accidental
December 2007 
The Intrusive Spirit & Accidental Evolution
Posted on Nov 3rd, 2006
by 
David Jon
David Jon
Adapt or die!
In a world such as the one that we now find ourselves in events are constantly challenging our homeostatic inclinations. We are being pushed constantly. Nothing is static. And yet we have this way of falling into 'ruts' and 'comfort zones' that we don't like to be far from. It is as if they become 'home' for us--if only in the psychological sense.
Some have called this Power moving the ever-changing, fluxual nature of events 'Fate'... others 'Destiny'... and others yet, 'Spirit.' Some have called it 'blind chance' or 'dumb luck.' Still another group might label the shifting nature of a world constantly testing our adaptability as the direct result of this process Darwin named 'natural selection.'
Adapt or perish indeed!
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Sometimes I feel like the staunchest biologist--the one who owes all of his or her philosophical tenets to the strictest form of materialism--is not that far away from the often-whacky flower-power of the ever-smiling New-Age Life Coach encouraging his or her clients to 'rwach for the stars.' In both cases there is a sense that real success in life--be it evolutionary or enlightenmentary--is the result of being able to flow with and adapt to events that just seem to happen and come out of nowhere. The creature that adapts must readily to the events unfolding in her or her proximity will be the healthiest among all of those creatures and beings that are required to adapt to the Inherent Flux of the Floral and Faunal World.
You've got to 'roll with the changes' as the 1970's rock group REO Speedwagon once sang it. Changes are inevitable. Buddha said so. Darwin said so. Deepak Chopra said so!! No really, I saw him fundraising for PBS and he said so. He really did! ; o )
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Oddly enough, though, after thousands of years of the same message being repeated in countless forms, in numerous locales, through all manner of song, poetry, sacred text, dance, and drama... the fact of inherent change (and our requirement to adapt to the altering events taking place around us) is... well... to put it lightly.... not very friggin' easy at all. For all we know about change and the altering of the landscape we walk in, as, and through day-after-day anmd night-upon-night we still seem to be a species capable of kicking and screaming violently when we are initially faced with the prospect of change.
"Nope!! Not me!! I'm not gonna do it!!"
Besides, it is against my values. ; o)
_____________________________________________________________
But who wins the War? Isn't it Fate... Destiny... Spirit... God... Dumb Luck... Blind Chance? Isn't the (non)Accidental Universe, in all of its gruesome Glory, the ultimate victor when we go to-to-toe with this Mysterious Power that we have named and narrated; and yet, in spite of that, still eludes all of our labels and definitions, our schemes and agendas?
Ultimately our trifling efforts to encapsulate the nature of what is going on are exposed for what they are: our attempts to measure the Immeasurable falter in the face of a Situation that always and forevermore exceeds our capacity to get our heads or our hearts around IT. Which is why I contend that ultimately it is a matter of allowing IT to peremeate and saturate our own consciousness.... our own person.... our own song and dance routine here on this dusty stage where scenes play out with nary a pause in between them.
We can't get our heads and our hearts around IT.... because we can't step outside of IT---be it Fate or Chance or Dumb Luck.... Spirit or Source or Suchness or the Great Whatever!! We are THAT... we are the 'dumb luck' and the 'blind chance' and the 'selfish genes' and the 'Fate' and the 'Destiny' and the Accidental Evolution and the Intrusive Spirit all rolled into one great big California Roll at the Sushi Bar of THIS!
Which is why I would dare to end this in the awareness that 'This is not happening to us,' as much as 'We are all happening.'
In a world such as the one that we now find ourselves in events are constantly challenging our homeostatic inclinations. We are being pushed constantly. Nothing is static. And yet we have this way of falling into 'ruts' and 'comfort zones' that we don't like to be far from. It is as if they become 'home' for us--if only in the psychological sense.
Some have called this Power moving the ever-changing, fluxual nature of events 'Fate'... others 'Destiny'... and others yet, 'Spirit.' Some have called it 'blind chance' or 'dumb luck.' Still another group might label the shifting nature of a world constantly testing our adaptability as the direct result of this process Darwin named 'natural selection.'
Adapt or perish indeed!
_________________________________________________________
Sometimes I feel like the staunchest biologist--the one who owes all of his or her philosophical tenets to the strictest form of materialism--is not that far away from the often-whacky flower-power of the ever-smiling New-Age Life Coach encouraging his or her clients to 'rwach for the stars.' In both cases there is a sense that real success in life--be it evolutionary or enlightenmentary--is the result of being able to flow with and adapt to events that just seem to happen and come out of nowhere. The creature that adapts must readily to the events unfolding in her or her proximity will be the healthiest among all of those creatures and beings that are required to adapt to the Inherent Flux of the Floral and Faunal World.
You've got to 'roll with the changes' as the 1970's rock group REO Speedwagon once sang it. Changes are inevitable. Buddha said so. Darwin said so. Deepak Chopra said so!! No really, I saw him fundraising for PBS and he said so. He really did! ; o )
___________________________________________________________
Oddly enough, though, after thousands of years of the same message being repeated in countless forms, in numerous locales, through all manner of song, poetry, sacred text, dance, and drama... the fact of inherent change (and our requirement to adapt to the altering events taking place around us) is... well... to put it lightly.... not very friggin' easy at all. For all we know about change and the altering of the landscape we walk in, as, and through day-after-day anmd night-upon-night we still seem to be a species capable of kicking and screaming violently when we are initially faced with the prospect of change.
"Nope!! Not me!! I'm not gonna do it!!"
Besides, it is against my values. ; o)
_____________________________________________________________
But who wins the War? Isn't it Fate... Destiny... Spirit... God... Dumb Luck... Blind Chance? Isn't the (non)Accidental Universe, in all of its gruesome Glory, the ultimate victor when we go to-to-toe with this Mysterious Power that we have named and narrated; and yet, in spite of that, still eludes all of our labels and definitions, our schemes and agendas?
Ultimately our trifling efforts to encapsulate the nature of what is going on are exposed for what they are: our attempts to measure the Immeasurable falter in the face of a Situation that always and forevermore exceeds our capacity to get our heads or our hearts around IT. Which is why I contend that ultimately it is a matter of allowing IT to peremeate and saturate our own consciousness.... our own person.... our own song and dance routine here on this dusty stage where scenes play out with nary a pause in between them.
We can't get our heads and our hearts around IT.... because we can't step outside of IT---be it Fate or Chance or Dumb Luck.... Spirit or Source or Suchness or the Great Whatever!! We are THAT... we are the 'dumb luck' and the 'blind chance' and the 'selfish genes' and the 'Fate' and the 'Destiny' and the Accidental Evolution and the Intrusive Spirit all rolled into one great big California Roll at the Sushi Bar of THIS!
Which is why I would dare to end this in the awareness that 'This is not happening to us,' as much as 'We are all happening.'
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