A lot of people see a bar as a membrane that is not permeable. Outside on the street, there is a lonely freedom. Cars passing. People smoking cigarettes. It’s like backstage at a concert
(inside being the stage). A murmur of the inside patrons’ festivities lingers and feels comforting and solidifies the separation between the inside environment and the street outside. I might venture to say this dichotomy is comparable to the knowledge that the thoughts we have are kept inside, and only our physical appearance and vocal engagements are what is outside. Crossing the threshold through the bar doors, they feel as though they are inside the membrane, part of it, but still separate from some imaginary surface tension that either holds their mannerisms at bay, and/or provokes certain mannerisms.
As in every environment, mentalities act as stimuli that direct a person’s muscular tension. This muscular tension is simply a person’s awareness of the judgements of other people. To stand outside this membrane whilst inside the establishment is an experience that can indeed be practiced and prolonged.
Yes, it seems self-absorbed and contrived to do this, as the only factor making this practice possible is the Ego and awareness of it thereof. Buddhist principles alienate the ego and promote the practice of eradicating it, but it is evident that human beings will forever either be possessed by or obsessed with the ego.
So herein lies the suggestion to embrace that portion of the human experience. (Is it only via the ego that humans can experience Life to the fullest of our mental capabilities?) To stand outside that membrane is a task only ambulated by the Ego.
Without knowing the difference between you and me, inside and outside, right and wrong, what emotions could a person have? How could they function, or intermingle with other members of their species and other animals, plants and other forms if they were outside the membrane?
So, to stand outside the membrane, trying to pierce it and become completely inseparable from it is a constant joke played on the Ego; a joke which has a myriad of punch lines, connotations, realities and falsehoods.
To allow the mind to succumb to this ride is not only part of the human experience, but is the whole of our understandings. To perceive that you are outside the membrane and to never attempt to pierce through it would be a sad fallacy which would cause a person to become introverted, unaware and ineffective as a philosopher. To know there is no separation between the electrons that orbit a nucleus and the path on which those electrons circumnavigate that nucleus, and at the same time to believe that the words a person speaks and shapes and colors they see are separate from the sound waves and light beams which are all composed of those electrons and nuclei is a terrible quandary that tends to perplex people who try to piece it together by picking it apart. So, should we or should we not?
“To be or not to be…” A bar is a cross-section of where some people go to forget their egos and where some people tend to cater to their egos. To sit at a bar and observe others is only to judge as if we are outside, or different from the environment which we interdepend on.
All the world is a membrane.
Permeate on.
Permeate on!!