Beyond Success

So what is worthwhile? How do you define success? These questions have been part of a long-running conversation I have had with my father over many, many, years. We briefly revisited the dialogue yesterday. I have struggled mightily to redefine these terms for myself. In Psychic Energy terms, 'success' is a 'perfect picture' which needs to be 'blown.' Perfect pictures are ideals or visions that are imposed on us, by society, by family, by our own hopes and dreams. We can live without perfect pictures, in fact, these pictures blind us to the ever-expanding now. To see clearly, to live in 'clarity,' one must constantly examine the pictures we carry, and destroy those that do not work for us.

As that great rock and roll poet, Jimi Hendrix once said, 'I'm the one who has to die, when it's my time to die.' There is tremendous freedom in being able to re-define the world, moment by moment, brick by brick. We create the world we choose to live in. The responsibility is ours. We do not have to accept the judgements of others. We do not have to accept the perfect pictures of others, or even those we call our own. We can accept that as 'human beings,' perfection is an illusion.

We live in a world of dichotomies: rich/poor, happy/sad, empty/fulfilled, success/failure. We can be crucified on the cross of each of these dichotomies, or we can dismantle the crosses, and create new uses for the wood. Tom Waits: "Come down off the cross, we can use the wood... come on up to the house."