Ting Tong & Phi Pim
Random Dialogs
Koh Panghan, Thailand 2023
Ting Tong
I feel like there are two people in my mind.
A plate with food is coming to my table.
One of the two people says: “Oh this is shrimps. It looks good, but I prefer chicken. I will not eat, I will wait for tomorrow, hopefully there will be chicken.”
The other person is looking at the dish, he sees food. He says “Oh there is food, let’s eat. oh it is shrimps today! Great!”
They both have they reasons. They are both right from their own perspective, but how can they live together in the same house?
Phi Pim
Yes, I see.. you are very careful about the other person’s feeling as well.
But you know.. Tomorrow you will be old, one of you will die, you will be alone. there will be no food anymore.
And maybe there will be illness too..
Ting Tong
So what to do?
Phi Pim
So.. Eat what you have now, because you need to be alive, alive today.
Ting Tong
I am thinking too much. And eventually I am sleeping alone every day.
Phi Pim
Sometimes you have to eat what you have in the plate. Because you need food. Even fast food can be good enough.
Ting Tong
I don’t know what to do with her. That’s because I don’t know what to do with myself, with my life. The day I will know what to do with my life I will also know all the rest outside of my mind.
Phi Pim
Just go with the flow.
Ting Tong
AHAH!
“Just go with the flow”. They all say that, I don’t know what they mean.
Tell me, have you ever seen the flow?
Phi Pim
I remember when I went diving. I was down the water 28 meters and in that moment I realized it: it is very easy to die.
Just take off the oxygen tube: you are dead. You cannot go up to the surface very fast, you need to go up slowly, so slow that you will die. The line between life and death is very thin!
So I had to focus on what I had in that moment: the tank, the mask and the fishes swimming all around me. I had to focus on life. So I had to live, in order to not die: as simple as that!
After that, I immediately saw colours everywhere. Beautiful fishes swimming around colourful corals and the sun light penetrating the depth of the ocean..
I learned it all at once. I just needed to go diving once, to change my life.
Ting Tong
Sometimes I have fear. Fear of not expecting anything from others. You know, when you don’t expect anything, you are left with infinite unknown options. It is scary!
Phi Pim
If you expect something, then you can only have two options: yes or no. Happy or disappointed. When you start understanding that any of your thoughts are just relative, and none of them is real, yet they are all real on their own, there is no thought that can hold your mind for long. And so there is not so much need to stay in your mind and think.
Ting Tong
AHAH!
Again with this easy wisdom. Easy to say. But theory is one thing, and I see you also stay in your mind! You think too! Don’t cheat me!
And now tell me, wise Phi Pim, why are you then thinking?
Phi Phim
To kill the time.
Ting Tong
I will go now, and paint.
Phi Pim
You are going to kill the time too?
Ting Tong
Partially, I still “pain(t)”.
