Today is shaping up to be a cool but beautiful day on the mountain, with a chilled wind blowing patchy clounds across the sky. Large clutches of seeds and pollen pouches dangle from various trees all about as the leafy green of Spring matures into the lush foliage of a temperate region in Summer. To borrow a phrase from a friend this morning, the world is indeed so lovely.
Many things are happening today in Collegeville. A new farmers' market has opened down the street at the bio-fuels station. Herr Senske and I walked down to visit the market after lunch, and while a small operation to start, the Collegeville Farmers' market seemed quite popular, and shows great promise for the future. Such a development warms my heart even as I prepare to leave Collegeville in a few weeks.
After the Farmers' market, herr Senske and I returned to school, where we found the Earth Day festivities in full swing. While Earth Day was a week ago, Ursinus is celebrating it today. Lots of curious little tables, displays, and activities marked the day and braved the wind and cooler temperatures. Free things abounded, making certain people quite happy. It is quite nice to see people enjoying themselves on a Saturday morning/early afternoon in such fashion. Visiting the market, meeting people in the streets, and having a good time outside all have a wholesome feel, as though a community were coming together and giving joy to those who took part. Yes, perhaps joy is another word to add to this morning's descriptors. Wholesomeness and joy; that does sound nice.
Today has been slower than yesterday, thankfully. Bustling here and there can have its moments, but there's something to be said for slowing things down from time to time. A mind cannot rest or improve if it is always moving along at warp speed, just as a runner cannot improve if he or she does not, from time to time, slow down in training and let the body adapt.
So many things contribute to growth, improvement, and harmonious life, and each component lives and grows in its own season. It becomes very important it seems, if we are to live and grow in a balanced way, to be patient with ourselves. A fortune cookie once said, "nothing in nature is rushed, yet everything is accomplished." I thought the quote was pretty neat, and perhaps points us in the right direction for understanding something important about ourselves and our universe. Growth happens without being forced or compelled, but rather simply by the nature of those things of which the growing thing is constituted. In such a way, growth happens all on its own, in its own way, and in its own time. Something to consider perhaps.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Busy-busy
A beautiful morning on the mountain today, with much sun, a cool wind, and much reduced humidity. Could bode well for the men's 10,000m this evening at Muhlenberg. Was hoping I could run that race, but so it goes sometimes. Much luck to Jatin and Sam.
It is also a busy morning on the mountain, the first since turning finishing the thesis. Preparations for the German skit and the Tafelmusik performance are both well under way, and with any luck, each task will flow favorably into the next. The performance around noon is followed by a run (hopefully), a small dinner, a dress rehearsal (playing the Mozart tomorrow, AHHHH!!!), and then a German dinner at professor's house. Busy-busy. Perhaps it was fortuitous that I didn't qualify for the 10k.
Busy times can tax the mind a great deal. I woke up this morning with at least four different lines of thought running at once. On the one hand that's pretty cool, since being able to think about four different things at once seems a useful adaptation for a world which demands so of our time and energy. On the other hand, four lines of thoughts at once rapidly wears a body out, and is about as useful as sprinting in the middle of a marathon. A timely surge can do much in such a race, but an all-out sprint is quite costly compared to its achieved benefits.
So after a busy stretch is finished, sometimes it is helpful to do a little house-cleaning in the mind, and put things back in order. Return to the center of things, as a marble sent whirling about a bowl returns to the lowest point of the bowl upon coming to rest. Just a little cleaning could go a long way :).
Happy Friday, the last Friday of undergraduate studies.
It is also a busy morning on the mountain, the first since turning finishing the thesis. Preparations for the German skit and the Tafelmusik performance are both well under way, and with any luck, each task will flow favorably into the next. The performance around noon is followed by a run (hopefully), a small dinner, a dress rehearsal (playing the Mozart tomorrow, AHHHH!!!), and then a German dinner at professor's house. Busy-busy. Perhaps it was fortuitous that I didn't qualify for the 10k.
Busy times can tax the mind a great deal. I woke up this morning with at least four different lines of thought running at once. On the one hand that's pretty cool, since being able to think about four different things at once seems a useful adaptation for a world which demands so of our time and energy. On the other hand, four lines of thoughts at once rapidly wears a body out, and is about as useful as sprinting in the middle of a marathon. A timely surge can do much in such a race, but an all-out sprint is quite costly compared to its achieved benefits.
So after a busy stretch is finished, sometimes it is helpful to do a little house-cleaning in the mind, and put things back in order. Return to the center of things, as a marble sent whirling about a bowl returns to the lowest point of the bowl upon coming to rest. Just a little cleaning could go a long way :).
Happy Friday, the last Friday of undergraduate studies.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
A thought as a cow
A cloudy day greets us on the mountain today, with much gray, wind, and the promise of rain later. The distant hills have a blueish hue to their features, uniformly smudged like a pencil sketch meeting a sweaty thumb. At least it is warm.
