I mean, there is and there isn’t.
In the linear, cause and effect, mentally created story of life, there are oodles of reasons. Everything has a reason in that world. In a way, that world is completely made up of reasons, causes, explanations, and if-this-then-that’s.
In that world, you’re also a distinct ‘you’, separate from everyone and everything else. With so many separate things, it makes sense that there would be trillions of stories and theories that describe relationships between those separate things. That’s what reasons are–a story about a relationship between things.
Because you seem to be a separate ‘you’ in that world, you feel insecure and vulnerable. Reasons give you a much-wanted sense of control. If you know the reasons for things, you can control things. Reasons help you see which levers to pull and which to avoid so that you can control your feelings, and thereby your survival.
I don’t see us getting rid of reasons in that thought-created, always-changing, me-centric world anytime soon.
But what about the world beyond that brain-created narrative? You know there is life beyond that brain-created narrative, right? It’s the awareness in which the story of you and all those reasons rises and falls.
In that space, how could there be reasons? There is only This. Only Life or Energy or whatever word we want to use to point to the only one no-thing there is.
Without separation, there are obviously no reasons.
Without stories about relationships between things, there are no reasons.
Without inherent meaning, there are no reasons.
Without time, there are no reasons.
Maybe you’re saying, “That’s great, but I live in the always-changing, me-centric, thought-created world of reasons, so why does this matter?”
I think it matters because it reminds us that our reasons are stories. They are part of the dream.
They provide a sense of security and control in the me-and-my-life dream. They also provide a sense of limitation in the me-and-my-life dream. Reasons about what it all means, the bad things that are likely to happen, why people like you can’t be happy, why you’ll never talk to that old friend again, why you might as well not even try because things like that never work out for you…
All reasons. And only valuable as currency in the story.
