Buddy
The Living Force
I just wanted to post this piece called "Hello Rock" as I plan on printing it out, putting it in a frame and giving it to my son tomorrow afternoon. Anyone finding this interesting or useful in some way is welcome to it, but a small part of the wording is not completely mine. It comes from inspiration from many sources, though.
Preamble/explanation for 'Hello Rock'
When people tell me what they ‘think’, by and large, all I see is repetition of what they have been told and of the current popular fashions, cultural assumptions and patterns. The common meaning of ‘think’ seems to be the running of programs, conditioned into people from birth by a given culture, and the swirling of word patterns around their heads. A constant internal chatter seems to be a very widespread experience.
This chatter has nothing to do with serious awareness and the chatter makes the individual as unconscious as a bee in a hive. The locking-in with culture inherent in the chatter, blocks any hope of any serious reflection or creativity. The chatter locks the ‘individual’ firmly to whatever is currently accepted, acceptable, or whatever is the received ‘truth’.
At the core of our language usage is an assumed separateness of individuals as well as the pragmatic separation of the world through words. Internally narratizing the world with language is part of the seductive addiction to a particular 'sticky' mental view and is spoken of by Gurdjieff as self calming.
The ‘sophisticated’ adult relates primarily to an internal mesh of words, a model of the world much detached from the external world, however, words going around and 'around in the head', especially when powered by feelings, can be destructive of sanity. If this happens to you, you need to learn to refuse words every time they enter your head unwanted. To achieve this, it is an assist to concentrate on looking at and feeling some real-world object of your choice, such as a stone, pebble or your favorite teddy bear.
As Jesus is reported as teaching, ‘Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven [Matthew 18:3].’
To learn from the world/reality it is necessary to learn a silent mind, to let the stars and the trees talk to you. Outside your mind is a great and simple complex wonderland. What is known is just a beginning.
Words are for communicating; they will be there when you need them.
Note: text in red is for DOing.
I sit upon a rock allowing nature to watch me and speak to me; thus, does my body learn its place in the world. But there is no place; for at the bottom of all things I am one with the earth and the sea. I have come from the Universe, and to the Universe I will return.
As I sit on a rock I fondle an oval pebble. My eyes look at it and I speak to it with my hands. I cannot be the pebble but the pebble and I and the sea are one. Zen is where there are no words. Zen is my stone pebble. Quiet your mind. Refuse any words. The pebble weighs around a pound. It is silky and solid with some texture from its past adventures, it is colored and cool. I can heft it and turn it in my hands and watch it. I can remain silent and hear it calling to me down the ages. I can lightly tap the stone against a neighbor and watch the ‘two’ converse.
One must be silent to speak with stones. The stones are the real world. What is this object, which sits upon a rock talking silently to stones? This object finds some position in reality by watching the stones and looking at the stars. Let me look down and see the hands that caress and speak to the stone. Those moving hands are me. If you would find reality, look at the stones and the hands and listen to who you are. Sit by the trees and smell the leaves, pick up the dirt and watch it move.
Look upon your real body and get acquainted with who you are. Pick up your stone and move it through the world while watching how it moves. Watch your hands and feel the leaf rustling and talking to your hands. By constant reference to the real world ‘outside’ your body, you will get less distracted to the tumbling words and models implanted in your head.
Look at a tree. Listen to the tree tell about itself. The data is already coming to you; all you have to do is stop talking to yourself and listen. The tree, bushes, grass; all invite you to hear their story and want to know about you.
Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, vibration and impressions are all ways nature communicates among herself and to anyone with ears to hear. Reach out to touch the Universe with your mind and body, feelings and emotions; to converse with the tree, the rock, the grass…to share, with nature, what it’s like to be you. Experience yourself as 'separate' from your surroundings, and as ‘part’ of all that is. Then go out and look at the stars and realize you are also an integral ‘part’ of that too. You are not alone, you are not ‘swallowed up’; you are both and you can move your awareness from state to state.
Teach a child never to become trapped by words, by allowing him room to be quiet. The young child has contact with the world, but poor teaching detaches the child from that reality until they become lost in fictions and false consciousness. Teach the child to use and to listen to its own senses. And regain your own sense of reality by returning to what is so.