Looking out from the top floor of the library often reminds me of a chapter I once read about thoughts, and how is that they can disturb or not disturb you. Actually, the chapter wasn't about that particularly, but that was the conclusion I drew from it, given the needs of the time. In short, the chapter suggested that one should give one's thoughts a big range in which to exist; thoughts are most calm when they are free to roam and expand in space. The usual tendency with difficult thoughts is to limit their scope, and pen them in, like stuffing a cow into a sardine can. But that is brutally uncomfortable for the cow, and can lead to much trouble I should think. What is the cow to do if it should have a scratch? Or if it should wish to take a walk to stretch the legs, or go to the bathroom, or do whatever else cows most naturally do? So it seems with a thought, be it pleasant or disturbing, that to give it peace--any by extension pacify the mind generally--that a wide space in which to wander is most conducive for transforming difficult thoughts into less difficult thoughts, and perhaps eventually a thought which once disturbed you greatly may become a thougth that disturbs you no more. Is it enough to hope that perhaps difficult thoughts may ultimately enrich your daily life, given the proper attitude and practice regarding them?
These things I do not know, and the understanding continues to wrestle with the issue. But if a thought is anything like a cow, a wide range over which to roam, poop, eat, and rest would seem most conducive for making a thought happy while simultaneously keeping one sane.
Strange post, but so it is. Cheers!
Looking out from the top floor of the library often reminds me of a chapter I once read about thoughts, and how is that they can disturb or not disturb you. Actually, the chapter wasn't about that particularly, but that was the conclusion I drew from it, given the needs of the time. In short, the chapter suggested that one should give one's thoughts a big range in which to exist; thoughts are most calm when they are free to roam and expand in space. The usual tendency with difficult thoughts is to limit their scope, and pen them in, like stuffing a cow into a sardine can. But that is brutally uncomfortable for the cow, and can lead to much trouble I should think. What is the cow to do if it should have a scratch? Or if it should wish to take a walk to stretch the legs, or go to the bathroom, or do whatever else cows most naturally do? So it seems with a thought, be it pleasant or disturbing, that to give it peace--any by extension pacify the mind generally--that a wide space in which to wander is most conducive for transforming difficult thoughts into less difficult thoughts, and perhaps eventually a thought which once disturbed you greatly may become a thougth that disturbs you no more. Is it enough to hope that perhaps difficult thoughts may ultimately enrich your daily life, given the proper attitude and practice regarding them?
These things I do not know, and the understanding continues to wrestle with the issue. But if a thought is anything like a cow, a wide range over which to roam, poop, eat, and rest would seem most conducive for making a thought happy while simultaneously keeping one sane.
Strange post, but so it is. Cheers!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Technological distortion
Sometimes it is difficult to do properly what your heart and mind deems the correct course of action in a given moment. You would think that would not be the case, since doing the right thing would seem to imply an action which posesses the most favorable ratio of advantages to disadvantages. Yet so it often proves that the right choice is also the most difficult.
Why so? Perhaps it is because the right choice is in part "right" due to the long-term advantages that it offers at the expense of short-term costs. In an age where technology has made gratification habitually instant in many things, doing the "right" thing in the long-run could render long-term thinking less natural than simply appraising the present as the only moment that matters. Perhaps techonology has, by degrees, altered a great many people's appraisal of the short-term costs of difficult choices, so that such pain seems unusually great in comparison to some foggy notion of future prosperity and peace of mind. Day after day, more research suggests that the average person's time before becoming bored has dropped from about 30 minutes in the 1950s to somewhere around a minute. I wish I could cite the source, but reviewing some relavent literature would probably bear this out. Waiting two minutes to allow a computer to load has become a burden for some computer-users. Likely this could contribute to raising the perceived costs of making a right choice that would yield long-term benefits.
According to such thinking, the actual cost of doing the right thing is not any higher than it has ever been. Rather, the nurture that technology provides has the potential to alter the ways in which techonology-users perceive and think about such costs, and as a result it can become more difficult to look past short-term gain or feelings for the sake of long-term benefits. Given this, it would seem quite important for people to consider the effect of technology on the ways they perceive costs and benefits in their daily lives. Losing the ability to wisely discern a prosperous course over the long-term could have potentially damaging effects on a person's, a family's, and indeed a nation's ability to provide for its prosperity, health, and general happiness.
One of the founding principles of the United States emphasized the freedom of a person to choose such things as provide for their, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The freedom to choose our course as we deem suitable and right naturally requires that such judgment remains sober and capable through the generations. What shall we do if such judgment is compromised by prosperity and technological development? How shall we choose the right course when modernity increasingly skews the costs? This, I believe, is one of the great challenges of living in a modern society today. It seems likely that our's and our friends' prosperity and happiness will depend on our efforts to see through the potentially distorting lens of contemporary society.
