Leftovers
To become a skeptic, a cynic, a doubter, an agnostic, one becomes an adversary of delusion,
An antagonist to the fallacies of mythology, superstition, and other cultural assumptions.
The mind of the critical thinker is its own reflection of what is real, and what is not.
* * * *
Everyone believes whatever falsehoods they want to believe,
Until doubt perhaps slowly sprouts in one cranny, one nook or another.
And from that moment on, who knows where the long and winding road will lead.
* * * *
You cannot help but see the truth
That is every moment within and without you,
If you have enough doubt, enough skepticism, to erase the fear.
* * * *
Yes, there is no doubt God created this infinite universe
So that so many could be unimaginably stupid about it.
* * * *
Another legend in his/her own lizard mind.
Any insect would no doubt think the same.
* * * *
Were you not so attached to all the perceptions about your imaginary cosmos,
Of the given existence it could doubtless be asked: Did it ever really happen?
* * * *
It is all nothing, and no something, no matter how enticing, no matter how convincing,
Will long detain the earnest seeker from discerning that which is beyond all doubts true.
* * * *
From the innocence and optimism of youth, to the distortion and skepticism of old age;
Through it all we must mindfully cultivate our garden, and sow whatever time allows.
* * * *
The fate of those without great doubt is to wander in the miasma of time.
The only thing that can save any from such a temporal destiny
Is if they possess the eyes that see, the ears that hear,
The many clues, the many tips, the many hints,
That surround each and every one in their daily wander.
It is a many-are-called-few-are-chosen-fewer-still-volunteer endeavor.
* * * *
One must somehow realize a certain sense of irony and paradox,
A certain shade of doubt, of disbelief, of qualm, to see at all clearly.
* * * *
What is the raison d'être of a puzzle, a riddle, a brainteaser, a koan,
But to sharpen the wit for whatever adventures may come.
It is the playing ground, the training ground, the doubting ground,
Of the critical thinker, the pessimist, the skeptic, the cynic, the seeker of truth.
* * * *
To awaken to eternity, you, the inexplicable awareness,
Must doubt everything to such a great degree
As to be able to shake off the mind and senses entirely.
To become so inwardly at peace as to be neither mind nor body.
A state of timeless beingness for which few have either capacity or inclination.
* * * *
How can anyone who has any wit, any savvy, any keenness, whatsoever,
Not doubt, not question, not think critically, is perhaps the greatest mystery.
* * * *
Doubt will carry you to whatever falsehood you can abide,
And then on to the next and the next and the next and the next and the next,
Until you finally achieve that eternal moment where there are no more untruths to be had,
That unutterable, timeless realization where you finally, indelibly discern
That you are, and have always been, and will ever be,
The way and the truth and the life.
There is no other,
Playing out every possibility.
* * * *
What need do those who have awakened,
Those who have transcended all doubt,
Those who wander in unburdened awareness,
Have for any questions, or the answers they project.
* * * *
In any given life there are some good decisions,
Some mediocre decisions, and some really bad decisions.
Regrets are no doubt piled high and cringing in any given mind.
Oh well, so it goes, deal with it, get over it, move on.
* * * *
To see the reality of this awareness clearly, to discern what you truly, undoubtedly, are,
You must have the concentration and fortitude of a tightrope walker crossing a canyon.
* * * *
It is the nature of reflective, earnest doubt that no lie will long suffice.
Once you embark on this solitary journey to discern the truth of this implacable mystery,
There will be a never-ending array of ever-enticing interruptions and diversions.
Every sort of blind alley, roadblock, dead end, and impasse imaginable.
But there will be no turning back, there will be no stopping.
* * * *
At some point in the hereness, at some point in the nowness,
Some minds, bit by bit, little by little, awaken to the given conditioning.
Awaken to the great doubt, the great question, and in that calamity of consciousness,
Begin a long and winding and solitary journey towards eternal reunion.
* * * *
Every culture across the world, across time,
Has indoctrinated its young to think a certain way.
All are imprisoned in one form of conditioning or another.
Even the greatest doubt must deal with the given mind.
