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"In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being we must learn to be detached from the results of our own activity. We must withdraw ourselves to some extent, from effects that are beyond our control and be content with the good will and the work which are the quiet expression of our inner life."
-Thomas Merton
Fact of the Day: From Isaac Asimov's Book Of Facts
Cockroaches have quite a capacity for survival. If the head of one is removed carefully, so as to prevent it from bleeding to death, the cockroach can survive for several weeks. When it dies, it is from starvation.
Mind Over Matter.....
Biologically speaking, our conscious mind is a layer added on top of the instinctive and automatic brain that operates our nervous system. As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, it is the last stop of any nerve impulse, and therefore not a big part in the majority of reactions that go on in your body. But there is reason to believe that we can exercise greater control over our body's reactions through use of our "mind".
I believe in the use of visualization as a training technique. I have had my own unintentional experience with it, and found it to be very useful. Somewhere around six or seven years ago I went skiing for the first time. I went on a five day trip with a friend of mine, and I skiied constantly. I found that even in the evenings when I wasn't skiing, my mind was. I was visualizing myself skiing once again, and more importantly I was feeling it. I began to work on my technique while sitting in a chair. I imagined what it would feel like to ski correctly. I practiced my technique and corrected my form, all in my mind.
I didn't set out to do this. Skiing was all I did those days, and it occupied my mind. One of the guys that I went skiing with this week felt the same thing. He found himself dreaming about skiing; very detailed dreams about his form. I don't know why skiing in particular has this effect, but for some reason it can occupy a large part of your conscious mind.
Another motor activity had a way of taking over my background thoughts: typing. I took a typing class in 9th grade, and for a while my fingers were constantly busy typing, no matter where I was. I still to this day type on my legs or on the table. I often find myself unwittingly mock-typing out words that I'm hearing or saying. There is no doubt that this obsession with typing improved my skills. What better way to memorize the right finger motions than by doing them constantly.
Visualization has had a positive effect on my skills. It makes sense, because when you ski you're only spending minutes coming down the trail. Typing class is only a period a day. You don't have much time to work on technique. Visualization can serve as a surrogate for actual performance. Learning a motor skill requires you to train your nerve pathways, and I believe that your mind can also help to form those pathways without the assistance of the muscles. It's not as powerful a tool, but it's easier to utilize. The connection between our mind and body is a two-way street, and it's wider than most imagine.
Biofeedback is another great example of how we can thoughtfully use our mind to control our bodily functions. The idea behind it is to train our mind to control things such as blood pressure and heartbeat. I saw a demonstration of how it can be used to control stress through those bodily functions. By watching meters that show your stress indicators you can become aware of your body's reactions to stress. And then you work to calm yourself down, using those meters to watch your progress. Eventually you gain the ability to consciously alter your body's state. When you've watched the meters enough, you learn to recognize your body's reactions, and you no longer need the equipment. When you sense your body becoming stressed you can cause yourself to calm down. You are performing what is commonly called mind over matter, but which could more accurately be termed consciousness over instincts.
When I was younger I contemplated this mind-boggler: the brain controls everything that occurs in your body. We don't understand how most of those controls work, but imagine if we did. Imagine if one person learned everything there is to know about how the brain works. In his brain would be the understanding of everything inside his brain. It seemed to me that such a person could take control of anything that went on in his body. If his brain knew how to work itself it could micromanage the body. It could control adrenalin, blood supply, hormones, immune system. It could manage its knowledge, control its growth. That's what I thought when I was a kid. I have less faith now that knowing how something works imparts power over it. I've studies the firing of a nerve, but that doesn't give me the power to set off nerve cells of my choosing.
However, visualization and biofeedback reopen that door. THrough knowledge of what is happening in your body, biofeedback allows you to gain control of it. Through visualization your mind can improve physical processes. Perhaps there are other techniques that will allow that conscious mind that we perceive as ourselves to spread its control farther down into the automatic processes of the nervous system. Perfect knowledge may not impart power, but awareness and training may.
Life And How To Live It...........
It's a well-worn adage that if you choose to live simply you will enrich your life. And it's a perfectly true adage. We live in a society where we are imprisoned by things. And all you have to do to break free is to reject those things. Life really is that simple.
To me, it was the Industrial Revolution that started it. Suddenly there were all these devices to make life easier. But you couldn't grow them, and you couldn't make them yourself. You had to get them at the factory. And to get them from the factory you had to have money. You don't have any money because you live off your land and your skills. But luckily this factory has some job openings for you. That way you'll have enough money to buy all these labor saving devices. And it's a good thing too, because you work all day at the factory. You don't hae time for that labor anymore.
