'I'

Our lives revolve around the 'I'. Nature grants us with only two 'I' , the body and the mind. From the moment of birth, our definition of the 'I' has expanded to such monstrous diversity that it would be no exaggeration to call it a universe of its own. There seems to be infinite appendages to the binary entity of 'I'; 'my house', 'my belongings', 'my friends', 'my convictions', 'my fears' -- these are all manifestations of the 'I'.

Our consumerist society has futher inflated the already voluminous 'I'. We are ushered through innumerable streams, rivers, and the entire seas of desireables , the packets of with we are sorely tempted to add to the appendages of the 'I'. We want to hold all these things , all of them, close to us, close to our extensions, breathing in every bit of them until there is no bit of them left.

It is a sad thing that we cannot see beauty, watch it hatch and unfurl and radiate itself through this world, without wanting it. We cannot see beauty as it is, as it exists, without feeling the need to exert something on it. We are eternally driven to see nature as a marketplace and beauty as a commodity waiting to be bought or sold. In the end, we become walking Christmas trees teeming with items of desire.

We are but one existence. Nature is also one existence, one housing many moments of wonder, joy, and unconditional feelings. Beauty , which resides in nature, is not an item to be packed and shipped away to the black hole of the 'I'. It is there. It exists. It is there to be experienced, to be flowed through, to feel the togetherness in its presence. And it deserves to be respected, not bought and sold.

The life-changing moment comes when one manages to view commodity not as viable appendages to our egotic organism, but as an experience, a leaf falling from the skies of creation towards its gradual tapering and finally nonexistence. The mind then becomes what the Taoists call 'empty'. The 'I' is left with its original duality. Nothing else can attach me anymore.

- Naychi

22nd November, 2018

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-electric-christmas-tree-lights-1773789