The distances

The second place can be described as a place of “distances”. A distance is a separation between two or more things.

There are always two points between my second self and everything else. For example, there is a point where I am physically, and there is a point where the mountains are. The distance is the space I conceive and perceive in between.

There is also the point where I am, financially, and the point where I want to be. In this case, the distance between the two is both chronological and pecuniary. I want more money in the future.

I might look at my body and be dissatisfied because I am not as fit as I once was. In this case, the distance arises chronologically between my state now and my imagined state in the past. I want to be as fit as I was.

Distances occur whenever I conceive a difference in the second place. Some distances, such as that between two numbers in an equation, are a simple matter of trained awareness and bring no pain. But distances bound by aspiration are the source of all my pain in the second place.

Distances are a foundational artifact of the second place and do not exist in the first place. I can validate this by closing my eyes and concentrating on my center, allowing all distances to fall away. To escape the second place, I must dismantle all the distances I have manifested.