Get Understanding

 

THOUGHT

Thought is our gateway into the experience of this world. From infancy, we begin to label and categorize our objective reality and thoughts allow us to hold mental models of these experiences in the form of memory. Memory is usually fragmented and often incorrect. This is not a good reason to abandon memory; it is helpful, even when wrong.

I learned a song on the guitar last night. It’s a song by Jack Johnson, called Banana Pancakes. I chose it because the opening riff is really fun to play. I put the guitar away and I have even slept since then, but having used my thoughts to store portions of what I learned last night, I can, from memory, go and pick up the guitar and play that song right now. In fact – I think this part is really important too – I feel I might even be able to play it better this morning. This is not at all unusual for musicians. We practice something and we stumble through it a few times, but our brains seem to store a few of the most helpful moves. In other words, it feels rather instinctual after having slept on it. In my experience, expressions seem to escape the conscious mind and find their way to the subconscious mind, where recall takes effect without the need for thought.

Imagine how difficult life would seem if we had to consider our breathing consciously; “breath in, breath out…”

What if you had to say to your heart, “Beat, beat, beat.”

As soon as riding a bicycle is as understood as it could be, then thought can hand over the work to awareness. Once a bicycle is clearly understood, it is no longer necessary to give it thought. “It’s like riding a bicycle.” They say.

The most effective way to become successful in your own story of success is to keep the bicycle in mind.

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7

Break this down with me:

1.      What is wisdom?

Wisdom is not the same as knowledge or learning. Wisdom is the effect of the integration of knowledge and experience. It is the resulting state or condition of a mind built upon useful thoughts having been practiced and shown to achieve desired results. Originally, thought began the journey to wisdom, but wisdom takes thought only as far as it needs to ascend, but once the practice enters awareness, the thoughts can fall away like booster rockets. This is the place where one would be riding a bicycle and yet having no thought about the bicycle, or riding, for that matter.

2.      What is understanding?

Understanding would be to revisit the way thoughts gave way to awareness. In the case of a bicycle, we may be wise enough to ride one as often as we want to, without giving any thought to riding, but to “get understanding” is to draw upon the wisdom gained and to see how it developed. How did someone end up riding a bicycle without thinking about it? They had to think first, then they had to combine those thoughts with careful actions. They had to continue to try and to train and then, they simply had to turn the process over to the subconscious mind, where the wisdom of bicycle riding can be turned into thoughtless joy.

Why does this writer ask the reader to “get understanding”?

With understanding – understanding how wisdom is achieved – more advanced wisdom can be sought, using the same method.

Back to the song I learned last night. Until I have practiced enough to turn the entire song over to my subconscious, the song will have that distinct thinking-sound. The notes may all be right, the tempo could be right, but it won’t be quantized humanistically. It will sound like a programmed song, being played by an old Player-Piano. It is nearly impossible to make even the best piano, programmed with the best playing-machine, to sound like a human player.

I love listening to chapters read aloud by AI voices. They will sound really convincing until they suddenly get the inflection, intonation or emphasis wrong. Of course, AI is equipped with a sort of subconscious layer of wisdom, where it can make a mistake, be caught and trained otherwise and improve. Therefore, I believe that AI voices will one day be indistinguishable from real voices. This will change everything. We are already seeing the effects of this technology. We could easily choose to have Morgan Freeman doing our narration; or rather, a voice exactly like his. How on earth could Morgan Freeman sue a company for using his identical voice? This is another story and I won’t go there now.

Right now, I don’t want to drift too far from the subject matter. I am discussing the most fundamental tool used in the human experience: thought. And with this tool I am considering its use as a building block for wisdom. I believe the concept is already, clearly established. We have schools full of young people, using thought to increase their awareness in specific areas. And I want to go back and forth to show that, understanding this concept, we should be able to become more aware in any area of our experience.

 

 

I know I am all over the place here, but let’s go back to a simple guitar lesson:

Why is it so incredibly enjoyable to learn a new song on the guitar? I believe the joy comes from the way our knowledge of the basics of guitar-playing can be used to increase our awareness. I stopped there, and placed a period there, for a reason: I wanted to get right to the joy. The joy of living as a human is made possible by increasing awareness.

Awareness can be experienced when thought is replaced by thoughtless activity. The building of awareness, and the expansion of awareness, can and does take place when we subjectively project influence onto our objective world until we affect it.

That’s confusing, but in simpler terms, I learn a guitar riff and I practice it until I begin to play it without thinking about it and that’s when it becomes fun, rather than difficult.

Now to go back to the depths again, let us consider the shadows on the cave wall. When we are infants, the “shadows” we create are incredibly simple. We hold up our tiny hands and there, on the cave wall, we begin to have the experience of a hand and we soon discover how much influence we have on this hand-shadow. Within weeks, we take the hands for granted and we begin to use them without thought. By the time we are seven, we’ve moved a lot of our practices into the area of awareness, where we use these learned qualities the way we use our hands; without much thought. We are walking everywhere and seldom falling. We are eating the food we like and we’ve given up on dirt, extension cords and other tasteless objects. As our math skills improve, we are beginning to see that mathematics can be very helpful with learning and learning can increase our wisdom. We read bigger books, with more words and we begin to see that conversations become clearer. We no longer have to take each word and study its etymologic origins and definitions; an entire chapter, in a good book, becomes a joy to read as a result. The joy doesn’t come from the thought as much as it comes from the ease we’ve achieved by having read many books. Reading a good book can have the effect of riding a bicycle.

