Finding Solace In Oblivion
In today’s session we contemplate the quote, ‘Calm down, both your sins and good deeds will be lost in oblivion.’ From Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish American poet and writer. This track is taken from my course, ‘Daily Contemplations For Living An Examined Life’, available now via my profile.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the session.
I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and just gently begin to open your mind to today's quote.
To contemplate the words with a free and open and supple mind.
To welcome impossibility and expansion and growth and to allow yourself for the next few minutes to just sit and be with whatever arises.
In a moment I'm going to share with you a quote to contemplate and then we'll sit in silence for a minute and just let it percolate and then we'll talk about the quote and see where the discussion leads us.
Today's quote comes from Czeslaw Milos,
A Polish-American poet and writer and it goes,
Calm down,
Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.
Both your sins and good deeds will be lost in oblivion.
So this quote,
Calm down,
Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion,
Evokes thoughts of anxiety reduction,
Of life's purpose,
Of an ego reduction and of and of the never-ending expanse of the human experience and to a greater extent the universal and to a greater extent the universal experience of life.
This idea that our actions will be lost in oblivion is existentially terrifying but also liberating and I think that's where the core of this quote is pointing to.
Calm down,
Whatever you're doing will eventually be lost.
This is obviously in contrast to many of the other quotes we're talking about in this course,
About making positive changes and making our mark and living a valued life and all of these things but we can derive wisdom from contradictory advice because the wisdom here,
This idea that whatever we do will eventually be lost into oblivion,
Is freeing.
It is terrifying but it is also freeing because yes,
It is easy to become overwhelmed and run down and beat ourselves up on the bad things we've done and will do.
It's also equally easy to lose ourselves to the ego,
To the praise,
To the compliments,
To the fantasies fulfilled in life,
To making a name for ourselves,
Changing the world,
To stamping our mark but that too will be lost.
We see the world from our own perspective.
From my worldview,
From where I'm sitting,
I am the center of the universe and all revolves around me.
This is not an ego statement but the subjective reality of every person in existence.
I have a circle that extends outwards,
My close family and friends I can impact,
A little less the community I'm in,
Perhaps a little less still the wider community and not at all countries,
Governments,
People that I'm never going to interact with.
I can't influence them but there's this drive to leave our mark and indeed we see our mark being left on other people but this quote encourages us to calm down because eventually it will all be forgotten,
It will all be lost in oblivion.
Time passes.
This doesn't even need to be,
You know,
The heat death of the universe sort of thing.
Just in the space of our own life things will be forgotten.
How much of importance of importance do you not even think about?
When you're a child what was important that you've forgotten?
It's gone now.
Indeed how much of today,
This very day has been lost in oblivion?
The smile,
The anger,
These little tiny bits of good deeds and sins are gone forever.
Now you could argue that they do last and the ramifications will perpetuate into the future like a butterfly's flap flapping its wings sort of thing,
Chaos theory,
And like I said we've talked about that in other parts of this course.
But on the other side of things we are very small,
We are just one aspect of life expressed on one planet in one point of time.
But time continues and space is,
Well,
Potentially,
Literally,
Or at least functionally,
Infinitely huge.
And what is our sins and our good deeds relative to that?
I used to teach history as a substitute teacher in high schools and the kids would always ask,
You know,
Why do we need to learn this sir?
Why is this important?
Why does history matter?
And that's maybe a criticism of the education system of not teaching why,
But really we learn history because we want to learn from the people of the past,
The mistakes,
The benefits,
And see a potential guidance towards the future.
The people that have come down to us from history made a lasting impact.
They stood out from the billions that have been forgotten,
Nameless,
No longer spoken,
No longer remembered,
Nothing.
And the obvious implication of this is that we too will be forgotten in time.
I ask you the question,
Do you know your great-grandparents name?
Do you know their parents name?
How many parents back do you need to go before you can't name them?
And even if you can name them,
Do you know anything about them beyond the name?
Not much.
What are the chances that you will be remembered by anyone that doesn't exist now and know you?
That's the drive to immortalize ourselves with art,
With work,
With great deeds.
But even the most famous people of the past,
A hundred years ago,
200 years ago,
300 years ago,
Are all but forgotten today.
And yes,
Technology is enabling us to capture these things,
But remember it's going to be capturing everyone.
And in that noise of everyone being captured,
Once again,
How much will even be able to be seen?
You can't peruse you can't peruse billions upon billions and growing datasets.
So this quote,
Calm down,
Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion,
Encourages us to take life a little less seriously.
Don't stress the small stuff.
It's okay.
We are all human.
We make mistakes.
We are not perfect.
We can strive to be,
We can aim to live the best life we can to impact the most we can,
But relative to eternity,
Relative to the universe,
We are small.
And for some of us,
That's important to know,
Because we only ever see the universe from our own perspective and we are the center of our universes.
For all intents and purposes,
You know,
This is solipsistic,
Perhaps,
Definitely.
The past didn't have to exist.
The future,
When I'm gone,
Doesn't have to exist.
All that really exists is this moment right now for me.
I don't know what you're feeling.
I don't know what you're seeing.
I don't really even know if you exist,
If anything beyond my experience in this present moment exists.
Now that's obviously a thought experiment that leads down some interesting paths and obviously I'm aware that people exist and yadda yadda,
But it's interesting to consider the lived experience that we all have.
You are taking these words right now in this moment,
Whenever that moment is,
And you're going to absorb them into your life,
But that's your life and you will persist and move on.
It is uniquely,
Totally full.
That is the experience of time and the universe through you,
For your perspective,
Just like it is through mine and my perspective.
This is it.
So if you're of that mindset,
Coming down and recognizing that the good,
The bad,
The ugly,
The unknown,
The weird,
All of that is going to be lost to oblivion.
Let's just play.
There's a freedom to be had in this contemplation.
It's like,
Oh,
Nothing matters,
So what's the point?
Or alternatively,
Nothing matters,
So what's the point?
There is nothing that we need to strive for or push towards.
We are free.
We are free if we believe that nothing matters,
If we believe that things get lost in oblivion,
Because actually there is a distinction here,
Isn't there?
Things being lost to oblivion doesn't mean they don't matter because they do matter now.
Prior to your life,
There was an endless oblivion of nothingness.
After your life,
There is an endless oblivion of nothingness,
But your life is like a single point of light shining through the darkness.
That means something,
But it is just one light,
And it is surrounded by an eternity of darkness,
So let's not take things too seriously,
Hey?
So I ask you to contemplate the quote,
Calm down,
Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost to oblivion.
So well done.
This brings us to the end of the session.
At the bottom of your screen,
You'll see the option to view the classroom or to ask a question.
Before moving on,
I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,
To read the answers from other students,
And to hear my replies.
Remember to start your response with,
Says Lar Miroslav,
Or the quote,
Oblivion,
So we all know which one you're referring to.
This is an opportunity for deep learning,
Further introspection and insight,
So please don't miss out.
I look forward to seeing you in the next session.
This track was taken from my course,
Daily Contemplations for Living an Examined Life.
It's out now on Insight Timer and available via my profile.
I invite you to join in.
