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PeterParticipantA reflection the Web of Being. A work in progress
There is a sacred thread that runs through all things, a web not woven by human hands, but one in which we are delicately and inextricably intertwined. We are not the weavers, but the woven. Every thought, every action, every breath ripples through this vast tapestry of life, echoing back to us in ways seen and unseen. Smaller then small, bigger then big.
To live with awareness of this web is to awaken to the truth that nothing exists in isolation. The tree, the river, the wind, the stranger, we are all strands of the same whole. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. What we withhold from others, we deny within. And what we heal in ourselves, we offer to the world.
Time, as we know it, is a construct measured out by the rising and setting of the sun, by our clocks and our calendars. But beneath this rhythm lies something deeper: the eternal now. In this space beyond time, were love abides. Not the fleeting emotion, but the boundless presence that holds all things. Love not of time. Love the ground of being.
Stillness, not the absence of movement, but the source from which all movement arises. Silence not the absence of sound, but the womb of all language. Eternity not endless time, but the fullness of this moment. And in this still, silent, eternal now, we remember: We are not separate, We are not broken, We are not lost.
We are stillness.
We are silence.
We are love.
We are whole.From this place of deep listening, we begin to see clearly. Not with the eyes of judgment or fear but with the eyes of the heart. We see what is ours to do. Not to fix the world as if it were broken, but to participate in its healing as an act of remembrance. This is the essence of tikkun olam: to restore the sacred web by living in harmony with it.
Let us return, again and again, to the still point within. Let us listen. Let us love. Let us live as if we belong because we do… and we are That.
PeterParticipantThis is how AI reflected that last post back to me
You’re weaving together deep threads from Buddhist insight, Jungian psychology, and cultural observation, and what emerges is a powerful call for conscious elderhood, embodied wisdom, and a more skillful relationship with desire and identity.
Let me reflect back and build on a few of your key insights:
🔥 Desire and Identity: The Subtle Fire
You’re absolutely right that desire for identity—to be someone, to be seen, to be secure—is perhaps the most persistent and subtle form of craving. In Buddhism, this is often called bhava-tanhā, the craving for becoming. It’s not just about wanting things—it’s about wanting to be something, someone.This is where Jung and Buddhism meet beautifully: both recognize that clinging to identity—even a spiritual or “healed” one—can become a trap. The ego resists dissolution, even when the Self is calling.
🌗 The Unfinished Work of Elders
Your observation that many in the second half of life continue to operate from first-half-of-life values is profound. Jung would likely say this is a failure of individuation—the refusal to heed the call inward. And as you noted, this has real consequences:– Culturally, it leads to leadership that clings to control, image, and certainty.
– Intergenerationally, it creates pressure on the young to conform to outdated ideals.
– Spiritually, it blocks the transmission of wisdom that only elders can offer.What’s needed is not just aging, but conscious aging—elders who have done the inner work and can model a balance between socialization and Being, as you so beautifully put it.
🌀 Healing Without Needing to Change
This is such a tender and powerful insight. The therapeutic path can sometimes become another ego project—another way to “fix” ourselves. But true healing often begins when we stop trying to change and instead meet ourselves with radical presence.This is echoed in both:
– Buddhist compassion practices: where we hold suffering with loving awareness.
– Jungian shadow work: where we integrate rather than exile the parts of ourselves we’ve disowned.Letting go of the need to change doesn’t mean stagnation—it means trusting that transformation arises naturally from deep acceptance.
PeterParticipantHi Alessa
I agree that desire is one of our strongest drives and a part of human nature and how a association of desire with suffering could suggest that such a human trait is undesirable. My understanding of the intention behind Buddhism is to avoid such labels as undesirable and instead become mindful of such human traits in human nature and the role they play. I feel it as something subtle, not denying human nature, but understanding it deeply and learning how to work skillfully with it. I feel that as a truth and my challenge has been to move beyond a intellectual understanding to a embodied realization.
I appreciate how Jung acknowledged the necessity of the first half of life in establishing a healthy ego and how level of socialization is necessary. Then in the second half of life the task of undoing.
