Author: aryask@gmail.com

In the great pursuit of knowledge, The discovery process is the treasure, The lived experience makes it worthwhile, As all outcomes are due for change, So let go of your silly surrender, Take part in the pleasure and pain, No heart without unknowns, Watch the story unfold its own way.

Don't compare, don't complain, simply keep working.

Patience with pleasure, Shifting hierarchies, Drifting with the wind, Sifting with no aim, But to be with you again.

The other day I found a knife turning in my eyeball. It had no mind, no owner. All it knew was to cut everything in sight. The river, the butterfly, the moon; everything cut into pieces. Pinned to a cycle of predictable analysis, trying to force meaning to the dead. I stayed there quietly, watching the unclaimed blade. I offered silence and its agitations grew. Like water slowly shaping a stone, I watched the knife change into a paint brush. With one stroke the world emerged, without the illusory masks and unnecessary layers. Blood rushed into my eyes, not believing what they had just witnessed. I continued to watch, never changed, letting the images wash away. Serenity needs no cuts or calculations, no fixed labels or fleeting fascinations, just a nameless wander that reveals what…

This month, I’m traveling Europe for no reason other than to get lost, get found, and enjoy some encounters with people and places. To frame the experience more intently, I started asking questions that focused my attention in new ways. I started to research "beauty," not in journal articles but as a lived experience. I asked, what does it mean to put beauty at the center of experience? How does it change the way I see things? Suddenly, there was so much more to the chair I was sitting on. And the loud music that was once interfering with my writing process became a curious expression of the person who tuned the volume. And the pains I was having in my body became an extension of the phenomenon. Things changed beautifully,…