For this very reason, Joseph Campbell loved Fennigans Wake by James Joyce. I’ve tried to read it and it may as well be a Penny-Farthing for me. I can ride a bicycle with no thought at all; therefore, I enjoy it. But a Penny-Farthing is a high-wheel bicycle; one which actually preceded our modern bicycles. The name of the early invention came from a penny and a farthing; a penny representing the larger wheel and a farthing representing the smaller one. Nevertheless, I would probably get hurt on a Penny-Farthing. I’d also get hurt trying to read the wonderful novel by James Joyce. And… I say this to show how complex the layers of wisdom could be. Campbell understood Joyce to the point where he could appreciate that very complex work enough to write his own, skeleton key, decoding the whole thing; a key I feel threatened by.

Now, imagine Campbell, with his vast knowledge of myths from all over the world. Imagine his piercing eyes, staring at the same cave wall we all see. I am sure that Campbell could explore the images as one under the influence of mescaline.

I’m going to consider myself in the cave with Campbell:

I imagine myself as having some understanding of the simulation. I can sense the bright light beyond the entrance of the cave, the fire burning, yielding our human-experiences and our intentions, creating our perceived, objectified world; but if Campbell were here with me, making the same observations, I imagine him smiling, knowing full well that this is all an illusion. Campbell did know this. “The conquest of the fear of death is the recovery of life’s joy.” Said Campbell.

Here, Campbell was not highlighting death, but he was giving us advice regarding acceptance. The acceptance of every aspect of our experience is the path to joy itself.

Campbell had a way of accepting everything; and growing awareness though experience; getting understanding!

To sum this up, I will say this: automation is where the joy of life resides. Reducing the intervention of thought, while still considering a developing process, without labels, is the path to joy.

If you find yourself sitting on a log, beside a river, the entire scene should have the effect of yielding awareness devoid of thought. We’ve labeled this sort of activity as “meditation”. It increases joy simply by decreasing thought. Your eyes are free to consider the river, the water and the splashes. Your ears are allowed to hear the waves, the ripples and the water flowing in the center. All of your senses are given a break and nothing has to be labeled. Your humanity is not having any effect on the river. Peace like a river overwhelms you when you become aware and in that moment.

“For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace like a river.

 

There is something in nature, much bigger than the human. The human is a representation of what is. We are here to participate with what is; and we do.

If there is a way to discover joy, why are we not all looking for that vein? That mother lode?

I believe, in fact, there is a way to mine joy. I believe it has everything to do with acceptance. I push acceptance a lot. The happiest people on the planet are those who do what they can do in order to achieve what they hope to achieve and then, they are decidedly happy with their results. It’s a subtle difference, but I watch people carefully.

It is very easy to consider my wife. She is around me for a period of hours on most days; so I can see how she handles things. She is very good at accepting things; regardless of how they turn out. She’ll go into a challenge with very specific expectations; releasing each expectation to chance if she fails to get it in her net. She never devotes any energy to what did not work out. Again, this is subtle, but if you can practice this, you will be happier.

Shrugging when you lose is a win.

There is something wonderful about lowering your expectations.

“Keep your head down.” Said my friend, Doug.

He was talking about how society is very much like a child playing Whack-A-Mole and we are like the poor mole. “Why do we keep popping out like that?” He asked.

However, the greyest of gardens are those gardens we never tend to. When I surface to acquire into a new dream, I am prepared to be refused, but that does not prevent me from asking again.

When I was young and dating, I managed to get a few surprising yesses. Some of my friends would say, “She ain’t gonna go out with you!”

Ah, but she did.

In short, my advice would not be to keep your head down; it would be to poke your head into whatever you desire and be okay with being whacked.

I am still doing this at 60. I poke my head in where it doesn’t belong; and then it does.

I want to go back to Campbell for a moment. Order? Is there order?

Yes, and that order is achieved by your experience. Your experience builds wisdom and wisdom can inform thought in order to gain more experience; which leads to order.

1.      Experience

2.      Order

3.      Wisdom

4.      Thought

5.      Experience

We can spin-cycle our overall joy as fast as we want to.

What happens when I stub my toe? It is very difficult to ignore. I cannot enjoy it and it slows the cycle of acceptance. In fact, when my body cries out in discomfort, I usually turn my attention to it.

There is a reason for this: the brain is assigned to the body and the body to the brain. They are not going to do anything to sever this highly dependent, symbiotic relationship. Thoughts are all required to turn to any matters regarding the body. The key is to practice freeing the thoughts from this rigorous task. Even if you can only manage to get one thought free; then free it and try to put your own presence in that thought; while your egoic nature goes with the pain-body.

This is where the idea of “think on these things” comes from.

It is purposeful, but it is also where you decide to “be”.

Being one with a stubbed toe is a horrible experience.

Getting to the place where you can say, “Oh well, there goes my toe,” is a wonderful place.