Roads, steps and choices

There are many reasons why we do many things and make certain decisions. Our choices have consequences, which often cannot be changed. As a path that is being built as you walk it.
Roads are altered, created and destroyed as we pass through it.

We tend to use certain tools to go after our answers, and they can be linked to different things.

What is our motivation to keep going? Why are we doing what we are doing? What for? What will we do with what we learn?

I was reflecting on the things that drive us to seek certain subjects.When we want to know more about specific things. The sense of identification that each being carries within itself and which points in one direction.There is always something that draws us. A place, a culture, some history. Even if they are completely different from the life we have now. Something internally connects us to something else.
At a more basic level, we can see people in their everyday life just saying they feel an attraction to a culture, being it just for the decoration, or for the well-being that it brings.

It is very common to see Indian, Egyptian, Oriental things being used in this way. Some, respectfully, others, unfortunately, make exaggerated and even misrepresented use of things that are, first and foremost, Holy.
An example of this is the use of symbols in tattoos. There is a popularization of using these symbols just to follow a fashion, or look “cool”, not resorting to its true, deep meaning. Some might say it's just a drawing, and that people who have similar thoughts are exaggerating in criticizing someone else for putting a sacred symbol on their logo or in a tattoo. However, I am saddened by this popularization of the occult things and of what is sacred to many.

Going back to what I mentioned about identification, generally speaking, we see that many things are influenced by the most diverse cultures, especially people who have a slightly more open and receptive mind to these things that many consider "different." It is curious to note that many who enjoy what is called the “mystic and esoteric”, sometimes receive criticism, or are the subject of more diverse comments. But all those who somehow appreciate a little of this diversity that things connected with the mystic, esoteric and occult bring, are pointed like “different or eccentric.”

We will receive criticisim. It can be because of the things we like, the passion we deal with them, the subjects that for others may seem "weird". And the criticism may come even from those who are also involved with similar things, but just don't understand why you do things the way you do.

The ignorance of those who misunderstand your world and existence is commonly echoed through judgment, cynicism, fear and lies. ☥
-Luis Marques. 12.08.2014

But what is it that leads us to this search and which then directs us towards certain things, subjects, populations, cultures, and epochs?

Some might say that it is just a matter of affinity, others it is the wisdom of being open to learning from the diversity, and there are those who can say that it is something from other lives. A continuity of our eternal Journey.

It is because of this diversity that we can learn a lot about many things, but it is also one that creates conflicts. For that with which I have an affinity and leads me to seek my answers through this subject may be completely divergent from what others seek and use as a tool.Even if the goal is similar in the end: finding the answers to the questions that each one has within them.

Which tools are used, and which paths are traversed, go in parallel with what we have within ourselves. It would not be like picking up an empty soil and trying to plant something there, but to feed the seeds that already exist.

Not that the new cannot be learned, cultivated. But what I often see to germinate are pre-existing things, which are reinforced as we come into contact with what awakens them.Many things we sometimes see, feel, perceive, act as triggers, and then set us in motion.Everything is within us. Our search, our motivation, our doubts, our answers. I think observance of the self very important to be done, in a detached way, without judgment.

Many already have that urge to look at something with an anticipated sense of criticism: "I do not know what you're going to say, but I disagree." Many say, "I am like this and I will not change." This would be something limiting, as expansion is needed for the desired growth.

An interesting thing is the fact that we often go through something and do not perceive the deepest nuances. We need to revisit the same things more than once because they always have new things to teach us, we have new perspectives as we gain a better understanding.

So what attracts us, for which we have a passionate connection, must be followed. Often it is the direction our heart points to, not only our mind. Not being thus an acquired intellectual knowledge, but an inner wisdom attained.

So what are your tools? What moves you with passion? Gather them, use them to help you.

But, there was a sentence I read yesterday that has an interesting meaning, regarding everything we acquire in life, the knowledge, the things we "put in our bags" to help us, but in the end need to be discarded, as what is left is the result of it.

"Pack your bags and go to the station without them. Catch the train and leave your self behind." — Wei Wu Wei — via @ TaoEssentials

Let us follow the path that attracts us, keeping us also receptive to what can reach us sometimes in a surprising way.

Many things can be learned, through the simplest things, not needing to be in complex books full of symbologies, rituals, and ceremonies. The secret is knowing where to look, how to perceive and be able to acquire knowledge and wisdom through the most diverse forms of learning that are presented to us.
Often these small lessons come in the form of events, whether light or intense. Or through people who with a few words or even their silence are able to present us with very significant things.

There will be times when we will be content, others where everything will be chaotic and lead us to a desire to give up. There are also serene and peaceful moments. Knowing that everything is impermanent generates a respect and a better understanding that we are in constant movement.

Then the little keys can be found, precisely in those things by which we feel a strong and deep connection. Be for some a philosophy, for others a religion, and others just symbologies and studies. What is important is that it resonates within itself, and reflects its own interior, bringing what already exists for it to evolve.

We all have our way of doing things, of acting. Our qualities and our failures. The secret is to realize them.

"Observation is the tool of the Wise, the power of the Initiator and the compass of the Conqueror. ☥"
-Luis Marques. 17.07.2012