This moment exhibits infinite space, but there is a space also wherein all moments are infinitely exhibited, and the everlasting duration of infinite space is another region and room of joys. Thomas Traherne
“If you want to stride into the Infinite, move but within the Finite in all directions.” – Goethe
The power of the world always works in circles, the sky is round, and I have heard the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down in a circle, the moon does the same. And both always come back to where they were. The life of man is a circle from childhood to childhood. And so it is in everything where power moves.” – Black Elk
Anyone informed that the universe is expanding and contracting in pulsations of eighty billion years has a right to ask, “What’s in it for me?” – Peter De Vries
We are busy, busy, busy. The mind is constantly engaged in inner dialogue – constantly chewing on the future or rehashing the past. So much time is spent in this manner that we are rarely in the moment.
Most people consider being in the moment as an extension of the thinking process. Thinking can occur in the moment, but the experience of the thinking process while in the moment is like comparing an old hand-crank adding machine to today’s flash drives. One is a mental cranking with gears and cog-wheels turning. The other contains no moving parts.
The mechanical mind also runs in circles. Again, the experience of this circle is vastly different from the circles Black Elk speaks of.
Extracting oneself from the mechanical requires awareness. Exploring the compulsion to mental activity requires a process of observation not dependent upon constant internal chatter.
Image by Mark Willis
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