In accepting the Western, Eastern or other body-based view of the world we enter into areas of futility. We will do a lot of work, we will study a lot of different systems, we will figure it all out in many different ways at different times, we will adopt a lot of different diets, and we will try many different exercise and body fitness regimes. We may even resort to purgative or masochistic means.
We will possibly feel better, but hopefully, in the end we’ll discover that it’s futile. Any system that puts the body at the centre or uses the body as its centrepiece is subject to failure. Because we all know that sooner or later bodies die. Our ancestors’ bodies are dead, our grandparents’ bodies may be dead, our parents’ bodies may be dead or dying, our bodies may be dying. In fact, if you believe some of the common sense approaches, death and taxes are the only things guaranteed in this existence.
Futile Fairytale One
(E or e is used throughout to avoid using he or she - "e" in Sumerian means 'home of'.)
E sees a glowing castle away in the distance. E knows that there is something in the castle that he must have. The castle is surrounded by dense undergrowth for as far as the eye can see. E says “what the heck” and takes out his magic sword and starts cutting. The sword never gets blunt and what it cuts magically disappears. E keeps cutting through the thorns, day after day.
After many days of cutting e begins to wonder how far is the castle. He climbs up to get a better view. E sees the castle away in the distance. Better get back to cutting, e thinks. This goes on for a very long time. E begins to wonder if e will ever get there. One day e is visited by a strange being, maybe an angel. The being offers to carry em over to the castle. E says that e has to keep cutting away at the undergrowth. The angel disappears.
Many years pass and e is still cutting. The angel appears again and again he rejects the offer. Eventually e begins to wonder if all this cutting may be futile, but e keeps on cutting. However, e does decide that the next time the angel offers the lift to the castle, e will jump at the opportunity.
Food - we are what we eat
Food provides nourishment for the body, good food provides healthy nourishment, bad food makes the body sick. All food available in supermarkets and anywhere further than our own garden is bad food. Perhaps we have some chance with organics, (these are not foods for our organs, they are food that are grown organically). If we don’t grow and harvest our own food, then we have to take supplements to deliver all of the stuff that has been taken out of, or left the denatured food that we consume.
Medicine - what we eat sickens us
If we don’t eat our own grown food, or don’t take supplements then we are going to get sick. The correct food keeps us healthy and boosts our immune system. We are thus able to fight off external invasions of bugs, germs, viruses, bacteria, super bugs, etc. If we are not able to keep them off then take medicines that will kill them inside us.
Diagnosis - I’m ok as long as someone tells me what’s the matter with me
Whatever medicine system we use, we rely on someone else to take our case history and tell us in their terms what the matter is. Based on their diagnosis, we’ll be given a prognosis, and told what to take or what to do. In some systems our buttons will be pushed, both mentally and physically. In a few systems we are taught how to push our own buttons.
Drugs - maybe it’s not the food. It’s stress and I need relief
Whatever is causing the problem we know that when we take alcohol or drugs we get temporary relief. We also know that our minds and bodies become more flexible when we are pissed or stoned. We can think faster and clearer. We can definitely dance much better, and we are much better at...
Sex - dual unity revisited
Sex is good fun and the function of the orgasm is to allow the build up of tensions in the body to be released or converted. However, the underlying premise may be that we can become one with someone else by becoming one with each other’s bodies. We may be trying to reestablish the dual unity relationship we had with our mothers from our separate bases in our bodies.
Relationships - we are who we’re related to, who’re our friends, who we marry
Friends and relations look after each other. They are also inclined to work in a very narrow range of what is deemed acceptable behaviours. They may be tempted to become enforcers to keep us in the desired behaviour patterns. They may set themselves up as judge and jury. Unfortunately, their judgments may have nothing to do with the facts, they may have skipped the investigation and evidence hearing stages and jumped to conclusions. They sometimes turn into betrayers.
Possessions - we are what we have
May be we can remember when we owned nothing or thought we owned nothing. But, by now, we may own a house, a car, a cat, a dog, a television, a telephone or two. We may even own a second home or a second car. We may even think of people as ours, my mammy, my daddy, my brother, my son, my daughter, my husband, my wife, my partner, my friend, my God!
