Old Man and the Sea

I had an opportunity to tell at least two friends today that everything would be okay.  I am fairly certain that neither believed me.  Which is fine since on the level of mind it is a statement that simply can not be digested.  Not when we are caught in a bio-chemical onslaught of peptides polluting our veins.  In fact if some Zen-head new-age-miserable-seeker told me that everything would be okay at say … 10:00 a.m. this morning when I was crying in a tight ball of pain and ick, I would have bitch slapped the super-sentience right out of them.

It is really only when we step back and realize that somehow, someway we made it to the place where we stand today in one piece and we are still alive thus far … that we can sometimes see that we did not steer this boat to these coordinates that we find ourselves currently adrift in the ocean.  But yet we somehow made it here and by that same unseen force or collection of chaos we will continue to sail on the winds and the tides.  Some still have their hands tight on the captains wheel in dismay that the vessel does not move under their power — truth is there are no mechanics from the helm to the rudders that you ever controlled.  Those who are free from the illusion have set up a small cabana near the leeward side of the boat and are simply content to just watch the view from the starboard bow.

So what does it mean when we have glimpsed our true nature as the sentient sea bee but yet find our self still hopelessly drawn back into the hull of hell?  More importantly WHO WANTS TO KNOW?  Truth is — from where I sit, still motion sick off the port bow — EVERYTHING still arises even after we reach Atlantis.  Hate arises, Pain arises, Fear arises, Greed arises, Lust arises, and Depression arises just as it did before.  This is why Titan said that nothing changes after enlightenment (ok, maybe that was Buddha.)  The nature of the body/mind still sails the seas much like it did before.  However, as an Old Salt there is a much deeper truth, an unshakable knowing that we are not this vessel or the hands on deck.  From this place of stillness even in troubled waters we know everything is already okay.