Following on from last week’s posting on Being and Not-being some further observations on the same subject.

We’ve all experienced moments when things just slowed down.

When we were not caught up with the usual humdrum and when life seemed more real and measured. No drama no remorse and no thinking what we should have said, just being.

Compare this to the frenzied state we sometimes find ourselves in where the mind churns over with relentless energy that as Shakespeare says in Hamlet, “makes calamity of so long life”.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

    To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

    But that the dread of something after death,   

    And makes us rather bear those ills we have

    Than fly to others that we know not of?

    Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,

    And thus the native hue of resolution

    Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

    And enterprises of great pith and moment

    With this regard their currents turn awry

    And lose the name of action.

In these times of emotional distress there are many who would simply like to give up life’s struggle. Once again, the wisdom of the wise comes to our aid and reminds us that we are not just a body, we are not these thoughts in the mind and that there is no need to vacillate from one opposite to another.

They remind us that the entire creation is in essence one and indivisible and if we meditate or contemplate the unity of all beings and come to understand our role in this creation then we cease being confused and troubled So to thine own self be true which again raises the question “Who am I”?

Next week we will continue pursuing the question of being and non-being and will access the thoughts and arguments of Plato on this subject.