* * * *
The weaving of doubt and negation are the magic carpet, the ruby slippers,
That will get you back to the integrity of the eternal mind,
The virtuousness of the eternal life.
* * * *
You want to hold onto everyone and everything so badly.
No doubt sand falling through fingers feels the same.
* * * *
To realize without doubt that you are the indivisible,
That you are not the temporal body or the universe it entails,
Is the supreme benediction, the paramount grace, existence can offer.
* * * *
The lazy mind is rarely a receptacle of doubt,
Or certainly of not more than the shallow sort.
* * * *
No one can rouse those who sleepwalk undoubting through their given reverie.
Awakening is a banquet to which all are invited, but for which few are earnestly ravenous.
The kaleidoscoping dreamtime of light and sound hypnotizes and seduces most.
You alone must strive to awaken in whatever way your mind allows.
* * * *
To be but timeless awareness,
To be but the source prior to all patterning,
Is a quest all who doubt must undertake very much alone.
* * * *
Die hungry or full, forlorn or content, foolish or wise,
It is discerning doubt that fashions the quality of mind.
* * * *
The cynic, the skeptic, the doubter – all seekers of truth,
Neither accepting or rejecting without judicious examination.
Scraping away what is false, using negation to discern what is true.
* * * *
What is death but the end of time, the end of space,
The return to the eternal indivisibility that all ever are.
Nothing to fear, nothing to doubt, simply the way it truly is.
* * * *
If there is to be any freedom in this relatively brief, corporeal existence,
The key, the fulcrum, the fount, upon which it is founded, is doubt.
And then only if its embers are fanned by the wind of an indomitable spirit.
There is no journey beyond the conditioning, no venture outside the cave, without it.
* * * *
If you are practicing some sort of idolatry, then you, my friend, are stuck.
If you have a conclusion founded on some sort of mythology,
Some sort of fairy tale, some sort of fantasy, some sort of mind gorp,
Then your doubt has stalled, and you are as stuck as imagination can enable.
The only question is whether you can rekindle the skepticism and carry on the quest.
* * * *
To quantify the quantum mystery as infinite or infinitesimal is all but absurd,
Once it is without doubt realized that the enigma of awareness is immeasurable.
* * * *
There are advocates and skeptics and fence-straddlers in every choice.
What proposition could ever even begin to remotely please every mind?
* * * *
Most human beings are mindlessly happy, mindlessly content,
With the given conditioning, the given frame of reference, the given idolatry.
To be a seer, doubt is required, and disbelief, skepticism, cynicism, are scarce commodities.
No point in trying to debate, to persuade, to convert, any true believer.
All must ultimately discern truth alone in their own way.
In other words, mind your own awareness.
* * * *
Abandon all regrets, all sorrows, all doubts, all frustrations,
All qualms, all misgivings, all hesitation, all shame,
All guilt, all grief, all distress, all burdens,
They are but imagination’s torment.
* * * *
Wisdom is the distillation of experience,
And critical thinking, doubt, skepticism, cynicism, are the ingredients
That unveil and unbridle the discerning brew.
* * * *
You can teach regurgitation,
But you cannot convey critical thinking.
You can teach knowledge, but you cannot transmit wisdom.
Skepticism is the rarest of commodities; it cannot be acquired by pick or shovel.
Far more precious than oil or gold or diamonds,
It’s worth is priceless.
* * * *
These writings are for the rare few inclined to fully examine the underlying form of existence.
Best stop quickly if you lack the doubt, the skepticism, the cynicism, required.
Elsewise, you might find yourself down an infinite rabbit hole
For which you have neither hunger nor aptitude.
Soundbites
Doubt is a springboard, not an end in its Self.
* * * *
Despite its great virtue, doubt can only take you so far.
* * * *
We shall measure and prod ourselves, our world, our universe, to the bitter end, no doubt.
* * * *
Do not doubt your real voice.
* * * *
To be a critical thinker requires the seeds of doubt, and the wit to question deeply.
* * * *
Be awash in the timeless so as to be doubtless beyond all horizons.
* * * *
Doubt all until there is nothing left to doubt.
