By Ryan Hutchins
The mysteries of the universe can never be known.
We can speculate and create theories, but there is no way of ever knowing for certain what is eternal. Some people mask their faith as an understanding of life. Some may say they know something to be true because of their faith and to a certain extent that is true, because whatever you believe is your truth, but it is only yours. Your truth is yours alone, and is not ultimate truth.
We all have our own truths.
For some strange reason our species has what seems like a unique desire for spiritual knowledge. We practice rituals, praise and worship outside idols, and explore the nature of reality. Often, this is done within the organization of a spiritual group. Personally I can find beauty in all spiritual groups, and have in fact been touched by many of them, but on the whole I find more fun taking bits and pieces from all my experiences and cooking up my own ideas. My disagreement with spiritual groups is in the establishment of universal truth.
I find it very difficult to believe that any person or group has an understanding of this vast mystery that is greater than my own. I am not against spiritual groups, but in my opinion we should be more interested in our own interpretations than another’s. What does life mean to you?
How do you see the mystery?
To me, spiritual exploring isn’t a quest for truth, it is a game. A game in which I love to play with all the different possibilities. I don’t take any of the religions seriously; in fact I don’t even take myself seriously. I never hold anything that I believe or feel as the way that things are, nor the way they should be done. I have in the past put forth many ideas about the ultimate nature of reality, and likely will continue to do so. Sometimes they may seem consistent, and at other times may completely contradict one another. To me that too is part of the fun. It’s boring being consistently monotonous day after day after day. Sometimes you need to surprise yourself.
As a general rule I don’t ever take any idea as being the truth. In all honesty I do not believe that anything can be known, and am not so convinced that there is every something to know. As Alan Watts once taught me, “If you ask where flowers come from, even the god of spring doesn’t know.” Or to badly paraphrase Terence McKenna; “the truth may not be stranger than we imagine; it may just be stranger than we can imagine.” It may just be that our minds are not capable of imagining the truth about reality. I find this idea very possible.
Having said that, I don’t take that so seriously either.
After all our minds are capable of incredible things, one of those being the power of operating our entire nervous system, and yet we don’t understand that in our normal way of thinking either. For example the way that you wiggle your fingers or open and close your hand. You know how to do it, yet for the life of you could not put it into words. Perhaps what is in need of restructuring is our idea of knowledge. It seems to me that part of the game is not understanding how it is done.
I love my ignorance. I have no desire for certainty. I don’t live the way that I do or act the way I do because I think it is the right way to live, I do so because I dig it. It’s fun. To me that is what life is about. Doing something because you love it. Don’t try to make sense of why you love it, just do it. My personal opinion is that the only meaning of life there ever will be is what each one of us makes of it. To me, it is all there for fun.
So I would say to myself, get involved, take yourself sincerely but never forget it is supposed to be fun.
Ryan Hutchins is a San Francisco bay area native who lives with his wife, son and two dogs. He is an avid music lover and enjoys exploring different ideas and perspectives. Some of his favorite hobbies include surfing, hiking and going on walks to nowhere, but has lately rediscovered a love for writing and poetry. He is a vegan and large supporter of both animal and human rights, and is hopeful for the day when all can live both simply and in peace. If you are interested in reading more from him or would just love to share a discussion with a friend, you can find him at mysticsofgnar.wordpress.com or email are.hutchins@gmail.com.
Photo: (source)
Editor: Ty H Phillips
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