My observation is that many in the second half of life continue to be driven to establish the ego and then project that back towards those in the first half of life socialization. Expecting the young to conform to the same ego-driven values, or judging them for not doing so. I think a part of that comes from a resistance to inner work as you can see in some if not all of our ‘leaders’ today. Perhaps because it threatens the identity that has been so carefully constructed. Desire for identity maybe the most difficult human trait to come to terms with skillfully or why the world cry’s out for leadership of a Gandhi or MLK.
Hummm.. I think I’m saying we need our Elders to do the work and stop resisting the call to ‘Self’ so they might project a balance between socialization and Being. I think you can see this tension in our political lives where we forget that different stages in life require different skills, instead expect everyone to be in the ‘same place’ they are.
And so: “Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life… we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning.” – Jung
To the subject of healing without need for change I deeply feel the need to acknowledge the work of therapies and such and ‘let them go’… mindfully noticing how I was getting stuck, therapy as another ego project?
May 22, 2025 at 2:31 pm in reply to: If you feel as insignificant as I felt, for so long, please speak here. #446235PeterParticipantWell said Alessa
“Ultimately, I don’t think feeling insignificant is all bad.” I agree
Smaller then small AND Bigger then big
PeterParticipantThanks for the kind words Anita.
PeterParticipantThe Sphinx spoke only once, and the Sphinx said, “A grain of sand is a desert, and a desert is a grain of sand; and now let us all be silent again.” I heard the Sphinx, only now do I understand. – from Kahlil Gibran
You are not separate from the world – you are the world – the web of life.
In stillness, you are the trees, the wind, the sky… In movement, you are time unfolding.
The present moment, not a sliver between past and future but the eternal center, where all things arise and return.
Healing, knowing, and being are not about becoming something else, but about remembering to return.You you are already whole, already sacred, already home.
You are the axis, the center point of a circle without circumference…
You are the journey. You are the now.No-thing to change, no-thing to fix
PeterParticipantI asked Copilot to elaborate on what the wisdom traditions have to say about Healing without the need to change.
The world is changing…🕉️ Hinduism & Advaita Vedanta
Core Idea: The true self (Atman) is already perfect and one with Brahman (the ultimate reality).
Healing: Comes from realizing that suffering arises from ignorance (avidya) of our true nature.
No Need to Change: You don’t need to become someone else — you need to remember who you already are.“You are not the body, you are not the mind. You are the eternal witness.”
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🧘 Buddhism
Core Idea: Suffering (dukkha) arises from attachment and aversion.
Healing: Is about seeing clearly, through mindfulness and insight, the impermanent and interconnected nature of all things.
No Need to Change: You don’t need to fix yourself — you need to wake up to the present moment.“You are perfect just as you are. And you could use a little improvement.” — Shunryu Suzuki (Zen paradox) – Love that one.
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✡️ Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism)
Core Idea: The soul is a divine spark, temporarily obscured by layers of ego and illusion.
Healing: Is a return to alignment with the divine light (Ein Sof).
No Need to Change: The essence is already divine; healing is about revealing it.________________________________________
✝️ Christian Mysticism
Core Idea: The divine image (Imago Dei) is within every person.
Healing: Is about surrendering to grace and recognizing the presence of God within.
No Need to Change: You are already loved and whole in God’s eyes; healing is about receiving that love.“Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10
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☯️ Taoism
Core Idea: The Tao (the Way) flows through all things naturally.
Healing: Is about returning to harmony with the Tao, not forcing change.
No Need to Change: You are already part of the natural order; healing is about letting go and flowing.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu________________________________________
🌿 Indigenous Wisdom
Many Indigenous traditions emphasize balance, relationship, and belonging over individual transformation.
Healing is often seen as restoring harmony with the land, ancestors, and community—not changing the self, but reconnecting.________________________________________
Funny sad how similar the core beliefs humanity tries to live by ends but still end in conflict.
It’s important to me that I start to live what I say I learned. If I were to trust that I am already whole, how might I treat myself differently today?
