Grace and Life

   Grace involves being able to accept one's flaws as indicative of the need for help. Coming from a Christian perspective, this could mean the chief sin is one's belief that they are self-sufficient: the sin of "pride", in other words. From a Buddhist perspective, it's the belief in a reified sense of self. According to both views, our need to control things and to 'play God' with ourselves is not only the root of suffering but also our biggest burden.

   Grace can come from the breath. When I breathe, I remind myself that there is more to "me" than just my thoughts and worries. Also, simply looking--using my senses and being mindful of the surroundings--can be one helpful reminder that my being in this world is not sustained through thoughts. On the other hand, when I try to subsume everything under a single overarching thought, that is like trying to swallow the ocean. It's simply impossible.

    Random coincidence is one way we remember that our life story is not within our control. Things come together just as they fall apart, not with any overarching plan per se, but just like mathematical combinations and permutations. There is a certain refreshment in the view of evolution, because it stresses that things are shifting, and there is no set, determined fate to things. An organism survives not because of its own inner strength, but because of the way it adapts to the things around it, and vice versa.

   There is no need to coerce or influence anyone using ideologies. This only chains us to one idea that ends up exhausting itself, like very cheesy fashion that we look back on from decades past and wonder how people could wear it. Sometimes we don't need to live linearly but we can draw various parallels from one thing to another, and this is enough to make an interesting pattern and connection. We can then wipe it away the next day like sand castles on the tides.