From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sun Jun 30 2002 - 15:19:41 MDT
Vanessa Novaeris wrote:
> Honestly though, it literally took total
>isolation from the outside world for me to discover this,
>so I don't know what, if anything, that implies about the
> general public.
>
Alex Ramonsky wrote:
>...Is this that 'dark night of the soul' thing people go on about, I
>wonder? It's interesting how many of us have done the 'isolation' thing,
>and then turned back to reassess human contacts.
No man is an island. If one doesn't realize that one needs others, then
they will become arrogant and their arrogance will defeat them in the
end.
For those of you/us that carry alot of pride, it's a worthwhile
experiment to try to be vulnerable sometimes. It's just as difficult to
receive help as it is to ask for help. Only at that moment are one's
defensive barriers down. The rewards are multiplied ntimes when one is
interacting with another person without the barriers. The communication
becomes sincere. Also, you might discover that many people gain alot of
inner joy from helping someone else or joining in a cause that they
believe in too.
>Maybe it's necessary to
>get a perspective, like when you stand outside a problem and look at it
>afresh?
Perhaps like being reborn, fresh out of the womb. This is a very
precious and sweet (and sacred) perspective.
>The 'general public' doesn't seem to use this 'overview' mode
>very often; perhaps they do in retrospect (about failed love affairs,
>arguments, etc) but people on the whole seem to be more caught up in
>worrying and / or feeling guilty than trying to think. If folks are
>happy with that I think it's fine, but the trouble is, most folks don't
>seem to find much joy in it.
The Buddhists use the 'Big Mind' as a metaphor for the part of ourselves
that watches/notices the tragedies and comedies proceeding in our lives,
and doesn't interfere, only notices (perhaps winking). It's useful to
put oneself in Big Mind mode. The 'Little Mind' is the part that get's
caught up in details and stupid things that really don't matter on the
large scale of our lives.
But I don't think that 'thinking' is the issue. The 'overview' mode for
me is taking a step back and paying attention to what my heart is
telling me. Are my dreams alive or did I let them die? Did I let
disappointment and failed experiences and experiments rot my enthusiasm
for following my dreams or am I seeing my life through a child's eyes?
People who have lost their dreams no longer think that life is a grand
adventure, as children see their lives, but instead they live something
of a tired day-to-day existence, caught in duties and allegiances and
baggage and they ask only very little of life. Dead dreams poison our
psychological selves infecting every aspect of our lives. When our
dreams are dead, no longer do we see the big picture.
Amara
(Heidelberg)
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Dare to be naive." -- Buckminster Fuller
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