Blog

Jon Ferguson

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What is supposed to happen in life?” If you haven’t, I suggest you do. It might change the way you think about everything.

It seems to me that built into the heads of most people I know is the notion that existence is supposed to be like this or like that, that this should happen and that shouldn’t happen, and that because there is a way that existence is supposed to be, when it isn’t that way, something is somehow “awry”.  And here we are talking about absolutely everything that is and that happens.

My guess is that most people in Western civilization will not be able to “understand” what we are talking about here. This is because all their thinking revolves around the idea that things could and should be different. This is because they think that built into existence is the idea that parts of it are “free”…free to do this instead of that. And hence, people have some kind of global – though often nebulous – idea of how things “should be”.

What is problematic here is that humans always want to separate themselves from the rest of life. They can imagine that a rock or a tree or an oxygen atom cannot be other than what it is (and that if its existence is ephemeral or changing, all changes will too be part of the inevitable.) These people can even think this about a whole galaxy of stars. And they can think it about so-called “animals”. They can even think it about “God”. But they can’t think it about the other “people” around them. They convinced that people are the exception and that people can somehow be other than what they are and do other than what they do.

Now, imagine for a moment that “people” are no different from the rest of existence, that every – and we mean “every” – movement and action of every human being is no different that what goes on in the Milky Way or in the “mind” of a monkey. Nothing is free; nothing can be other than what it is. If you can envision this, you can envision the possibility that existence is not “supposed” to be anything, that nothing is supposed to happen this way or that way, and that all Being simply is what it is, including everything you see around you at this moment, and every thought that goes through your head and all other heads, and everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in all of existence.

If you are able to imagine this (not because you are “free”, but simply because you are able to imagine it), then you might end up seeing all existence very differently. You will cease to think that life is “supposed” to be like this or like that….

Now, if you still want to work to defeat Trump in 2020, nowhere is it written that you will change in this regard. The same might be true for your neighbor who loves Trump and wants to work to get him re-elected. The same is also the case for Trump himself, i.e. he will continue to be “Trump”…. But suddenly you may begin to feel differently about everything gong on around you and everything that people are doing. You might begin to feel that your purpose is not necessary the purpose of others, and you might finally sense that it is very possible that the whole of existence has absolutely no purpose and is not “supposed” to be anything.

Would this be a moment for rejoicing or gnashing of teeth?