Why so? Perhaps it is because the right choice is in part "right" due to the long-term advantages that it offers at the expense of short-term costs. In an age where technology has made gratification habitually instant in many things, doing the "right" thing in the long-run could render long-term thinking less natural than simply appraising the present as the only moment that matters. Perhaps techonology has, by degrees, altered a great many people's appraisal of the short-term costs of difficult choices, so that such pain seems unusually great in comparison to some foggy notion of future prosperity and peace of mind. Day after day, more research suggests that the average person's time before becoming bored has dropped from about 30 minutes in the 1950s to somewhere around a minute. I wish I could cite the source, but reviewing some relavent literature would probably bear this out. Waiting two minutes to allow a computer to load has become a burden for some computer-users. Likely this could contribute to raising the perceived costs of making a right choice that would yield long-term benefits.
According to such thinking, the actual cost of doing the right thing is not any higher than it has ever been. Rather, the nurture that technology provides has the potential to alter the ways in which techonology-users perceive and think about such costs, and as a result it can become more difficult to look past short-term gain or feelings for the sake of long-term benefits. Given this, it would seem quite important for people to consider the effect of technology on the ways they perceive costs and benefits in their daily lives. Losing the ability to wisely discern a prosperous course over the long-term could have potentially damaging effects on a person's, a family's, and indeed a nation's ability to provide for its prosperity, health, and general happiness.
One of the founding principles of the United States emphasized the freedom of a person to choose such things as provide for their, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The freedom to choose our course as we deem suitable and right naturally requires that such judgment remains sober and capable through the generations. What shall we do if such judgment is compromised by prosperity and technological development? How shall we choose the right course when modernity increasingly skews the costs? This, I believe, is one of the great challenges of living in a modern society today. It seems likely that our's and our friends' prosperity and happiness will depend on our efforts to see through the potentially distorting lens of contemporary society.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Nothing special
Another warm and windy day has come to Collegeville. Day by day the leaves upon the trees grow fuller in their extent and breadth. The flowers of early Spring fade as the mature mane of Summer foilage gradually takes hold. There remains much growing to be done, but already the signs of life in full bloom are everywhere before our eyes.
I read a chapter of a book this morning by a monk named Suzuki. He was talking about Zen, and why it's stupid to talk about Zen. There's nothing special to it, and especially nothing out of the ordinary. It just points you in the right direction, such as a finger points on in the direction of the moon. Yet shall we confuse the finger with the moon? Nope, there's nothing special about Zen.
So keep it real man, keep it real.
I read a chapter of a book this morning by a monk named Suzuki. He was talking about Zen, and why it's stupid to talk about Zen. There's nothing special to it, and especially nothing out of the ordinary. It just points you in the right direction, such as a finger points on in the direction of the moon. Yet shall we confuse the finger with the moon? Nope, there's nothing special about Zen.
So keep it real man, keep it real.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Just a thought or two
Another humid day upon the mountain we have had, and even hotter than yesterday. Yet in its own way it was a beautiful day.
Today was my last German conversation class. I became rather attached to the people there, as well as everyone in my German class generally. We shared so many experiences over the course of two semesters, that it will be strange to finish our current endeavors and begin anew. I do not know where it will go, but I am glad my research compelled me to take up German again. So much I have learned, and so many new people I have met as a result.
The honor's thesis was turned into the dean today, and the article for the school newspaper on the Nazi documents was turned into the editor. Also, we finished reading our first book in German. It is curious that the season of new life in Spring is resulting in the completion of many old projects. Step by step, the trail leading to tomorrow unfolds before our feet.
Moment by moment, we have a choice, if we so choose, to do with it whatever we wish. With the right sort of control, one can maintain the attention upon each successive moment, and do with it what one wishes. One can even do nothing. Or one can try to do nothing, and in so doing so something. Or one can try to do something and ulimately accomplish nothing. I have heard that last one many times, both from myself and from others. Many blame facebook :). For others the time is not good for concentration.
I do not understand much of these things. With the right sort of effort, step by step, we can take the road together :). Happy Monday from the Mountain.
Today was my last German conversation class. I became rather attached to the people there, as well as everyone in my German class generally. We shared so many experiences over the course of two semesters, that it will be strange to finish our current endeavors and begin anew. I do not know where it will go, but I am glad my research compelled me to take up German again. So much I have learned, and so many new people I have met as a result.
The honor's thesis was turned into the dean today, and the article for the school newspaper on the Nazi documents was turned into the editor. Also, we finished reading our first book in German. It is curious that the season of new life in Spring is resulting in the completion of many old projects. Step by step, the trail leading to tomorrow unfolds before our feet.
