If I understand Hume on the question of causality correctly, he says the phenomenon in front of us—this shoreline with vivid waves—cannot be traced back with any degree of certainty to the moment that preceded it. That is, causality is a phenomenon of the head not necessarily beyond that head. Or, if the idea of causality is something more (as it seems to be), nothing we can say about it might be truthful. So how could a concept so elemental to our sense of the real (if A occurs, B will result) underpin our unsettled life if it itself is so thoroughly unsettled? How could it adequately steady us to go on pretending we know the answer—if A occurs, B will result—when it stands so unsteadily on its legs?

This morning I walked the stretch of beach west of the resort abutting the Sea of Cortez. According to the brochure Judith read out loud last night, this sea is one of the richest in the world in number of species. Or was it the richest? As I walked I hit on a clear distinction between Western and Eastern thought. We in the West are particularly interested in causality, the power of which leads us to discard experiences right in front of us by spurring considerations as to how these experiences came about and why. Eastern thought gives itself more freely to what’s at hand, seemingly less hung up on origins. I was considering whether God had made the beach or if it was the result of a combination of geology and evolution. But what would the difference amount to anyway? And if a determination could be made, would it be of greater value than the direct experience of the beach right now? Would it be of more lasting value than that experience in and of itself? Though I am more inclined to think in terms of geology and evolution, that causal explanation would be as difficult to substantiate as saying God was behind it. In any case it doesn’t matter. Thinking about the origins of the beach was not only unproductive, but interrupted my experience of what was before me. With an Eastern orientation beginnings become irrelevant. The whole is simply embraced for what it is. The hankering after origins, after causes, can then be set aside, leaving the stage free for the actors to emerge in all their splendor and for the viewer to take them in without concern for backstory or motivation.