Stories
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As a philosopher
will say, and a young man setting out in life, my plan was to live simply, such that my time would be spent on that which I deemed worthwhile, rather than simply work to the grave.
Originally what was to be a motorcycle trip turned into a scooter tour of Europe, that would force me to reduce the necessities of living to what could be carried on a scooter. The concept here was, since I would need to work for a living, I wanted to know how much time I would need to work and to what extent I could be free to pursue my studies of life.
Rubberised cloth bags for food. One for pots, pans and stove. No tent, just a canvas ground cloth and plastic tarp I enveloped myself in and sleeping bag. One bag for clothes and that was it.
After I settled in San Francisco. It was rent, food and materials for my art. Rent always came first, a roof and workshop, kitchen and can. Food came second and art third, the economic priorities of my life.
When my son was but a wee tiny tot, at the playground, a man told me, first priority feed the baby. After that one's time is one's own. And so I did.
I applied the same rules to my mind. At some point I decided that the organization of mind was important, as a tool of memory. I discovered first thing that the act of committing things to memory stopped the creative process and the flow. So I learned that as I had bags for food, clothes and sleeping bag, I created bags of affinities as ideas categorized as food, clothes and sleeping bag, or everything red, yellow or blue, the good, bad and the ugly.
Add a new idea to the mix of what is already there of said subject, like the idea of duality, add it to the category of Buddhism. And what comes to mind is perhaps what the Buddhists mean when they say transcend Buddhism. Taking sides of the duality, one will have not compassion. For the other side may be equated with such as demonics.
Duality thrown into the Buddhist bag and now also tossed into the Compassion case. I would examine any given subject by examining its opposite as well. Animosity. Uncaring. Forget it and back to my free flowing day dreaming mind. The memory will take care of itself.
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