Moment by moment, we have a choice, if we so choose, to do with it whatever we wish. With the right sort of control, one can maintain the attention upon each successive moment, and do with it what one wishes. One can even do nothing. Or one can try to do nothing, and in so doing so something. Or one can try to do something and ulimately accomplish nothing. I have heard that last one many times, both from myself and from others. Many blame facebook :). For others the time is not good for concentration.
I do not understand much of these things. With the right sort of effort, step by step, we can take the road together :). Happy Monday from the Mountain.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Busy mind
A beautiful, if quite humid, day has greeted us on this Easter afternoon. The moisture in the air clings to everything, and can make breathing the air oppressive at times, but all that aside, the day is quite beautiful.
I walked along the forests' edge and drank some tea during the coffee hour. A forest in Spring is quite busy by the looks and sounds of things, and today proved no exception. Sometimes I will do an exercise where I ask myself consciously what I hear, what I feel, smell, taste, etc. For whatever reason, performing such an exercise brings the mind to the present moment, and removes it [most times] from whatever else might be mulling in the mind presently. Sometimes I wonder if the brain thinks about harmful subjects because it get's bored, and with the way technology is used by many people today, this can happen more often. Perhaps, perhaps.
Perhaps with so much going on, it becomes habitual to become bored with things. A simple day can be quite good for the mind, but it can cause anxiety in ourselves we feel like we should be doing two or three things instead of one. A need to feel productive, as though we are doing something to accomplish something else. Our modern world seems bent on engraining this ethic in ourselves more and more often.
A little effort in the opposite direction may do some good. To sit down for a few minutes and just sit, or to sip some tea and do nothing else; to walk about in the forest or the city for a few hours, or just to listen to some music while doing nothing else. Many modern people have an extraordinary capacity for multi-tasking, but like with yesterday's post, if we exercise this ability all the time it can compromise the consistency and capacity of our efforts as a whole. We run around all the time with a full cup of tea, and struggle to take on any more when circumstance or sudden interest requires.
So in this regard you and I have a wonderful skill, but we must beware of the consequences that come with that skill. We can work on many projects or levels of thought simultaneously, perhaps in ways our forefathers could not, yet with that ability comes the risk that we shall exercise this ability all the time, and by so doing defuse our strength and attention to a million things, thereby doing them poorly. There is something to be said for the medieval monk who had perhaps a dozen books at most to read, yet read and consider them closely he did. A harmonious balance between multi-tasking and single-minded focus could well provide relief for people who suffer from harmful thoughts and depression as a result of the constant connection to the internet and other people.
This is perhaps one of the great challenges of our time, and perhaps the greatest for the individual. We shall need to keep our wits about is if the pressing social, political, and environmental challenges of the century become as great as some predict. Believe in yourself :).
Frohe Ostern!
I walked along the forests' edge and drank some tea during the coffee hour. A forest in Spring is quite busy by the looks and sounds of things, and today proved no exception. Sometimes I will do an exercise where I ask myself consciously what I hear, what I feel, smell, taste, etc. For whatever reason, performing such an exercise brings the mind to the present moment, and removes it [most times] from whatever else might be mulling in the mind presently. Sometimes I wonder if the brain thinks about harmful subjects because it get's bored, and with the way technology is used by many people today, this can happen more often. Perhaps, perhaps.
Perhaps with so much going on, it becomes habitual to become bored with things. A simple day can be quite good for the mind, but it can cause anxiety in ourselves we feel like we should be doing two or three things instead of one. A need to feel productive, as though we are doing something to accomplish something else. Our modern world seems bent on engraining this ethic in ourselves more and more often.
A little effort in the opposite direction may do some good. To sit down for a few minutes and just sit, or to sip some tea and do nothing else; to walk about in the forest or the city for a few hours, or just to listen to some music while doing nothing else. Many modern people have an extraordinary capacity for multi-tasking, but like with yesterday's post, if we exercise this ability all the time it can compromise the consistency and capacity of our efforts as a whole. We run around all the time with a full cup of tea, and struggle to take on any more when circumstance or sudden interest requires.
So in this regard you and I have a wonderful skill, but we must beware of the consequences that come with that skill. We can work on many projects or levels of thought simultaneously, perhaps in ways our forefathers could not, yet with that ability comes the risk that we shall exercise this ability all the time, and by so doing defuse our strength and attention to a million things, thereby doing them poorly. There is something to be said for the medieval monk who had perhaps a dozen books at most to read, yet read and consider them closely he did. A harmonious balance between multi-tasking and single-minded focus could well provide relief for people who suffer from harmful thoughts and depression as a result of the constant connection to the internet and other people.
This is perhaps one of the great challenges of our time, and perhaps the greatest for the individual. We shall need to keep our wits about is if the pressing social, political, and environmental challenges of the century become as great as some predict. Believe in yourself :).
Frohe Ostern!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)