Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Knowledge Protects and Ignorance Endangers

I once hoped, wished and believed that only - what I understood to be BIG, SERIOUS AND IMPORTANT choices would or could impact my destiny. Based on this belief, I was comfortably ready, willing and able to take responsibility for what I considered to be the BIG choices. I put forth my best effort as to what I chose and how I handled the outcomes of these seemingly BIG and IMPORTANT choices. Furthermore, I assumed that all the other smaller and less significant choices would... well... sort of just magically take care of themselves and ALL would be well.

I now see things very differently. I realize that what may appear to be the most insignificant decision, can dramatically change the entire course of my life. Within the context of an ever dynamic set of probabilities that always exist in an ever present state of fluctuating potentials, the value lies in understanding that not choosing and not deciding is a serious matter. Our thoughts are the fundamental key - that opens the door - to any potential expansion of awareness. When we do not practice how to use our potential capacity to think deliberately, we fail to recognize the infinity of opportunities that exist to learn how to think - really think.

So, I ask myself, does someone or something else think on my behalf when I fail to think for myself? I think so. I think my brain is similar to a mansion in an upscale neighborhood. If I do not move in, furnish it and live in it - someone else will. I will be like a homeless person that doesn't have a clue as to what life can be like inside that great and lovely mansion.

So, getting back to the brain and the ability of the mind to use the brain as a unique tool for thinking, we can either learn how to think for ourselves and think deliberately - or we can think by default. By this I mean, that when you do not think, you do not decide, you do not choose... one of the threads in the fabric of the universe - will think on your behalf. When we become accustomed to allowing others to think on our behalf - without even noticing, we lose all awareness of the fact that this is even happening. We walk through our lives in a state of ignorance and blind oblivion - believing the entire time - self-assured through the entire experience - that we are, in fact, thinking and deciding and choosing. Since we believe ourselves to be thinking, this belief becomes very real and we slip and slide our way through the river of life and become firmly entrenched and quite comfortable within the belief.

Every single time we arrive at an intersection and are faced with a choice, we do not see the traffic light, we do not see the road signs, we do not realize that a choice is not only available, a choice is necessary. Stop? Move forward? Turn right? Turn left? Fail to act? It is possible to be carried away by other sleeping automatons that surround us and to be blissfully ignorant of what has - in reality - occured. Or better said, be blissfully ignorant of what has failed to occur.

Initially, this "thought awareness" may lead to a state of what we perceive of as "thought paralysis". The fear of making - what we perceive as the "wrong" choice can actually appear to be a failure to choose. Overcome by fear and indecision, we suspend the action of deliberate thought. The outcome of this "suspension" is fairly predictable. The failure to generate a deliberate thought will still produce some kind of outcome. The point is - the only way to learn how to think is by thinking. The process of thinking is dynamic and this process will create an outcome whether we are aware of it or not. Every time I think and every choice I make will teach me something... and I will resonate with the natural dynamic flow of the universe. I will not choose atrophy.

My thoughts and my choices hold the potential and the opportunities to learn something new. Every opportunity to learn may allow me an opportunity to acquire knowledge which holds the potential to enhance and expand awareness.

Knowledge protects and Ignorance Endangers

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Hairspray, and other discarded things.


The image is to the left, is one I have "borrowed" from:

www.where-what-how-why.com/?p=111

I encourage you to visit this site and view the image of this lady to the left. At this website you will "see" her - spinning...

The website accompanying explanation, claims that:
Quote
If you see her spinning clockwise, then it means you are using the right side of the brain. If, on the other hand, you see her spinning counter-clockwise, then you are using the left side of the brain.

Some people are able to see her spinning in both directions, but most of them see her rotating only in one. If you can see her spin in one directions and then make her spin in the other, then you are a part of a handful of people.

