in going along with the play of being an actor considering that at the core in some sense, we are all actors creating our individual persona.
Totally agree with your forth paragraph. And nice to meet you, Balance! ; )
I couldn’t have asked for more to receive your forceful interpretation. I am glad that people have their own perspectives. I think it’s terribly repressive to have it any other way!
It seems like what you’re really discussing is the locus of control. I used to be fairly low on that scale, coming from the vedic philosophy of a belief we choose everything about our lives, even how we come into it, and who we will let damage us, by agreement made in light and love, to learn what we have chosen to be taught. Though, over time, I’ve come to see even that can be a form of letting go of responsibility. I do not my thought that one must take responsibility for every aspect of one’s own decision making that leads to circumstances of our experience is not super popular… I’ve certainly had that thrown in my face quite violently before. But I do believe we can choose to empower ourselves not to live as victims, and in so doing, we have greater strength to learn and grow from detriment as well from more triumphantly vanquished challenges.
My reference to concealment is an apparent misinterpretation of what you describe as “the ataraxia of wearing a mask that defines the role emptiness plays for the cask;” wherein I was under the impression you meant hiding your true self from others, and, even, by way of crawling into a bottle, from yourself.
As for compromises, my point is you will never find balance if you maintain a sacrosanct expectation - of well, anything, really. Expectation in general, but unyielding expectation, especially, is disappointment waiting to happen. Balance will never be found by believing things have to work out a certain way, because they most assuredly never will exactly. Balance can only by found by being flexible and receptive to whatever happens.
On a related note, as it happens, my name means balance.* ;-)
(*More specifically, it means mankind in the balance of harmony within his community and the natural world around him.)
Anyway, apologies for the multiple misinterpretations - people see things from the perspective they’re most familiar with, and mine comes from a very different place, so it hit me possibly differently than you intended.
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And I basically agree with the entirety of your second paragraph.
Interesting to hear your interpretation of the line about ataraxia and the utility of emptiness. Of course I don’t want to discourage anyone’s interpretation. But my intended gist here was, it is emptiness that makes a cask useful because it is a container, and similarly there is a relief from anxiety in going along with the play of being an actor considering that at the core in some sense, we are all actors creating our individual persona.
Totally agree with your forth paragraph.
And nice to meet you, Balance! ; )
I couldn’t have asked for more to receive your forceful interpretation. I am glad that people have their own perspectives. I think it’s terribly repressive to have it any other way!
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