Did you know the power of insight is looked upon as being a sword that painlessly cuts through all suffering, fear, despair, anger and discrimination?
Insight isn’t intuition. Insight isn’t assumption, hopes and wishes and it sure isn’t handed to you by palm and card readers who’ve become one with the universal. Insight allows you to fully see what “you’re” concentrating on, not what others are forcing you to buy into.
I’m guilty of seeing the word “insight” and thinking it means “inside”…and how many times have we traded what we want and feel for an object or desire wanted or needed by another because it makes them happy? Isn’t that insider trading? If your mind and body was connected to Wall Street you’d be sitting in a prison cell.
I’m going to use an extremely big word right now: impermanence. And just like that, you’ve tuned out and run like hell through a forest of trees you don’t recognize therefore there’s no path to follow and boom down you go face first into a pile of Montana mud mixed with Georgia clay and there aren’t any manmade chemicals on earth that are capable of washing off your hands, face and fudged up knees.
Impermanence means not permanent or enduring. Related words include temporary and evanescent.
The one thing impermanence isn’t is an idea and please get out of the mode of thinking that it’s a notion. Impermanence is insight. Suddenly we’re being reintroduced to the selves we are, the person who refuses to let go of a notion, a feeling, a fear and crash, boom, pow…your world falls next to you on that pile of Montana mud and Georgia clay.
In an age of constant change the one thing I always hear from a passerby is how demanding we are about latching our hands onto something that’s permanent yet we make everything temporary. Laptop computers, cell phones, video games and music fit quite nicely into the center of our impermanence circle. Temporary, not permanent…it’s here then the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga are gone.
So impermanence is a negative then?
You have the insight to make that twelve letter word a positive; injustice, poverty, pollution, global warming, a bad day at work, a disagreement with a family member or a flat tire. Putting focus on the present and not the past gives you insight about your future.
Thirty three years after first being first introduced to the idea of writing a book called Halloween 78, the project continues to be extremely late to the editor. I’ve used every excuse to stop while feeding a separate engine that keeps the word flow in full forward motion. To perk up my interest, in 2000 while sipping on one maybe ten glasses of wine I killed off a main character…to this day I remember sitting back in the chair and laughing, “Let’s see how good of a writer you are…figure out a new ending.”
A decade later I’ve returned to the project reading visions from a self I no longer am. By putting focus what one assumes is several failed efforts the project faces another delay. Through the use of permanence the insight is to grab this invisible gorilla by the collar and finish it so I can get back to living.
The golden rule has never changed: don’t wait until tomorrow because tomorrow may be too late. We are monkey's in the way of continuing to watch the same stories with different actors in altered movies. Music is no different; modern day Country music is 1977 Fleetwood Mac. While your kids are Hip Hopping to the best in mp3 beats and Itunes rhythms, escaping that past doesn’t stand a chance as long as the guitar resembles Lindsey Buckingham picking and a grinning.
I’ve always believed my stepfather Joe was an angry middle aged man because he didn’t allow himself to love the Bee Gees. Emotions that have been set on fire and or walk the lines of negative vibration can easily be cooled off by regaining the power of insight. Rather than knock those who believe Hip Hop and Rap are evil beings from other planets embrace it by dancing to it. There’s nothing more entertaining than watching Baby Boomers shake the room when Flo Rida sings, “Low, low, low, low…”
People can’t stand the idea of gaining access or accepting insight because it’s always been the one thing tossed at us in the way of; this is yours, only yours, now deal with it.
Dave the intern yesterday said to me, “I’m in radio because my parents have never supported my dreams.”
I laughed out loud knowing how many long hard fights I’ve had with my Mom, Dad, sisters and first wife about remaining loyal to the Hotel California. Interestingly enough, my current wife Lee taught me insight, “Be everything then discover newer ways to be everything and then newer ways to be everything.” Which tells me insight isn’t a one man show; it has the ability to affect the mile markers we keep.
Thich Nhat Hahn tells the story of how important his right hand is to him…it combs his hair, brushes his teeth, pens out poetry; it does everything while the left hand sits over there on the other side of the body doing nothing. Although one would think the left hand has an inferiority complex…you never see the right reaching out to strike it down. The right and left hands are always at peace.
Can you imagine what your left hand is thinking while hammering a nail into the wall? The term is opposites attract not go to war. Impermanence is insight. Being aware of the elements that take your workday down gives you strength to recognize a bad moon on the rise. Someone says to me, “I hate my job!” I instantly reply, “When was the last time you did push ups and sit ups? Freshen up that blood in those veins then come talk to me about how bad your day is.” ‘
Insight is understanding…quit trading your dreams in for other people’s happiness. The one thing Dr. Ronald Mack wanted more than anything was to go fly fishing on a smooth as silk river…his family heard him but they never listened. I miss my mentor so much!
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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