One
of the oldest concepts men have employed in an effort to
CatchOn
to what is going on, and thus satisfy themselves,
is
to: live
in the here & now
-- live
only in the moment,
an
idea that has fascinated men, ranging from philosophers and mystics,
to
warriors and diamond cutters.
You
should note that the body does so instinctively,
and
should it not, disaster results;
it
is to thought that the idea refers:
saying
that you would be better off if your thoughts dwelt only on the here &
now;
if
your mental attention was held to the circumstances of the moment,
and
further note: except when thoughts are perforce dealing with an immediate
challenge to survival, or trying to solve a tangible problem in the physical
environment -- such a state is neurally unnatural;
under
minute-by-minute, everyday, civilized, mundane conditions,
thought
does not live in the here & now because
it
finds nothing at the moment to live for;
the
ordinary mind in ordinary circumstances has nothing worthwhile to do,
not
by any definition related to activity at all pertinent to staying alive;
For
a samurai in battle, having his thoughts on the instant environment can
make the difference between living or dying,
and
for a man attempting to fathom the nature of himself and life, so doing
can mark the boundary twix some insight and tepid torpidity,
(and can also
aid everyday people in avoiding tripping and bumping into things).
But
as with all things in the universe in which men can involve themselves:
the
clearer the understanding of the conditions of the undertaking,
the
more promising are the efforts put therein,
and
of much practical significance, but generally ignored,
is
the fact that it is completely unnatural for thought to live in the instant
moment
(except for circumstances
supra speared), and that one way of looking at this is that
thought usually has nothing worthwhile to
think about,
but
just as a heart will continue to pump blood 'round the clock,
no
matter the quality of the fluid at any given moment,
so too does the mind roll ever on.
In
our employment here of words to converse,
it
could, not without foundation, be said that the all inclusive scene of
a man GettingIt
is
two fold: the ultimate occurrence in his brain when he
realizes what is going on,
and
the other (related, yet not the same thing):
the
temporary anomalous mental states that not uncommonly occur in the brains
of people born with that CertainHunger,
which in fact are the source of the idea among such people that they should
be, living-in-the-here-&-now.
These
extraordinary brain experiences (as delightful and encouraging as they
be)
are
not in themselves the actual realization of what is going on:
their
entirely non standard characteristics reflect
a normally unrecognized reality about
the mind, and thus a person's conception of what is going on,
but
these states come and go (when they do) beyond the
control of the person,
but
what men thereafter feel they might be able to control,
is
where their thoughts are at any given instant:
they
are much attracted to the idea of making their thoughts stay right here
--
If
this were accomplished, a man's life would turn upside down, and inside
out --
at
least on
the inside,
but
it is what he should discover for himself in the effort to accomplish
this
that
is its use and value -- not in questions of actually succeeding or
failing.
What
that CertainMan
quietly
learns through the thoroughly unnatural and frustrating effort to make
his thoughts (which
is a polite way of saying:
thoughts attempting
to make themselves) think about nothing other than
the
circumstances of where he is at the moment and the conditions of whatever
it is
he
may be doing (even if it is nothing),
is
something that cannot be described to any man beforehand;
it
is like a man being born on a bus, and to him the bus is his natural environment,
and
in no way does it feel separate from him;
in
the bus he lives his life, and from its windows he sees the world,
and
should he undertake a philosophical study of life, and himself,
it
will naturally be a study of his life as it is on
the unnoticed bus.
CatchingOn
is realizing you are on the bus --
and
there is no way you can begin by trying directly for this realization;
it
must be reached by methods indirect and ultimately, irrelevant;
you
must (as improbable as it sounds) somehow almost "trick"
yourself into
the
supreme realization (encouragement-in
and methods-for, these daily writings' purpose).
When
you do realize what is going on,
you
understand the unspeakable reality that makes ring so true
the
idea that you should live only in the here & now;
there
is a secret surpass awaiting in the realization;
ask
yourself: based on your own recognition (by now we assume...on a good day)
that
not only do your thoughts never stay where and when you are,
but
that wherever else they are, they are up to nothing worthwhile to you,
then:
what would be the advantage if they did
stay only in the here & now?
Those
born with that SpecialCuriosity
are also
born with the automatic inclination to believe that they understand fully
the nature of their dissatisfaction --
but
the grand surprise is in their sudden
realization one day that
they
do not.