sing in me, oh muse, and through me tell the story of the man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end.

homer. the odysee

knowing certain things to be is one of the few benefits of aging. a certain wisdom comes to being that was not there in youth. to be sure footed feels good, but it has its problems. everything is two-sided, and this confidence and insistence on a way or choice is what lets others get ahead. its gets us into trouble, it causes fights and does not allow us to see the others side. we become afraid of change. our confidence bred from old age is the same things that make us more rigid, less childlike.

“Before a man studies Zen, to him mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen through the instruction of a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; but after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more mountains and waters are waters.

According to Seigen Ishin (Ch’ing-yüan Wei-hsin)

to know you are wrong in your insistence that you are right is one of the many paradoxes of life. to take a look at things fresh each day, to marvel at it all and laugh at yourself is important. if you happen to live long enough, god will do it for you when he turns all of us back into children. the wise successful kings and titans will be slurping their food and shitting in their pants as time proves them that their rigid sure footedness is wrong.

to be foolish in it all, the marvel at the minute and to never believe your own wisdom is one way. when the ego grows, usually with age, a separation between who you are what you think you are happens. older and wiser, your actions are limited and your defenses always up in a world where they are coming after your things and your time. understanding that it is all transient, a child leaves his toys at rest in the playground and runs into eat his meal.