* * * *
The optimist’s delusion, the cynic’s joy, the pessimist’s creed, the fool’s preserve.
* * * *
Cynicism is just seeing things for what they are, not what they appear to be.
* * * *
Doubt is not something that can be inspired or forced.
* * * *
You do not need a piece of paper to doubt a lie.
* * * *
For what can any cynic hope but that this is a one-life stand?
* * * *
Faith abides delusion much more happily than doubt.
* * * *
To doubt, or not to doubt, that is the question.
* * * *
That most esoteric doubt launches many a mind into parts unknown.
* * * *
Wisdom is the flower of doubt, and doubt the esoteric seed.
* * * *
The seed of doubt, how will it flower?
* * * *
The intractable doubter settles for nothing less than the absoluteness of that which cannot be known.
* * * *
Doubt opens the door to truth; dogma is not required.
* * * *
The doubter doubts until all doubting is done.
* * * *
A lot of shoulda-coulda-woulda’s in any given life, no doubt.
* * * *
The doubted path reigns supreme.
* * * *
Oh, ye of little doubt.
* * * *
Yet another day in the salt mines of perpetual doubt.
* * * *
The earnest doubter doubts until the doubting is done.
* * * *
What depth can there be to the superficial without the awakening of intuition and doubt.
Breadcrumbs
These many thoughts are left for humankind’s unfolding reverie,
Written by a witness, a seer, who was born in 1953 A.D.
To what duration he cannot at this writing say.
Geographically, it was called Northern California
During the agricultural-industrial-technological epoch
Of the United States of America, a nation-state
In what seemed the zenith and early decline
Of civilization as he elected to perceive it.
But history knows many such epochs
So the accuracy of all predictions in time
Is for future scholars to ponder and pontificate,
As they always have, and undoubtedly, always will.
* * * *
No doubt all the conclusions, all the judgments about me are true
In a sideways-topsy-turvy-inside-out-convoluted-mangled sort of way.
* * * *
Here to inspire doubt to the nth degree.
* * * *
Trouble is, neither God nor the Devil know what to do with irreverent skeptics like me.
Puts the Grim Reaper in something of a “What if he wants my job?” quandary, as well.
* * * *
If you are a thinker, a doubter, a skeptic, a savant,
If you are one who ponders upon all things,
Then, my friend, this may be for you.
* * * *
Do not know more than the nitty-gritties of mathematics,
But how is it that zero is a number, much less a cardinal one?
No doubt many can illuminate it, but is it a harbor to what is real?
Is it really more than yet another useful but arbitrary notion?
* * * *
Even I doubt my Self as often as not.
* * * *
A somewhat cynical perspective
To those who embrace the optimism of hope.
Most definitely not a cheerleader for this world-o-drama.
* * * *
Had I brought children into this asylum,
They would have likely grown weary of me,
As many children no doubt do of their parents.
* * * *
Absolutely mad, mad beyond belief, of that there can be little doubt.
* * * *
Rest assured that the Great Quantum,
No doubt as wayward a roguish scalawag as I,
Finds my inflated bubble of dreamtime tolerably amusing.
* * * *
No doubt some would deposit this scribe in a shallow grave
If they were to comprehend these many thoughts are analogous
To the folktale of the lone stonecutter bit by bit by bit chipping away
Deep within the bowels of the imaginary mountain.
* * * *
Thinking positive is no doubt great, no doubt good,
And as soon as this mind discerns something positive
Upon which it might a-ponder, I will be a-gettin’ to it.
* * * *
Bookstores and libraries and personal collections and landfills and burning piles,
Chock-full of books that relatively few ever even peruse, much less read.
Very little doubt the likely destiny of these many thoughts, as well.
Oh well, so it goes, dealt with it, got over it, moved on.
How pleasant it has been to read every word,
Many of them more than a few times.
* * * *
Derogatory, disparaging, critical, insulting, belittling, offensive … Well, yes, sometimes.
It is the nature of the cynic, the skeptic, the realist, to judge, and often harshly.
Look to Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, and other nice guys if you want pap.
