“If you let liars into the government, you put everybody at risk”–James O’ Brien, a few minutes ago on LBC talk radio, UK.
Whenever I’m fortunate enough to catch one of my own thoughts and follow it, I try to imagine how such a similar thought may arise in others. You can save a lot of time by working to slow the avalanche of distracting thoughts using traditional methods, follow your breath, sit still, isolate your consciousness temporarily to recharge and repair. However, a lot of people consider meditation as pass/time for snowflakes, and need further nudging and poking to begin to recognize the importance of trying to follow their thoughts and questioning where they come from and where they go? And how often are you updating that data-set?
A healthy mid/waypoint between Zen meditation and simply changing your mind about something revolves around the language that you use and how you use it. The introduction of a few modifications to a language can produce results similar to those gained from meditation, they can affect a new expanded awareness, from the individual psychological sense of self…to the ontological social-cultural sense of reality. Every time we hear, think and speak we are confronted with the paradox of Language vs. The Equation.
The symbol systems we use to communicate our message and those we leave out are worthy of meditation. Meditation, to return to the theme, or some kinds of meditation…aim to reach beyond language and bridge the ideological gaps, to move towards experiencing things as they actually are: perpetually changing, decentralized, incomprehensible. And invoking compassion to fill the holes of what cannot be known.
“Language is a virus from outer space.”–William S. Burroughs.
In all seriousness and sincerity, we should all spend a moment to meditate on Coronavirus and where possible, try to follow our thoughts, our hopes and our fears. Try to track them to where they originate, where is the source of those thoughts and where are those thoughts going to…and now? This process of self-analysis and listening to your own head and heart, once in touch with your own mind-body system, can be shifted to cast judgement on others or external signals from…out there. Hopefully with compassion due to understanding the process you’ve just been through, like solidarity, not a choice but duty when faced with the incomprehensible, the uncertain and the indeterminate of a global pandemic turning endemic. We must search for that common ground between all human beings, such as to wish them a happy healthy life, for example. Wish well, wish hard, wish often. Practice practice practice.
The global coronavirus brings complexity and chaos to the existing complexity/chaos/disorder inherent in subject-object duality, underlying most division and confusion around the world, the roots of disinformation? To repeat, never give up trying to understand that which you currently do not, experiment, research, measure, study, and in equal measure…both on yourself and on others…the internal and external infinite flux of beingness. Man, and women, is the measure of all things, somebody else said.
To conclude: If you want to fight for your future and live in a healthy, well-informed community of self-owning ones, consider starting by following your own thoughts, where do they come from, where do they go? Then if your feeling brave, begin to use the same logic and reason, the same thought tools to break down the news headlines and the gossip down the pub and the WHO guidelines and each and every message communicated down to the very last pixel, or phoneme.
“Free your mind and your ass will follow…”–Funkadelic.
Thanks for reading, stay safe.
Love all the people!
–Steve Fly
[DISCLAIMER: I make no claim to expertise in meditation or spiritual practises. I’m more of the “do what thou wilt to find compassion for others” persuasion. As we head into a spiritual and material crisis, I recommend a linguistic hazmat suit, neurolinguistic relativity and multi-model agnosticism to nudge us towards a compassionate, interconnected, co-operative global village.]
http://www.hilaritaspress.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen
https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2020/03/journalists-toolbox-studying-coronavirus/
A song I wrote called THOUGHTS, based up some of the above.
Occupy by Dr Marshmallow Cubicle
DEEP SCRATCH 