The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said that one cannot step into the same river twice. Alas, we are all too much a part of that river.
If there is a purpose in life, perhaps it is to step out of the river, out of the stream of time itself. It will help us to find meaning and determine purpose for ourselves, instead of finding it simply through habit or the company we keep.
Streams of time are the result of habitual consciousness and paradigms of behavior. When our routines fall apart it is necessary to alter our consciousness and our behavior in order to survive. This is not so hard, for there is always new qualia to be noticed which will lead us to safety.
To notice new qualia we need to ritual consciously. We experiment or play with the qualia, in order to discover new landmarks in the landscape which lead us down new pathways. This is how all life evolved, and continues to evolve.
As the matter of the universe coalesced into stars and planets (Earth), as life diversified into species (humans), and as grunts and simple tools re-invented themselves (language, art, science and religion), so all things fall into the stream of time.
In the human landscape, the stream of time is manifested in our thoughts both positively, as hope and purity, or negatively, as fear and danger, but the accent tends to be on the negative. “Do this or else!” “Don’t question authority!” The positive accent is more rhetorical: “be good and go to heaven!” “Do what you are told and you will be successful.”
Both accents, however, take us toward extremes, but in the long view, purpose, meaning, contentment and happiness arise from a more balanced approach. Since all our achievements will eventually erode back into the stream – innovation becomes the status quo, qualiadelic relationships settle into symbiosis – then climbing out of the stream is less a matter of action than a way of perceiving.
The wisdom of it all, the way beyond mere contentment (which ecosystems provide but which the human landscape has lost), and meaning (which, again, ecosystems provide the human landscape has lost), is to be found in that gap which is created after we step out of and before we return to, the routines, the habits, and the expectations of culture and tradition. It may take a lifetime or a mere sixty seconds to leave and come back.
And it may feel dangerous! Being qualiadelic may threaten the keepers of tradition, but it is dangerous only because it is purifying.
Are the rocks over and through which the water flows, a part of the stream?
They are the past innovations which have grown and decayed, which have lived and died, and which have fallen back into the stream.
They purify the waters of life.