* * * *
Iconoclast, critic, skeptic, heretic,
Unbeliever, dissident, dissenter, infidel, rebel, renegade, mutineer:
Yet another ditty from the coffee shop philosopher guy,
A street-level critical thinker with a view.
Corollaries of Yaj Ekim
Miguel Ángel Ruiz’s Five Agreements:
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Do not take anything personally.
3. Do not make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
5. Be skeptical, but learn to listen.
Yaj Ekim's Corollary:
Good luck with that.
* * * *
René Descartes:
If you would be a real seeker after truth,
You must at least once in your life, doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Yaj Ekim’s Corollary:
If you are a real seeker, it will be, rest assured, far more than once.
Possible Last Words & Epitaphs
Oh, ye of little doubt
Standout Duplicates from “The Return to Wonder”
Chapter Three
Discovering what is real takes great dissatisfaction, great doubt.
* * * *
The screen of consciousness
Plays out this dream
But is it really happening?
Doubt it more and more every moment.
* * * *
None can point the way to those who lack the hunger of doubt.
Chapter Seven
To discern, to know, without doubt, that you are indivisibly one
With all that is, all that has ever been, and all that will ever be,
Is not, if you have the discerning wit, something to be missed.
* * * *
Do not deny, do not doubt, the quantum nature, the quantum matrix, you truly are.
Call it divine, call it god, call it what is, call it whatever, the words do not matter.
* * * *
The countless masks of manifestation are difficult to disbelieve.
Chapter Nine
Doubt includes the dread that you may be wrong.
You are not.
* * * *
Transcending the doubt, merging into that which is intangible, indivisible,
Is an arduous journey, a profoundly mysterious inner quest,
The ending to which is timelessly the same.
Chapter Ten
Erase any and all doubt that you are indivisible quantum source.
Exist serenely in the ever-present, moment-to-moment, timeless reality.
Even in the midst of complete and utter chaos, you are the harmony that reigns.
* * * *
Never disbelieve or deny another's experience.
Just because it has not yet been discerned within your realm
Does not mean anything is not perhaps possible.
You are the eternal proof of that.
* * * *
To intelligently witness this absurd spectacle,
And not descend into darkness through cynicism,
Or stumble about clumsily in ironic laughter,
Is a most challenging tightrope, indeed.
* * * *
Doubt everything until you discern within that truth to which doubt can find no hold.
Chapter Fifteen
If you understand science and its methodology,
You know it has been proven beyond all doubt that all is one,
And that you are an equal part of that oneness,
Witness to its eternal mystery.
Chapter Sixteen
Like any other beast with limbs, fins, or wings,
You are a sack of bones that appears to move around.
You have the potential to realize awareness of the indivisible,
But do you have the capacity for discernment, do you have the doubt?
Leftovers Added to “The Return to Wonder”
(Transferred to fill out the diminished ten-page blocks during
the very gradual edit underway since September 2015)
Chapter Eleven
Some get born into pondering such as these, some are found and hijacked into them,
But most of those who investigate the indelible unknown of their own accord
Must discover the way with their own blend of doubt and gumption,
And the many serendipities of the given Yellow Brick Road.
Leftovers and Soundbites
Transferred to “The Return to Wonder”
from “Breadcrumbs 2019” and All Future Times Beyond
Chapter 253
Doubt is the rarest of commodities.
* * * *
Chapter 254
Doubt is a rare commodity.
* * * *
Chapter 271
The cynicism of old men is not easily endured by the young.
* * * *
Chapter 276
What some call negativity, pessimism, skepticism, doubt, cynicism,
To the rational mind of the critical thinker, is merely the way it is.
Leftovers and Soundbites Transferred
to “The Return to Wonder” from “Breadcrumbs 2018”
Chapter 283
Doubt is the key, and even that only takes most so far.
* * * *
The monkey-mind is very adept at waylaying any doubt.
Soundbites Transferred to “The Return to Wonder”
from “Breadcrumbs” (Chapters 301, 302, 303)
Chapter 285
Another harbinger of doom, no doubt.
* * * *
A cosmic conspiracy is no doubt afoot for the many that harbor such pointless notions.