The New Year is a painting not yet painted; a path not yet stepped on; a wing not yet taken off!
Things haven’t happened as yet!
Before the clock strikes twelve, remember that you are blessed with the ability to reshape your life! – Mehmet Murat ildan
A MEDITATION ON SUCCESS
He figured he was maybe about ten, or certainly twelve, years old when he had his first existential crisis.
Precocious isn’t always a good thing.
An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions if their life has meaning, purpose, or value. It may be commonly, but not necessarily, tied to depression or inevitably negative speculations on purpose in life (e.g., “if one day I will be forgotten, what is the point of all of my work?”). This issue of the meaning and purpose of human existence is a major focus of the philosophical tradition of existentialism.
He was a baby, a kid, a child. Nothing he could do. And ain’t that the crux of it all.
Existentialism (/ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃəlɪzəm/) is a tradition of philosophical inquiry associated mainly with certain 19th and 20th-century European philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity.
A Lumberjack in Northern Arizona when he finally figured some shit out.
In the view of the existentialist, the individual’s starting point is characterized by what has been called “the existential attitude”, or a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.
He ran in that thin air, thousands of miles of snow and trails and Ponderosa pines and red roads. Logging trucks with big mirrors on narrow roads. Up and down, to and from that observatory, a certain spiritual experience.
The term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 (Chan) which traces its roots to the Indian practice of Dhyāna (“meditation”). Zen emphasizes rigorous self-control, meditation-practice, insight into Buddha-nature, and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others.
He became a zen existentialist.
Hard to do, even if you skip all that ‘benefit others’ part.
Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher, though he did not use the term existentialism. He proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or “authentically”.
The old man generally considered himself to have been the first zen existentialist.
First thing you learn is, philosophizing is hard word.
Honest to Godness, that was a Freudian split. Meant ‘hard work.’
Zen existentialism can best be summed up by the my first koan, somewhat legendary,
if nobody says anything in the forest, does a tree still hear it?
Be still.
Did you hear that?
I didn’t think so.
Listen.
Shssssh.
Be still.
Or not.
The old man had been studying the relationship between the zen existentialist artist and success.
What is success?
Success for the zen existentialist artist is acclaim after you can’t hear it.
You keep working even if no one is listening.
No one is listening yet. You don’t care.
Find your voice. Create your style. Be authentic. Do the work.
Just because no one is listening now doesn’t mean you won’t make some noise later on.
Might even be an echo.