The experience

Ryan and I were talking last night in Yosemite over beer and pizza...  about the different ways to engage the experience of life.    It seems that so much of our energy is devoted to comprehension, perfection and recitation, we sometimes forget how to 'experience'..   or to be swept away be 'the experience'.     I have met many people over the last month..  I have traveled all over the map..     and I am finding that there is such a difference between those who know and understand life  ... and those who can't help but lose themselves inside it..     like the difference between a person who plays an instrument well, and knows everything about it..  about "how" to play,  the technique and theory..     and the person who plays out of sheer devotion to sound and energy.    Such a contrast..  
   The Tao talks about the beauty of understanding nothing...  and I imagine that is a beautiful paradox,.. it points to how we begin to "see" each other and places and animals and water... and everything else..    with an openness and an un-decided /  un-resolute attitude.     When our minds are not made-up, then they are still open.    I think this leads to a respect and a pleasure for our universe's expanding wonder.  


Andrew Tipton