“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
Any fool can do it, there ain’t nothing to it.
Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill.
But since we’re on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride.
The secret of love is in opening up your heart.
It’s okay to feel afraid, but don’t let that stand in your way.
Cause anyone knows that love is the only road.
And since we’re only here for a while, might as well show some style. Give us a smile.
Isn’t it a lovely ride, sliding down, gliding down,
try not to try too hard, it’s just a lovely ride.”James Taylor, singer/songwriter, from his 1977 hit, “Secret O’ Life“
James Taylor got it right; life truly is “just a lovely ride”.
And yes, it really is this simple. A life imbued with an ease of being, regardless of circumstance, does lie within our grasp.
And the only thing that stands in our way is our innocent misperception of reality.
“I don’t expect any of us to know
what it’s like
to be free of worry.
All I ask
is that when a tree or stone or cloud
mentions the possibility,
we stop what we’re doing,
turn our heads,
listen”
Leath Tonino, “The Possibility” from his collection of poems, “Poems of Walking and Sitting“
The Wise Amoeba
Despite the fact that single-celled organisms do not possess a brain (and, therefore, consciousness), they nonetheless remain fully capable of surviving and, indeed, thriving. Bacteria such as cholera, tetanus, and tuberculosis are but three well-known examples of successful unicellular life.
It may surprise many to learn that such rudimentary organisms possess the ability to sense and move away from potential danger and to move toward sustenance.
This ‘drive-to-survive’ capability is an automated, unconscious, un-willed process built into all living things by evolution and natural selection, including us.
Careful reflection on this point makes it clear that the main difference between we humans’ drive-to-survive and that of single-celled organisms is that we just happen to be conscious of what our body is up to.
As I’ve covered at length in previous posts (here and here), we are not the captains of our ship – we don’t will things to happen; we’re simply witnesses to what our automated processes are up to. Free will is simply how it feels, not how it is.
Just a Lovely Ride
Knowing fully that we’re just along for a lovely ride in a self-driving vehicle, one that automatically attends to our survival, opens up the possibility of eschewing our stress-filled, emotionally-charged, hard-driven ways for a peaceful, restful existence filled with an ease of being.
It’s the difference between seeing ourselves as the stressed driver of the car of our life and, instead, being the relaxed passenger in the back seat, casually observing the beauty of the world as it passes on by.
Or think of it this way. Unlike us, unicellular organisms don’t get angry, anxious, jealous, envious, bored, impatient, or frustrated – they just live and thrive in life’s lovely, automated, ride.
And so can we, with the wonderful added bonus that, unlike our unicellular cohabitants, we get to consciously experience it all. 1
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.
And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
Alan Watts, British writer and philosopher (1915-1973)
So, just sit back, relax, observe, and enjoy the lovely ride of life!
Warmest wishes,
Rob @ Living a Mindful Life
1 Choice in the Absence of Free Will
I have been asked on many occasions how we can choose a better psychological path in life if we lack free will. And that’s a great question.
The fact of the matter is that we don’t, of course, choose anything in life; our hard-wired, fully-automated, ‘drive-to-survive’ inner processes do all this for us – we simply observe its choices.
It all gets back to what drives human behaviour, this being the combination and interplay of our biology, environment, and life experiences.
For example, the good fortune of experiencing this article could be all it takes for your automated system to sense an opportunity to enhance your ability to thrive and survive by diminishing your psychological stress.
Of course, not everyone’s auto-pilot system possesses the requisite mix of biology, environment, and previous life experiences to recognize such opportunities when they present themselves. Such unlucky individuals will, unfortunately, continue to experience needlessly-elevated stress levels.
But, there’s always hope! Next time (due to our constantly-changing mix of biology, environment, and experiences) that same unlucky individual’s inner system may, in fact, seize upon a new opportunity to allay psychological stress.
Such is the luck-of-the-draw nature of life and why compassion should always be our default setting toward each other – because we don’t get to choose.
“Those swirls in the cream mixing into the coffee? That’s us. Ephemeral patterns of complexity riding a wave of increasing entropy from simple beginnings to a simple end. We should enjoy the ride.”
Dr. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and author of “The Big Picture“