COWBOY DIRECTIONS

March 19th, 2021

It’s so fun to push the instructions off to the side and just go for it.  Certainly, not everyone enjoys this frivolous approach.  Some people are utterly paralyzed without step-by-step instructions.  

The cowboy, as he is popularly held in imagination is a frontier’s character.  One that pushes into the unknown without a plan, but solidly equipped with creative methods for dealing with everything and anything the unknown might hold.

Are these methods ideal, or the most efficient?  Certainly not, though perhaps.  Blazing a trail is a laborious and inefficient process.  The trail, once established, represents the efficient set of instructions about how to proceed forward.  

So, when does the cowboy follow the instructions?  The kitchen is a good place to zero in on for this discussion.  Cooking can be a very fun, creative, and forgiving avenue for creativity.  Baking, on the other hand isn’t as forgiving.  Baking requires a good set of instructions because deviations often result in disaster.  Stir fries, on the other hand are a kind melange, a mess that can work in a near infinite number of combinations.  The stir fry, with it’s forgiving flexibility is like the realm of the frontier: it’s easier to try something new and get away with it.  

Both the way of the cowboy and that of step by step instructions embody two different perspectives.  Because any thoughtful consideration realizes that even the instructions for a cake had to be discovered.  Such a thing could not be deduced.  There was certainly many inglorious attempts to produce cake similar to any desserts attempted today by those who only give the instructions a cursory glance.  This is at the heart of why and how the ability to ‘cowboy’  is essential: it’s the way we discover instructions.  The ability to simply follow instructions - to invoke the recipe perfectly can only get us as far as we’ve already gone.  But the ability to cowboy allows us to move further - it allows us to discover the new, even if what is discovered is a new way about how NOT to do something.

The instructions of the cowboy are more like guidelines.  Like a compass that points vaguely north, all that’s often needed is a bird’s eye view of what’s going on.  Details can get ironed out later.  What matter’s most is that we’re headed in the right direction, and that’s only possible with a temporary disregard of specifics in favor of larger perspective the includes both the current situation and the ideal destination in the distance.

LATERAL MEDITATIVE HYPOTHESIS

March 18th, 2021

What impact does meditation have on the way the two halves of the brain function relative to one another?

Iain McGilchrist’s book “The Master and his Emissary” explores the radical differences between the brain’s two hemispheres.  To paraphrase in a way that disservices a book with 600 pages, the left hemisphere is detail and desire oriented, while the right hemisphere is focused on the big picture.  In order to have an idea of what’s going on in any dynamic situation, we need the right hemisphere to make sense of all that’s happening, but often we are focused in a cramped way, obsessing about details that don’t necessarily have a lasting impact - this is the left hemisphere having a bit more of an influence than we are best off with.  

Much of the long term benefit of meditation has to do with a conscious abandonment of overly focused thought in favor of a more expansive acceptance of the contents of consciousness.  One modern characteristic of thought is obsessiveness and repetitiveness, and for many this is a tragic instance of self-torture.  While it has yet to be studied clinically, it’s easily imaginable that a mindfulness practice strengthens the right hemisphere’s ability to impact our experience of the moment.  Mindfulness practice trains a mind in the ability to release focus on any single thought.  The release of such a thought opens up the field of awareness, and naturally this ushers in a larger perspective.  We don’t just simply switch out one thought for another when engaged in a mindfulness practice, we switch out one perspective for another, and this is exactly how the two hemispheres can be best characterized.

“The Master and his Emissary” goes on to form a thesis which holds that the left hemisphere regularly becomes universally dominates; as a civilization we become too focused without seeing the larger picture and this is why civilizations in the past have undergone a tragic cycle of boom and bust.

It may turn out that the proselytizing proponents of meditation who claim that it will solve all the world’s ills might actually be on to something.  If Hemisphere dominance turns out to be a legitimate piece of our collapsing puzzle, and if meditation does in fact have lateral effects that combat asymmetrical dominance, than is possible that mental training similar to mindfulness may in fact be an option for raising the probability of long term civilizational stability.

WHILE AWAY

March 17th, 2021

It’s an interesting discrepancy that we generally adhere to eight hour work days and yet it’s widely acclaimed that we only really get four hours of quality work done.  What exactly is happening during those other four hours, or the other twelve for that matter?

The obvious and widely denied truth is that we aren’t actually as productive as we think.  We don’t actually take breaks from our strenuous and continuous work, it’s more the other way around:  we take breaks from our laziness in order to get something done.