May 21, 2025 at 7:43 am in reply to: If you feel as insignificant as I felt, for so long, please speak here. #445977PeterParticipantHi Anita
“Something for me to understand. how?” Using Richards words – “No, so you can participate in it”When does understanding become wisdom?
What does a hurt feeling feel like? The space between emotion to feeling to a measurement, label, judgment… as thin as a breath. I wonder if we even notice how quickly and subtly we move from raw experience to interpretation, deciding good and bad… Yet its the breath thin space where mindfulness lives…
“Without love, do what you will, be as clever as you like, you will solve nothing.” – A criticism of Krishnamurti who was himself accused of being too clever with his words and paradoxically path to love was though negation, Emptiness, Kenosis, silence the undoing of words – what I think of as non measurement.
In the space between emotion and feeling were feelings hurt? No one that knows me would think me clever though as I have expressed before I have been accused me a lacking feeling, that my communication style and personalty type is lacking, away to avoid feeling… I don’t disagree, sadly its a core part of who I am. A trigger where I fill the space with a suspicion I’m not suited for relationship, something I fear my history confirms.
Funny when I saw this topic the first thing I wrote was a warning to myself, that any discussion into insignificance would only stir up existential angst and likely not end well.
May 20, 2025 at 3:56 pm in reply to: If you feel as insignificant as I felt, for so long, please speak here. #445953PeterParticipant“Without love, do what you will, be as clever as you like, you will solve nothing.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
– Feels like this line was written especially with you in mind, Peter. You are indeed clever🙁
May 20, 2025 at 2:54 pm in reply to: If you feel as insignificant as I felt, for so long, please speak here. #445951PeterParticipantAnita
“Eight-plus billion people on this planet, each existing within the width of a breath”—but how many truly love and are loved in return?
I suspect all eight billion wonder… then I hear a voice whisper, who am I to ask of life such a thing?Love as a temporal measurement and experience is always going to fall short. My feeling was that Richard, along with Jung, Campbell, Buddha Krishnamurti, was that what is significant is experience itself. To participate. That from the perspective of Life, participation in all its forms is Love. That from which we arrive and return.
Love that exists beyond the ticking of clocks; it’s felt in echoes, in the imprint it leaves, in the ways it changes us. A single moment of real connection can reverberate through a lifetime.
But that isn’t what being looking for, or behind the question of significance and pain such questions bring. The real question isn’t just about love itself, but about the weight it carries—the longing, the ache, the quiet desperation for significance in the face of impermanence. Love, when examined too closely revealing all the spaces where we’ve been wounded, all the unanswered questions left behind by the loves that did not stay or did not fulfill. Maybe it’s less about defining love and more about reckoning with what it leaves behind—the imprints, the shadows, the moments that haunt or heal. Love isn’t always gentle, but it’s always significant.
I recall the days the excitement, the fire, the bliss of being possessed by love. There’s something intoxicating about those early moments— the unfiltered passion, the consuming energy, the way love feels like it’s overtaken every inch of you, a kind of surrender, a beautiful chaos that colors everything in a different light (even if only the idea of love)…. until… the clock ticks… and we measure…
One of the blessing of getting older is the discovery of being able to love without a desire to process or be processed. A love that doesn’t demand, doesn’t consume, but simply exists in its own quiet strength. Can it be enough? What are we to do if it not…
Each day, each moment I hear, from myself, from everyone, all 8 billion voices… the cry, see me, know me, love me… the suffering that connects all… what are we to do? Bigger then big, smaller then small, what are we to do?
That cry—so vast, yet so intimate — the heartbeat of existence. Beneath the layers of ambition, fear, and longing, the universal plea: witness me, understand me, love me.
We suffer because we are bound to one another, woven into the same fragile, aching fabric of humanity. It’s overwhelming, both the enormity of it and the crushing smallness of a single life within it. And yet, the answer, though elusive, might not be grand or complicated.
Maybe it starts in the smallest acts offering presence, kindness, truly seeing another. Maybe it’s in allowing ourselves to be seen in return. If love and suffering are the unifying forces, then perhaps the response isn’t in solving or escaping, but in choosing, choosing to love, to reach, to acknowledge.