Even if it might not seem so, both directions can be seen. Apparently, this fact has been proved at the Yale University, USA, after 5 years of studying the human brain and its functions. Supposedly only 14% of the US population can see her spinning in both directions.
End Quote

I saw her, read the accompanying explanation above and I immediately rejected the possibility that it could be "true". Well... yes! I do confess that this was my initial response. I did not like what I saw. I saw her spinning counterclockwise and did not like this (for reasons I will not address on this post). Then I proceeded to do a bit of research on cognition and re-visited the site and then saw her spinning clockwise. My skepticism grew. What I read, I liked even less. I initially rejected all of it - and then - I thought about it a bit. Then, I did a bit more research on studies conducted at Yale University on the human brain and cognition and then... well... it's your call. I no longer attempt to convince anyone of anything. There it is.

You could, if you wish begin by visiting the following urls for some perspective:

http://scienceline.org/2007/10/29/ask-hsu-spinning-girl-right-left-brain-hemispheres/

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php?p=27

http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html

Actually, my intention was not to bore you with tedious questions related to cognitive science - which may or may not be of any interest to you. My true intention is to nudge you in the direction of questioning your beliefs for at least a nanosecond and peerhaps open a window in your mind. I do apologize if I have somehow violated your free will.

For most of us, it seems that we are ready... willing... and very able to unquestioningly accept that what we see with our anatomical eyes... is - what is. Although you may be one of so many (myself included) that from an intellectual perspective - DENIES this limitation, it is a habitual response (program) that is indeed quite challenging to free ourselves from. In my case, the actual work began with consideration of the possibility that 'All - is not as it appears'. This 'what if' period was and continues to be, increasingly uncomfortable - to say the least! It amounts to a level of suspension of belief that is almost impossible to accurately describe to another - who is not trekking down the same path. This chosen perspective of 'what if' seems to attract others who are in an infinite variety of differing stages of - what I will refer to as - Now What?

I will post here a warning to those that are comfortably entrenched in a rigid, but familiar, existence of BELIEVING.

There is indeed, in essence - such a place as - what I will refer to as - 'awake'. Once there, it seems that it is almost... impossible... to travel back in 'time' to that original place of familiar and comfortable and rigid... BELIEVING.

Where I find myself now - is - for the most part - quite uncomfortable. I am not referring to "comfort" in any material sense. I am referring to "comfort" in a psychic sense. One aspect of my thought process struggles in retrospect to somehow - and occasionally - in a fit of desperation - 'revive' the old programmed 'thing' that I once perceived as "me". I reach back to her, grab her, shake her and in futility attempt to revive her. Alas, this fails. She is like a garment that I have outgrown and no matter how determined I may be - I simply no longer fit inside of it. She lies there, still alive, though discarded and almost useless to anyone or anything in the ever expanding present perception of "all that is". I do not pity her. I do feel great empathy and great compassion for her. For she has served me well on my path of lessons chosen.

Discomfort is akin to finding oneself naked in front of the entire universe. It is a very transparent place to dwell. I am still a liar. Only now, I am aware of my lies and thus find that I feel response - able for my lies. Ouch! very uncomfortable. In this process I have lost the skill of believing in my own lies. I have lost the skill of easily convincing myself that "all that is " - is - as I want/wish it to be. For the most part, I sit and watch myself stumble and learn. My only saving grace, is that I have not lost my sense of humor. I can still laugh at myself. Actually, I laugh at myself more now - than I did when I was an efficiently and successfully programmed female. During the most intense experiences of mirth, I deeply understand how and why so many people are labeled as "insane" and fortunately have learned to keep my laughter - pretty much to myself. The laughter I speak of is a result of the irony I see in so many experiences and especially - the irony that lies within my own lessons. Ha Ha! He He! I do indeed laugh and I also feel profound sadness and feel deeply humbled by it all. I've decided that I am a cactus in human form - as my body hair - rising up and sticking out has become so commonplace that I have given up on it. Hairspray was never the answer, say I.

Hairspray is a source of laughter.