Do you think there's a path to truth?
(Krishnamurti)
Meaning & purpose
Many aspects of modern life are
warped.
The original meaning and purpose has been lost and only a parody remains.
Consider 'marriage': people commonly spend a colossal amount of money on an immense event that
lasts only a few hours.
For
what?
What does it all mean?
The wedding has become a
pantomime
of greed.
A couple becomes engaged and expect presents.
Then they spend a year planning a wedding and booking countless elements
before indulging in a lengthy hen night or stag night, before the actual day
itself.
They pretend to be
Christian in order to be married in a church because it
looks nice on the photographs.
Finally, there is the honeymoon.
How much of this actually has anything to do with getting married?
Simplicity
Taoism
values the essence of things.
It seeks to find the core, the heart, the centre.
The unique
quality.
Invariably, this leads to simplicity, to elegance, to a paring away of the
non-essentials.
Tai chi should reflect this approach.
It is what you make it
If we continue the theme of 'marriage':
The idea of 'getting married is only a concept.
What you choose to do with the idea is the important part: you make it what
it is; you imbue the idea with meaning.
The truth is in the doing of things, so if you get married and have
the entire lavish affair - that is your wedding.
Every part of the experience is the truth of it, the reality of it:
the 'good' and the 'bad', the pleasure and the excess, greed and waste.
This is the actual substance of the event.
The original meaning is lost and whatever you have made of 'wedding' is the
reality of the event.
If your wedding is a gaudy, vulgar spectacle then it is a
gaudy, vulgar spectacle.
That is the truth of it; surface glitz
and glamour smeared across the relationship in the hope of what?
Substance
Many marriages break up after a few years and this is not surprising.
If a wedding symbolises truth, commitment, honour, fidelity and love -
why is it treated like a circus?
Where is the integrity, the honesty, the genuine earnest warmth, love
and feeling?
Novelty, noise, excess,
costumes, scripted promises and money seem a poor way to begin a sincere
pact between two people.
Only when you pare away the clutter can you see the real.
And also what is lacking...
Individual meaning
'Meaning' is something attributed to phenomena; it is our way of making
sense of life.
When considering any aspect of life, we examine the components and
extrapolate a meaning.
The danger with this is that we can imbue anything with meaning, even when
it no longer has any bearing on the original purpose.
Now consider 'Christmas'...
http://www.buynothingchristmas.org
Page created 12 January 1999