There was a moment when I imagined being pricked by a blackberry thorn. I felt a reactive contraction in my arm at the imagined prick and “felt” the point of entry on my finger. A great demonstration of the power of a vivid imagining – and confirmation of the notion that the mind/body duality doesn’t distinguish between a “real” event and a vividly imagined one. Which brings up the interesting question of what is reality?
According to my understanding of a basic Buddhist tenet, every “thing” is empty until I fill it. Meaning that, because all is empty, the fullness of any event in life is determined by what I bring to it. The piercing of skin by a blackberry thorn is an empty event until I bring my content to it. That content can be pain, contraction, tentativeness, anger and, perhaps, even fear. If I bring other content there is an alternative experience available. An ascetic or, pathologically a masochist, by bringing different content may even find the piercing fulfilling or enjoyable.
Where this takes me is towards examining the impact of my ideals in motion on my experience of reality – the piercing of reality by my ideals. This ultimately leads to questions of how to generate the capacity to sustainably create a life of meaning; a life that is experienced as being the consequence of mindful choice versus one that is experienced as being subject to the whim and/or the existence of random events.
I bring me and my ideals to everything. My life has meaning because of what I bring to it. In a very fundamental way, what I experience in my life is my sense of me. Each event provides me an opportunity to look at “me” and choose whether the me I am is the me I want to be. I will always be in the process of becoming my ideals – either consciously or unconsciously. As a catalyst for growth and learning, my ideals become something to live into and not something to live up to. What an incredibly exciting prospect!
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