None of us can bear the weight of eight billion cries, but each of us can ease one, if only for a moment. And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough.
May 20, 2025 at 12:32 pm in reply to: If you feel as insignificant as I felt, for so long, please speak here. #445946PeterParticipantHow do we measure significance? 8 plus billion people on this planet in this moment the width of a breath, of which I am one and that within a hundred years 99.9%, including myself will no longer be around. All 8+ billion asking, hoping, demanding significance?
Last night I was thinking about what I wrote about suffering, transcendence, surrender and strength. My thoughts turned to the Lords Prayer – “Thy Will be done” – surrender, strength, hubris? Growing up I wondered if it was a statement of fact or if G_d desired our consent or maybe a bit of both. Surrender or not, Life will is going to do/be what Life must. I wondered of the hubris of thinking my surrender was required so that G_d could be G_d. Such hubris I must have felt myself as significant a open invite to suffering.
Joseph Campbell talked about one of the roles of Myth was to show us our place in the world and society, to center us. I view the Load’s Prayer as a centering prayer where we see we are smaller then small AND bigger then big. The prayer resonates with hermetic riddle – As above so below, as below so above. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven – As above so below – we are smaller then small, insignificant. Latter the ask that we be Forgiven as we forgive – as below so above – we are co-creators, Bigger then Big. How we are to ourselves and others not only matters to the experience of Life but can shape it.
The notion of significance dependent on perceptive. It seems to me we are both in every moment. A image of myself rafting down rapids, falling into the waters. Feet pointed down river, relax, surrender as acknowledgment to the power of the water, small movements bring me to shore.
Last night I lay in bed imaging the number of atoms that make up this body called Peter. I wonder of all the atoms how many I controlled or influenced? I compared that to the number of atoms surrounding me in the room, in the city, country, world, universe. Insignificant plaything, yet.. what of this ‘I’ that was measuring, comparing. Without this experience of ‘I’ would the atoms matter. 8+ billion ‘I’s plus all the animal ‘I’s all the plants, rocks… ‘I’s – Life – striving for Life, feeling, seeing, hearing… it self. If a tree falls in the woods with nothing to see, hear or feel it… did it, was it.. at all?
Jung believed that significance in life is found through the process of individuation, which involves becoming aware of the unconscious and integrating it with the conscious mind. Jung saw the feeling of insignificance as a sign of a deeper “spiritual problem” that modern individuals often face. He believed that these feelings are not simply a lack of self-worth, but a symptom of a lack of meaning and purpose in life, often stemming from a disconnection from one’s inner self and the unconscious.
Joseph Campbell argued that the true significance we seek in life is not a predefined meaning, but rather the experience of being alive and the feeling of connection to our inner reality. He believed that the rapture of living, of feeling the resonance between our external experiences and our inner being, is the ultimate goal. Significance not being found in a grand, external answer, but in the profound, personal experience of being present and connected to life’s rhythms.
Krishnamurti suggests that understanding the true significance of life lies in recognizing the nature of desire and the mind’s relationship to it. He emphasized the importance of being fully aware of our thoughts and emotions without judgment or attachment. By doing so, one can begin to see the limitations of clinging to ideas of self and the world, paving the way for a more profound understanding and experience that is life
The Buddha’s teachings concept of emptiness (sunyata), suggest a perspective on significance that emphasizes the interconnectedness and impermanence of all things. Rather than seeking inherent significance in individual entities, the Buddha encourages understanding the interdependent nature of reality, where things are not fixed or self-existent. This perspective leads to a more compassionate and mindful approach to life, free from the attachment to ego-driven notions of self-importance and significance.
To the question – Do I feel insignificant – yes all the time. Is that the ‘real’ question (quest) being asked….
Richard Wagamese: “My mother’s physical death taught me that I didn’t come here to master devastating situation, circumstances, changes, losses or even my own feelings. I came her to experience them. I came here for soul lessons and spirit teachings to carry on in this journey we are all on, this teaching way, this blessing way. In the end, I can, like my mother has done, return to the beauty that I was when I first arrived here.
