In the quote section in the header of this essay, you'll notice
a few pointed takes on what superstitions are, and what
superstitions aren't. Read them carefully. They're not
definitions of superstitions per se. Rather
they point to our
superstitious ways of
thinking
(if you will) ie the way we hold superstitions, how we're blind to
them. In some cases like the infamous one of the black cat crossing
our path bringing bad
luck,
we may even be wise enough to know it's merely a superstition, and
we (knowing better) wouldn't let it run our lives. Yet there are
many superstitions that we've rarely considered to be
superstitions which run our lives all the time. This
conversation distinguishes three of them. It's not required that
you agree they're superstitions. Instead, consider the possibility
that they might merely be superstitions, and so discover them for
yourself. Then look to see if distinguishing them as mere
superstitions rather than as "The Truth", gives
access
to power. They are the superstitions of "IS", "I",
and "BECAUSE". Let's examine all three.
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IS:
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We say "She is (that way)", "He is
(this way)",
"The world
is (some way)" like they're absolute, universal,
unwavering facts - not mindful that the way anything "is" for
us, may be the way it occurs /
shows
up
for us only. When I'm not mindful that she, he, and
the world
don't necessarily occur /
show up
that way for everyone, and I hold my "is" to be
inviolately factual, it's like a black cat bringing bad
luck:
it's a superstition.
"There is no
'is'"
is arguably the distinction in
Werner Erhard's vast
library of distinctions.
A black cat bringing bad
luck,
is a superstition. Like that, consider "is" may be a
superstition.
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I:
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Who you mean when you
say 'I' is not you. It's just something that shows up for
you.
Look: no skilled surgeon with even the sharpest
scalpel
could ever take out your "I" like an appendix, let alone find
it. There is no "I". It doesn't exist. And yet ...
we live, breathe, and act as if there's a real "I" that we are,
inside
us. What's more likely the case is
who we really are,
is the space ie the context in which our
experience of this thing we call "I", shows
up.
Yet we refer to our "I" as us without question like a black cat
bringing bad
luck.
"I" is but a superstition too, one that's been in our folk lore
for a long, long time.
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BECAUSE:
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"Because" may be the simplest of the three superstitions to
illustrate. Yet it
demonstrably
has the furthest reach in our lives. "Why are you this way?",
"Oh, because my parents taught me to be this way",
"And why did they teach you to be this way?", "Because
their parents taught them ..." and pretty soon,
it's Adam and Eve who are responsible when I'm being a jerk -
and if it's not those two, then it's the
Big
Bang
for sure. "Because" is arbitrary. We could say the reach of
"because" is by agreement alone. Consider the
possibility of the only "because" that's of any use (with any
power) is "Because I say so.".
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