What was once strong and lively has withered and begun to seep into the earth to begin the cycle once again.
It is possible for us to understand from nature that there is definitely an impermanence - yet also in this constance of change a never-changing characteristic - to life; also important, is for us to realize that although we may wither and fade a fraction of our life's dreams and goals will remain and may even possibly change the pattern of the world which we live.
At my school, in Hongo, there are two large Camphor trees(楠) of tremendous size which protect the students from the rain while the students eat their lunches. From some unfortunate machination of the gardeners at the school the trees have allowed themselves to be bent into unnatural and presumably not long-lasting forms merely for the school to show-off (as I doubt the school intended them for protecting its students).
Not entirely surprising, from the nature of my school, but quite a direct display of the mindset of the world around me. To what extent will we force others around us just for our own comfort? For what reason must we show off to be recognized - to have our meager existence accepted by those around us? In actuality, this has recently been an issue, dare I say a dilemma to myself as of late.
We are raised, in America at least, to make our opinions known and to not bend in the face of opposition. Yet in this we are committing an obvious mistake. Although, by no means, through displaying our opinions are we doing anything bad per se, the issue is that through this ignorance of other options or what may even be closer to the truth we are committing a mistake.
I remember in high school when there was a debate between pro-lifers and pro-choicers. The teacher defined as this argument as having two sides - none other - and forced his students to choose one side versus the other. The fact is, in hindsight, that although I was on the side of pro-life, my personal opinion had nothing to do with the other side or my own judgement of the other side. I had several friends who had had abortions and would never look at them as anything less than the great, wise people who I could talk with. This, as I hope you can see, is where the issue with the current debate system lies. We all seek - even to a fault - our own existence, be it in our ideas or faiths. From my individual perspective, that is all good and well, however to deny the other side we are cutting off room for development as not only an individual but also as a society (or, should I say other sides - as my teacher could have stated and proved his intelligence by splitting the classroom into fifths. One side for pro-life (and not accepting those who had had abortions or approve of abortions), pro-choice (who does not accept pro-lifers), pro-life (who would only personally not choose to go through an abortion themselves), pro-choice (who accept pro-lifers' opinions and may or may not go through an abortion themselves), or people in the other category to accept the variation in human thought...this is also ignoring the fact that it takes two to tango but we shall avoid that in this discussion).
In any case, to return to the point of seeking out to prove our individual existences I would rather like to point out the importance of being accepting of others and their myriad opinions. Defending yourself and your opinions is like fighting in the Crusades - foolish and of the past. In this day and age it is more important to see the variance of thought processes and be welcoming of that - despite the fact that it may incur contradiction on your behalf.
To finish, I wrote the title "Imagine Nothing" on a notepad in reaction to something I had watched on YouTube ( have no idea what that was now) but clearly it had some importance at the time so I will give it respect and write it here. I gave it a thought and noticed that while I attempt to imagine nothing something always takes form in that - I assume that everyone else is the same and have thoughts that change as the colors of the falling Gingko leaves. Although they appear uniform together, they have their own distinct weaknesses and differences - which make them all the more beautiful...
