postcards from nowhere

Greetings!

Last week I spent an energizing and stimulating afternoon with a friend 
that I haven't seen for a while.  She asked me a question that sent my 
mind into a tailspin of intrigue, and as you are about to see, I still 
haven't recovered from it.  Although the exact words are lost to me at 
this particular moment, the basic thrust of it was this:

What if nothing we believe in is really true?

Which reminded me of a card I have on my desk from the Toltec Wisdom Deck
by Don Miguel Ruiz:

Even the opinions you have about yourself are not necessarily true; 
therefore, you don't need to take whatever you hear in your own mind 
personally.

Kind of disconcerting, isn't it?  It brings back memories of one of my 
more radical college professors who loved to shake us all up. 

One day, he casually mentioned that the only reason the floor felt solid 
when we stepped on it was because by mutual agreement we had all accepted
it as a fact that floors supported our weight. But actually, floors are 
made up of atoms with infinite space between them, and aren't solid at 
all.  (or something like that.  college was quite a few brain cells ago.)  
So therefore, any of us could fall right through the floor if at any time
we forgot that it was supposed to be solid.

Mass cultural hypnosis convinces us that solidity (is that a real word?) 
is the truth to such a degree that the mind directs the body to act as 
if it were so.  Makes you wonder what other lies you've got yourself 
believing, doesn't it?  Are we like the people who are told while under 
hypnosis that they are on fire, and begin to run around in a panic, 
screaming in pain?  

Which reminds me of a joke about a hypnotist who dropped his antique 
watch while hypnotizing the entire audience. Absentmindedly, he muttered,
"shit!"

It took three weeks to clean up the theater.

ok, sorry, back to the postcard.  Are we being helpful if we put out a 
delusional fire with a delusional fire extinguisher? Maybe it would be 
kinder to wake our friends out of the hypnosis so they can see the truth 
for themselves -- there is no fire.  Yes, it's obscure.  But hopefully 
someone out there has some vague idea of what I'm talking about. 

For those who don't, I guess I should try to get around to making a point.
But I'm not sure there is one ... ok, here, how about this one:

Hold very lightly to what you believe to be true.  You might be wrong!  
Don't be like those monkeys who starve to death with their hand clenched 
around a banana in a jar with an opening too small to let the banana out.
Let go of the banana.  We'll get you something else to eat.

ok, here's another point, for those who like a variety of choices:

Don't take the limits in your mind too seriously.  They could be totally 
arbitrary!  Test them, push them, try to change your mind about them, 
and see what happens.

well, folks, that's it for today.  Short and sweet.  I'm too busy testing
the limits in my mind to write much.  But don't worry, I'm sure I'll get 
bored with that at some point and write about something useful again!

Take care,

karen