RIDING ON THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immovable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.
LAO TZU

We are in Cottonwood, Arizona again for an indeterminate time. We both caught colds on the last trip to Taos. PQ is almost over his, but I’m still drifting several feet off the ground in an odd suspension that can come with a severe head cold, at least for me.  It’s a mind-altering experience, somewhere between being high and a dream state. 

We went to Tlaquepaque in Sedona on Saturday forgetting that it was Cinco de Mayo. PQ just wanted to try one of the Mexican restaurants and we were both bored with staying in and being sick.  When we arrived, there were people and their cars everywhere. Our usual parking lot had a “Full” sign. There was a Latin band in each of the plazas and some Mariachi singers and dancers. It all seemed a bit surreal but very colorful and pleasant in a dreamy way.  The crowd didn’t bother us as we so easily moved through it.  No problem parking and no problems getting a seat at the restaurant.  It all fit together seamlessly, also like a dream.  I’m noticing that this altered state of mind brought on by low physical energy and a clogged up head definitely has an effect on outer reality.  I got to thinking about this on the way home.  If we had gone with intention and an agenda, we would have been among the people struggling to find a parking place, and table at a restaurant. There were crowds everywhere but it didn’t matter. Our approach was mindless, unfocused and without intention. 

I’ve been mindless for several weeks and thus had little about which to write.  It mystified me because it’s not a state I experience very often. In addition, it’s disturbing to have no control over one’s mind. However, the emptiness holds a treasure of its own.  It may not be full of exciting events or creative insights but there is something about this state that holds an important secret. Being empty is an open door for something new.  As the saying goes, “nature abhors a vacuum.” 

Sometimes focus and intention is necessary to accomplish something.  Then, sometimes we don’t know what’s supposed to happen because we are wandering into a reality of which we have no prior experience. I’m feeling that this is a time like that, maybe for the world as well as personally.  What if we just don’t know what’s around the bend and its best to be empty because whatever cargo or plans the mind might hold would not serve a reality not yet revealed. That new age saying, “We create our own reality,” has some truth. However, I would modify it a bit.  There is always a dialogue between single and universal entities involved in the process of creation. You have to be open to mirroring the potential reality of the larger world rather than just what you hope for or expect of it or you end up crazy. The “you” involved in this creative process is not the little ego self but the one who is always a newborn babe suckling wisdom from Mother Earth’s breast.