So many impressions! What to write about when the heart and mind are clogged with emotions? Should you attempt to untangle the knots you caused unto yourself? In meditation one does not attempt this, it is folly. It is enough to perceive the simplicity and follow it with the breath.
A moment of presence: I am overflying Germany with Madrid as my next destination. I'm on the very last row in the window seat of an Airbus plane. Through the window I see an almost completely dark sky, with a color spectrum gradient at the horizon, and an endless sea of illuminated cities beneath me. They remind me of photographs of neurons, irregular cells connected by synapses.
I close my eyes and I follow my breath with the express intention of allowing the first thought to emerge after my attention drifts. It came to me: how is it that I've allowed for ideology to divide and distance myself from the people I love? I claim to have no ideology, but a character that is repelled by ideology is ideology in itself. The ideology of non-ideology is revealed. Being non-ideological falls into the anti-anything fallacy I've written about before. What is the positive form of non-ideology then?
Socratic ignorance. Not knowing. Embracing the fact that one knows nothing. Inner silence. Curiosity in the opinion of the other. Fact checking. Attention. Verifying premises. Following logical conclusions. Listening. Helping the other think and form arguments that can be then accepted or refuted. Indifference to victory in argument, but joy in revealing truth.
Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.--Chapter 16 of the Tao Te Ching