The Sequence of Fortunate Events

I am very fortunate to be living right at the seashore. When I get up in the morning, I can go right out to the beach if I don't have any classes scheduled for the morning. When you look out at the ocean, especially in the off season when there fewer people around, it seems to be a metaphor for just about everything.

Sometimes, I will walk along the beach and look for seaglass. Seaglass is basically discarded glass bottles that have fallen into the ocean, broke into many different pieces, and then land on the ocean floor where time, water, salt, and movement smooth out the jagged edges. The pieces of glass are moved back to the beach after many years by storms, rough waves, and every day tides. After the tide moves out, you can see a few glistening pieces here and there.

Seaglass is not really that easy to find. Mostly there are rocks and shells on the beach in large numbers. Finding seaglass is like finding a needle in a haystack. It's best to concentrate on what you are doing to find it. If you are walking along talking to someone, you will not have enough directed attention to find seaglass. You have to focus yourself to look for certain colors like green, brown, rose, and milk of magnesia blue. Milk of Magnesia blue is extremely rare because they don't make blue glass bottles anymore. When your attention is directed in this way, looking for seaglass becomes a type of walking meditation. After I come back, I feel like i've been on a "Mental Vacation". Most of my mental energy has been spent lately on ways to make a living, running from class to class or client to client......getting stuff done. Repetitive thoughts of various kinds start to become boring and stale. When you are walking along, allowing the wind to blow through your hair, breathing the fresh sea air, looking for your desired object, you can get away from your usual mudane issues.

I never find a lot of seaglass, so what I do find has "special-ness". I've found a few pieces of milk of magnesia glass but no more than 2 or 3. I found an ambered colored piece that still says "no retu" on it. I found part of the very top of an old milk bottle that is still rounded. There's a connection between the bottle's past and the present moment when i'm finding and picking up this piece of glass.......sequences of events from past to present.......recovering something that has been discarded and broken ,and smoothed and changed by forces greater than itself. These ideas are halligraphic and true for everything on the planet.
I often think about sequences of events in my life. .....all of the people that i've known and all of the different experiences that i've had. I bet you do the same...wondering what is happening when things come back around again changed and made new by forces beyond your own control.

In Master Patanjali's Yoga Sutra(book 2, 2.1)--That which is seen is there to serve the seer. Our world is made up of many different events, some good and some bad. All of it is there, however, to point out something. You don't have experiences just to say," I've had so many experiences." Something is meant to unfold. You noticing the unfolding with your careful attention......that is what Master Patanjali is saying.