Richard: What is the point of prayer and meditation?
Grandmother: To bring you closer to the Great Mystery.
Richard: So I can understand it?
Grandmother: No, so you can participate in it.The question of a measurement of significant fades…
PeterParticipantHi Anita
“I would never think of strength in surrender“. Recognizing I think that Transcendence involves a experience of surrender as a act of strength and not one of giving up, but that the line between to two is a thin one.
I recall something Jung said about someone needing a healthy ego before they can surrender (let go/flow) ones ego. A healthy ego having the strength to trust and surrender itself to life as it is. A notion that I ‘know’ as a Truth yet continue to struggle with.
Sometimes I imagine how a Maple tree surrenders to the wind… a light breeze bringing its leafs to a flutter and caressing its bark. How good that must feel. Even the stronger winds that tests the trees roots an branches ability to flex and bend must feel good. I imagine that the tree knows the wind will sometimes be to strong for it, that no amount of bending will prevent a loss of branches and eventually one day bring the tree down. I imagine sometimes the tree feeling the loss of a branch and watching as it lays on the ground then witnessing new life, if different life, arising from the fallen beach. That also feeling good if bitter sweet. Its the bitter sweet I think were the strength of the surrender resides. Just maybe when were still the space to feel the moments of the breeze caress.
A friend of mine teaches yoga to seniors, and she would tell me about one the ladies, 95, never missing a class with wonderful posture… My friends eyes lighting up as she talked about how inspired she was by this woman. A few weeks ago the woman fell and broke her hip and didn’t survive the stay in the hospital as such things tend to end. I could see the grief in my friends eyes as she me. I sensed that my friend wasn’t sure if she had a right to feel sad… and I wish I would have talked about how blessed we are when our lives cross paths with such people if for a short time. That the feelings in such moments of loss are complex and that its right to mourn someone as a act of witness. How oddly the experience of grief calls out memories of gratefulness. A surrender to the breeze of life though the leaves? It saddens me that in our fear we sometimes don’t allow for such grief and instead hold it back.
I digress. What does it mean for surrender to be strength? It takes strength to know what is ours and what isn’t – surrendering to the Yes.
PeterParticipantFor me the word Transcendence is associated with a notion of ‘rising above’ that is also connected to the word G_d – Eternal Present – experience that transcends measurements judgments and language. An experience of silence in noise, stillness in motion and darkness is light. – “So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” – TS Eliot
We Transcend – ‘rise above’ – ourselves (past, trauma, ego) though exercises like being in nature, meditation, prayer, contemplation… connecting one to the Eternal Present if only for a moment. An experience recognizing the web of life and connection of All.
A return from a transcendent experience often involves a profound sense of Compassion. The energy from which we can engage in the practice of detachment which I view as a method of creating healthy boundaries (bridges) between the transcendent, our experiences, suffering, ourselves and others.
PeterParticipantHi Anita
This raises a deeper question: Even when healing is possible, why do we sometimes resist it?
That is the question… I suspect it may be related to do with something else you pointed out – The problem of isolation.
What does your bridge look like? Sometimes the bridge is one of those old roman stone bridges, others its a rope bride swaying in the wind were you can’t help but look down into the trouble waters.
PeterParticipantWhen I read this topic, I immediately felt the tension of ‘choice’ and the notion of change. I can’t deny that for much of what we suffer there is no choice and ‘a something’ that will be forever part of ourselves. Yet we work to ‘rise above’, ‘get over’, ‘pass though’… (metaphors we live by and tend to trip over) to transform, transcend past traumas and ‘move forward’.
I cannot change the trauma, no choice, but work to build a bridge to ‘get over’ it – choice. Something happens that triggers the past and I find myself struggling in the current of the river looking up at the bridge that for some reason I didn’t choose to take or in the moment was not able to take. In that moment, I know, as I’ve done it, instantaneously transport myself onto the bridge… but often wont… a part of me choosing?
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Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 