Perhaps such a statement comes across as cynical and judgemental, but on the contrary, it’s in line with our evolution. (Another grand statement…). But in terms of energy and efficiency it makes sense:  an animal that can make more use of less energy is exactly the name of the game when it comes to evolutionary and environmental pressure.

Now when it comes to intelligence, a new definition is applicable:  intelligence is efficient laziness.  Or rather, intelligence can allow you to get the same thing done in less time by finding a better way - that’s efficiency.  Work smarter, not harder.

And yet we are beset with the guilt of not getting more done, of being lazy, procrastinating, and wasting that precious time.  Perhaps the only real problem isn’t actually wasting time, but feeling bad about it.  What if the guilt we feel about procrastination actually perpetuates the procrastination?  Is there any possibility that we’d get started sooner and be more productive if we held no ill will about doing nothing and wasting time when in fact that’s the default?

All progress is just a short break from the holy task of wasting time.  Our real problem isn’t a  of productivity, but an ability to enjoy those moments as they while away.

THE MUSIC IN LANGUAGE

March 16th, 2021

Which came first: language or music? The debate is probably as old as our ability to form the question with language, and considering that a graphical representation of both music and language came long after the invention of both, there’s probably no way to know definitively the answer.

While there are countless aspects of both that may hint at an answer, one of these aspects is the fluidity both have, and how well that fluidity extends the core purpose of each. With music this aspect is so obvious and self-explanatory it probably doesn’t warrant description: if music flows than it functions, by default. Whereas language can accomplish much the same but undermine it’s function. Devious orators can spin webs of sweetly sounding convictions, arguments and rationale without actually crafting something that is sensical when closely examined. It’s through this relation to music that language can be welded in dishonest ways. The loophole is that human memory is very limited and we cannot maintain a perfect transcript of what a person has said while listening. We can only pay partial sense and because of this we instead tune into the music and rhythm of the language. This fluid code is imbued with emotion which can make sense without being consistent. To prove the point we need only think of a time we’ve. Been incredibly upset with a person we love dearly. The emotions we hold for such a person are contradictory, but still the situation makes sense. The logic of an argument, on the other hand, cannot so easily sustain such a contradiction, unless of course it simply sounds good. This is the music of language at work: we hear the beat of a certain intent and understand without delving into the details where a devil might live.

This deceptive phenomenon seems to imply that music most likely came before language, and that the sense-making apparatus came after music, growing out of the primordial communicative traits of music which lack all specific detail.

Notice how the musical aspects of language can be used to undermine the purpose of language, but the similarities and influences of language have no such detrimental effects on the efficacy of music. Even terrible lyrics often go totally unnoticed. The words of songs often make no sense, like pieces of post modern poetry that are truly impossible to make any connection to outside the emotional context which music creates.

It seems we’ve been singing since the beginning, but slowly an improved structure of sense making has grown within that song. But, we are still at risk of the seductive powers of a song that is misaligned with our hopes, goals, and dreams.

MEDITATIVE HAMMER

March 15th, 2021

A hallmark of depression and anxiety is perseveration, or the continued and repeated occurrence of an unpleasant thought.  The mind becomes like a broken record of subversive affirmation.  This sort of mental behavior can persist for years, decades and potentially for many unfortunate people’s entire lifetimes.

We are usually so close to our thoughts that we fail to see a separation.  Are our thoughts not a representation of who we are?  As odd as it may seem, the answer is no.

With a little practiced separation from thoughts and emotions we gain the ability to choose which thoughts are best to entertain, and which are best to let pass into oblivion.  With enough training, the experience of perseveration diminishes until even the memory of such a mental habit is forgotten, passing into oblivion.

The mental training of mindfulness achieves this separation, if given enough time and practiced with enough consistency.  When such a practice is robust and mature, the experience of a negative or unproductive thought changes completely.  Instead of a struggle that invariably perpetuates the exact thing we are trying to stop, a meditation practice becomes a tool that can be implemented at a moment’s notice.  Whereas the popular conception of meditation is a mind devoid of thoughts, it’s perhaps better thought of as a mind that can decide to let go of a thought.  The difference is important.  A mind devoid of thought precludes future thoughts, but this isn’t possible.  Thoughts pop up as if on their own accord, but the meditative mind may let go of them as they emerge.  For a person who was once tortured by thought, the practice shows it’s true power when on the rare circumstance this old style of thought comes back.  The mental training slams down on the old unwelcome thought like a hammer, crushing it out of mind and existence.