That's the trap that was set, and we all walked into it. And now we are trapped into careers, mortgages, payments and all that stuff we hate. And we think that's the only way there is. Yet people lived before the Industrial Revolution. You don't need to buy into that whole scheme. Sure there are great advances in medicine and architecture, communication and nutrition. But our society isn't about utilizing those advantages to make better lives. It's about hemming ourselves in with things, and then sitting in that cramped space and pretending we're having a great time.
It's a simple step out of the trap. Not easy, but simple. Simply give up the things. Decide that you're not going to have a big house filled with furniture and dishes, appliances, electronics, and clothes. Trim yourself down to some shelter, a bowl and a set of clothes and you won't have a worry in the world. The more things you add to that list, the less free you are. It's a simple choice to make.
Without a doubt, a simpler life is a more rewarding one. It is more convenient to have a full set of dishes for everyone to use, but it is a more enriching experience for everyone to gather together and eat out of a common bowl. It may be a pleasant experience to have a large house with plenty of space, but it is a realer experience to live in close contact with your family. The less you have, the more connected you are with your life and with others. Simplicity will always breed spirituality, morality and satisfaction.
People worry that without the things we've grown accustomed to, they will be forced to live a hard life of toil. But the less you have, the less you need. If you get rid of most of your dishes, you don't need a dishwasher. Washing and drying your clothes by hand would be hard, unless you only had one set of clothes. If you have less things, you need less money, so you can quit your career. And if you're not driving to work or going to the mall you don't need a car. We're the ones who live lives of toil, to pay for all of our things. The less you have, the less you are obligated to do.
Chances are you won't get rid of everything, so you still will need money. But there is one thing you don't need, and that's a career. A career is a way of saying that you are stuck in the money trap, and you are making a lifelong committment to money-making. Instead, you should make money only when you need it. Instead of a career, have jobs that you can do when you need them. Stay free; stay in control. Don't obligate yourself to a career, when all you really want is a house. Just do what you need to do to afford your house, and then stop. You will think longer about that new car when you know that you'll have to work a thousand hours for it. Work that earns you money is just one facet of your life. Make it one of the many things you do, not the thing that defines your life. A job is a means to an end. A career is the end.
The simple life is a free life. It's the way to loose yourself from the demands of society. It's also a way to live lightly on the earth. Every item that you buy has been paid for in the sweat and anguish of others, in resources depleted, and pollution produced. Many people are wasting their lives in teh factories that produce these things, and they are there because we demand the products. Cultures are being destroyed, people opressed, the environent ruined. All to make life convenient for you. If I was spending the coin of my life on a job in a factory, I sure as hell would want to know that people had a good reason for buying this product. That they weren't asking me to waste my life away for their amusement. Live lightly on the earth, and you'll be giving other people the same chance.
Musings....
Have you ever wanted a pair of pants made out of Fruit Roll-Ups? That's something that Jewel asked us in a letter she sent to the mailing list. That is one of the most vivid images I've ever encountered. I can perfectly envision such a pair of pants (mine are red, how about yours?), and yes, I would like a pair.
In The Spotlight....
One of the worst lives I can imagine is being famous. Up to a certain level being famous would just be weird. People you've never met getting all exctited to see you must be very strange to experience. But then there reaches a point where people recognize you wherever yoou go. And a further level where they not only recognize you, but they mob you. Life just turns into a surreal experience at that point.
Can you imagine not being able to leave your house. Not being able to go to McDonalds or the supermarket, not being able to walk down the sidewalk or go to a sports game. All of these have to be specially arranged when you're a celebrity. Those deluxe seats and elite restaurants are really cages, designed to keep the celebrity separate from the public. They are forced to live the generic celebrity life, because they can't really go anywhere that isn't designed for celebrities. The life they used to lead is gone, the life that anyone leads is out of the question. All that's left is money and fame.
What amazes me is that any good work comes out of artists who have become famous. Their lives are so utterly altered, how can they have anything to write about now that their lives are gone. The sources that they once drew inspiration from are not really parts of their lives anymore, one would think that they wouldn't have anything to write or act about but the life of a famous person. Yet many continue to create, and also to dip into that same source. Someone like Bruce Springsteen, who began his career singing about life in America's hard-luck towns, should have nothing anymore. The guy's a millionaire now, yet he can still write just as convincingly on the same topics.
There are certainly those artists who lose it when they become famous, and that's more than understandable to me. It's amazing that there are artists who remain relevant, when their lives consist of parties and mansions and limos, and never meeting a normal person. I can feel bad for these artists, despite the fact that they are making millions of dollars. Most of them didn't ask for this. Most wanted to be able to make a living at their art, and that's it. But when the fickle hand of fame picks you out, you have no choice. Your life becomes a freakshow, a mixture of big money and big attention. Not many ask for that. I just hope that if I meet a celebrity, I'll have the ability to make them feel like a normal person.
"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops." -Kurt Vonnegut
The End