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He's sitting in a chair. It's one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen in my life: this man ... just sitting ... in that chair. You may ask "What's so remarkable about something as mundane as a person sitting in a chair?". The thing is you never see a person just sitting in a chair. A person sitting in a chair is never just sitting in the chair. When they're sitting in a chair, they're doing something else other than just sitting in the chair. They're thinking. They're looking around. They're fidgeting. In fact when they're sitting in a chair, they're doing everything but just sitting in the chair. He's just sitting in the chair. It's both disconcerting and mesmerizing to witness. There's a ground state of being which we can't stand (ie we can't be with it). We can't sit quietly with it, doing nothing. That's why we do a lot of what we do: to avoid our own ground state. Say whut? Tell me: ultimately, what good can possibly come from that? And that's why Blaise Pascal's quote which starts this essay is so utterly riveting. No, it's more than that actually. It's when you really get what he's distinguishing, it'll render you (to deploy a colloquial term) gobsmacked. I mean who woulda thunk to look there - of all places? Yet the more you dwell in its inquiry, the more patently obvious it becomes, and the more patently obvious it becomes, the more forehead-slapping wonderment it brings with it. So now that you finally figured it out, go ahead: do it: sit quietly in a room alone. Be with whatever's there. Don't flee from what you see and hear and feel. Rather, grab a hold of it. It will transform your life. |
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