Business - we are all fine as long as we are busy
We must be working, we must be kept busy, and we all must have jobs. We are always working whether we have jobs or not, whether we pay taxes or not. Take a look through the body. What part of it is not working? If any of our major organs stop working, the body will stop working and we may have to leave it. Our mind is always working. Is it working for us or against us?
Position - we are our status in the organisation
Organisations grant power to certain positions, they do not grant power to the holders of the position. Sometimes the holder of the position believes its e’s personal power that is getting the job done. In social situations, where the positions are not so clearly defined, we sometimes use our possessions or our title to establish our position.
Image - we are what we see in the mirror
But a brave face on it! Save face! But on a mask! If we can’t make it, fake it! We look like someone famous, you know yer one in the movies, on the tele. What we see in the mirror is an image, which has nothing to do with what we are.
Technology - we need tools, the more complex and sophisticated the better
We all keep looking outside ourselves for the answer. If only we had faster access. If only we could shoot further. If only we knew exactly where everyone is at every moment. If only we could know what e thinks. The tools are only as good as their purpose. We have come a long way from the crayon and the slate, but its still only symbols on a blank screen.
Politics - we’re defined by the enemy
Government and opposition; this party versus that party; this country versus that country; this culture versus that culture; our army versus their terrorists. Someone believes they have the right answer. We buy in and let them lead us on a merry dance of comparison, competition, contention, and conflict. If we cannot convince the enemy by diplomacy or threat, then we resort to violence and war. And the deeds we commit abroad or against the enemy make us heroes. The same deeds committed at home would have us locked up and they’d throw away the key.
Nationalism - we’re doing as well as our country
We identify with our local team, our city or county team, our national team. Or, maybe we don’t. Our country is doing well, if our team is doing well. An individual from our country wins at the Championships, or the Olympics, or the Masters, and we are all so proud. And the individuals involved worked so hard to get where they are. Or, maybe they took performance enhancing drugs; oops! There goes my medal, there goes our national identity.
Religion - we are what we worship
An object shaped in the form of a man nailed to a wooden cross signifies for many of us the torture and crucifixion of Jesus, and keeps us reminded that this is a life of suffering. How conveniently we forget that he was taken down off the cross over two thousand years ago, and that he resurrected and became Christ, the Son of God, as God created him, just like E created the rest of us.
Theories – we are what we think we are
This is, in fact, true. However we keep thinking that we have to figure it all out over and over again, breaking it up and putting it all together again, analysis and synthesis continually looping into infinity. The futility lies in thinking that a representation of reality is reality; that the more symbols we can manipulate the better the theory will be.
There are so many more systems, moral, social, legal, monetary, set up to control, or to seek redress when we go out of control. What systems we buy into is up to us. But to simplify it all, these systems are about bullying, or tyrannical control. And the bullying is getting worse. More and more acts of vandalism and terrorism are being committed, more and more laws are being enacted, more and more protection is needed, more and more insurance is required.
And the simple purpose of all this is to get us to wake up. Wake Up! We are not egos in bodies. We are as we were created. We are Being in Mind.
Futile Fairytale Too
E receives a message “all knowledge is within”. E thinks about it and decides that it must mean that it’s at the core of the earth. So e starts digging. Magically, all that e digs disappears. After a few days the hole is about 10 metres deep. After a year the hole is a kilometre deep. E keeps on digging. E never gets tired. E never gets hungry. E just keeps digging and digging.
After 10 years the hole is 10 kilometres deep. E begins to wonder. E keeps on digging. After 20 years the hole is 20 kilometres deep. E stops. E does some calculations. “I dig a kilometre a year. In twenty years my hole is 20 kilometres deep”. E scratches head. “At this rate of digging it will take me 5,000 years to get to the core. Ah, I better speed up.”
So e starts to dig 10 kilometres a year. After another year the hole is 30 kilometres deep. E keeps digging. Time passes. E stops again. If I dig at this rate it will still take me 500 years to get there. I can’t go any faster. I’m not going to make it. So, e climbs out of the hole.
When e gets back to the surface someone has planted a sign. The sign reads, “God is everywhere. There is no need to dig.” Someone else has drawn a line through the word “God” and written over it the word “Knowledge”. Some one else has drawn a line through “Knowledge” and written the word “Mind”.
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