Piet's Monthly Summary

This last month I have noticed how easy it is to stop too soon, while investigating the working hypothesis that all is complete.

It is relatively easy to focus on what is pleasant in life, while ignoring what is less pleasant, and to use the pleasant aspects as a reminder of the concept of completeness. That might be a form of `positive thinking', with some therapeutic value, but it would be stopping far too soon.

It is more difficult to embrace all that appears, and to try to see whether all that can be part of a completeness that transcends what we normally judge to be positive or negative. That would be a great challenge, with potentially enormous benefit, but even so, it still would be stopping too soon.

The real challenge of working with the working hypothesis is yet different: it is to go beyond the notion that anything ever appears, beyond the notion of linear time, beyond the notion of an observer to whom phenomena are appearing in time. This way of `beyond' is neither easy nor difficult, it is beyond either.

Over the years, I have learned to see the differences between these three approaches, more and more, but each day is another opportunity for more clarity. It is a wonderful adventure!