Relieving Yourself In The Face Of Solemnity

Lay down all thought

Surrender to the void
It is shining
It is shining
- John Lennon (Tomorrow Never Knows)

I used to believe that each day I knew all there ever was to know. The next day, I would learn a few more things and marvel at how stupid I was the day before. That's the way it is with life. Each day brings new possibilities, new hopes, new dreams and, of course, fresh concerns. Balancing the 'yings' and 'yangs' of our existence can leave us dumbfounded as we existentially grope around in our subconscious for our minds to hang our 'sense of being' and self-worth on.

For many, juggling the psychic apparatus of their various cognitive and psychological states is serious business, and good business for many institutions come circus barkers. It's really something to meditate on.

Nevertheless, I've never been much of a meditator. In fact, I'm much too full of myself for the practice and balk at any idealistic isms that preach self-nullification. Perhaps it's a defense mechanism, but for many years, I felt as if I was my own best friend. Alone with my thoughts which I could never really share, I'd entertain myself and find ways to make myself smile. I never heard voices in my head, though I would occasionally talk to myself.

That being said, I have read much about meditation. I've done the breathing and focus-defocus exercises always coming to realization that I was trying much too hard and therefore becoming a burden to my efforts. It's easy to distract yourself with your 'self' as your self can't help but get in the way. It's easy to miss the forest for the trees ... when you are a tree. And perhaps that's really the whole point of it ... to accept yourself for who you really are.

Honestly, if one was happy with oneself, why would one want to lose oneself in a crowd? If we are happy with who we are, then how could we not look in the mirror and smile? An exercise I do each day, sort of my own special daily affirmation, is too look in the bathroom and feign a constipated expression. It always cracks me up, and for a few seconds each day the stress of all that was and all that is yet to be shatter from the moment and fall to the ground.

So how do you distract yourself from distraction? Some would say by training yourself to get lost in the moment. This a far cry from suggesting we lose our minds. Even former vice-president Dan Quayle misquoted "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." I would wholeheartedly agree, if I knew he knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately, he doesn't ... or rather didn't, so the point is moot.

What I do know is that when we lower our guard, demand less and have fewer expectations we are more apt to really enjoy any given moment. I can't vouch for living fully in each moment, because that sounds a bit too wide-eyed and pollyanish for my taste. Sorry, but it's just not in my nature to prance or frolic. Still, I firmly believe that freeing yourself from the gravity of some moments seems doable.

Still, brazenly relieving yourself in the face of solemnity will most definitely ruffle the britches of the hand-writhing and hard-washing rank and file. Some will encourage we be all that we can be. Others will admonish us to lose all sense of independent existence. In both cases, these 'powers that be' surreptitiously suggest that we surrender ourselves, not so much to a void, but to their will. In marketing, this is known as the old 'switch and bait' ploy.

There are many who are seeking a spiritual state of mind. This is a mistake. It's our minds that get in the way of the manifestation of a spiritual state. I'd suggest it's easier to shoot for achieving a spiritual state of 'spirit'. Now defining spirituality is a matter for another post, but trust me I can can definitely propose the following advice: raise your spirits and your mind will follow.

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What Time Is It?

When explaining to students the difference between a wish and a hope, I like to say that we hope for things that are possible, but we wish for things that are impossible. The question of the day: do we wish for more hope or do we hope for more wishes?

We spend barrels of time looking across the street or out the window, staring at what we wish we had. We desperately need to know what's going on "over there" and muse whimsically on the green grass that grows way over yonder, over the hill. Time flies as our eyes wander, sometimes even seeing right through that which is right before us. We're fixated on what we don't have ... especially time.

We spend half our lives looking ahead and the other half looking back, so it's no wonder there is precious little time for the here and now. Cries of "I have no time!" reverberate, echoing justifications and excuses. And yet, we fret and moan. And, on the tails of lost opportunities, or at the end of our days, we may even cry inconsolably - if only we had, or had had, more time. We know better, but we choose to block out the little prying voices in our heads, heeding instead the scurrying ticks and tocks of the indifferent clock. Time marches on, and so do we, yet out of step, out of rhythm and out of sync.

How many times have we been told that "time is money"! Many have neither. It's the same old tiring and timeless story. We just never learn.

Most likely, we don't appreciate what time we have, because ... we created time and then became a slave to it. It's ironic because though we are finite, time is infinite. Surprisingly, Zen masters would suggest that infinity is in the finite of every instant. Indeed, does anybody really know what time it is?

Benjamin Franklin reminded us that "lost time is never found again" and Martin Luther King, Jr. suggested that "the time is always right to do what is right.” The old proverb "a stitch in times saves nine" still resonates. I propose we do the math.

PS. Thanks for reading. If you have the time, give me your thoughts.

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