Patterns

As we begin to become aware of the narrative patterns
around which we structure our lives,
we learn how to take charge, revise, refine,
and even completely rewrite them.

Chapter One of My Life.  I walk down the street. There's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in.
I am lost. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It still takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two.  I walk down the same street. There's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I'm in the same place! But it isn't my fault. And it still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three.  I walk down the same street. There's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there. I still fall in. It's a habit! My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter Four.  I walk down the same street. There's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter Five.  I walk down a different street.

There are patterns which emerge in one’s life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation on a theme. So musicians say the greatest sonatas are composed; whether or not it is true, I do not know, but of a surety I have seen it emerge in the tapestry of my life.

Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them,
we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.

Our patterns are well established, seductive, and comforting. Just wanting for them to be ventilated isn’t enough. Those of us who struggle with this know.

Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum and don’t interrupt our patterns slightly. When we feel betrayed or disappointed, does it occur to us to practice?

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns

To transcend means to “go beyond,” but this need not compel us to an ornate dualist view that regards transcendent levels of reality (e.g., the spiritual level) to be not of this world. We can “go beyond” the “ordinary” powers of the material world through the power of patterns. Rather than a materialist, I would prefer to consider myself a “patternist.” It’s through the emergent powers of the pattern that we transcend.

Making mental connections is our most crucial learning tool, the essence of human intelligence; to forge links; to go beyond the given; to see patterns, relationships, context.

Do not become paralyzed and enchained by the set patterns which have been woven of old.  No, build from your own youthful feeling, your own groping thought and your own flowering perception.