Learn to speak silently to the child, and teach them to speak silently to you. This is fun, this is quiet. Put your finger to your lips and point at stone or bird. Point with your eyes. Teach the child to point at what your eyes point at. Teach them to put a hand quietly upon you, do not intrude; await response, then point. Teach them to point with eyes or turn of head. Walk quietly upon the earth, watch where your feet tread. Teach the child to experience the world with you. Teach them to look for newness, pattern, for harmony in the context of all they see. Feeding the observant faculty in this way can be an aid to staying awake. Remember, we all need time to be quiet, to think, to absorb experiences, and to get enough sleep!
Preamble/explanation for 'Hello Rock'
When people tell me what they ‘think’, by and large, all I see is repetition of what they have been told and of the current popular fashions, cultural assumptions and patterns. The common meaning of ‘think’ seems to be the running of programs, conditioned into people from birth by a given culture, and the swirling of word patterns around their heads. A constant internal chatter seems to be a very widespread experience.
This chatter has nothing to do with serious awareness and the chatter makes the individual as unconscious as a bee in a hive. The locking-in with culture inherent in the chatter, blocks any hope of any serious reflection or creativity. The chatter locks the ‘individual’ firmly to whatever is currently accepted, acceptable, or whatever is the received ‘truth’.
At the core of our language usage is an assumed separateness of individuals as well as the pragmatic separation of the world through words. Internally narratizing the world with language is part of the seductive addiction to a particular 'sticky' mental view and is spoken of by Gurdjieff as self calming.
The ‘sophisticated’ adult relates primarily to an internal mesh of words, a model of the world much detached from the external world, however, words going around and 'around in the head', especially when powered by feelings, can be destructive of sanity. If this happens to you, you need to learn to refuse words every time they enter your head unwanted. To achieve this, it is an assist to concentrate on looking at and feeling some real-world object of your choice, such as a stone, pebble or your favorite teddy bear.
As Jesus is reported as teaching, ‘Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven [Matthew 18:3].’
To learn from the world/reality it is necessary to learn a silent mind, to let the stars and the trees talk to you. Outside your mind is a great and simple complex wonderland. What is known is just a beginning.
Words are for communicating; they will be there when you need them.
Note: text in red is for DOing.
Hello Rock
I sit upon a rock allowing nature to watch me and speak to me; thus, does my body learn its place in the world. But there is no place; for at the bottom of all things I am one with the earth and the sea. I have come from the Universe, and to the Universe I will return.
As I sit on a rock I fondle an oval pebble. My eyes look at it and I speak to it with my hands. I cannot be the pebble but the pebble and I and the sea are one. Zen is where there are no words. Zen is my stone pebble. Quiet your mind. Refuse any words. The pebble weighs around a pound. It is silky and solid with some texture from its past adventures, it is colored and cool. I can heft it and turn it in my hands and watch it. I can remain silent and hear it calling to me down the ages. I can lightly tap the stone against a neighbor and watch the ‘two’ converse.
One must be silent to speak with stones. The stones are the real world. What is this object, which sits upon a rock talking silently to stones? This object finds some position in reality by watching the stones and looking at the stars. Let me look down and see the hands that caress and speak to the stone. Those moving hands are me. If you would find reality, look at the stones and the hands and listen to who you are. Sit by the trees and smell the leaves, pick up the dirt and watch it move.
Look upon your real body and get acquainted with who you are. Pick up your stone and move it through the world while watching how it moves. Watch your hands and feel the leaf rustling and talking to your hands. By constant reference to the real world ‘outside’ your body, you will get less distracted to the tumbling words and models implanted in your head.
Look at a tree. Listen to the tree tell about itself. The data is already coming to you; all you have to do is stop talking to yourself and listen. The tree, bushes, grass; all invite you to hear their story and want to know about you.
Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, vibration and impressions are all ways nature communicates among herself and to anyone with ears to hear. Reach out to touch the Universe with your mind and body, feelings and emotions; to converse with the tree, the rock, the grass…to share, with nature, what it’s like to be you. Experience yourself as 'separate' from your surroundings, and as ‘part’ of all that is. Then go out and look at the stars and realize you are also an integral ‘part’ of that too. You are not alone, you are not ‘swallowed up’; you are both and you can move your awareness from state to state.
Teach a child never to become trapped by words, by allowing him room to be quiet. The young child has contact with the world, but poor teaching detaches the child from that reality until they become lost in fictions and false consciousness. Teach the child to use and to listen to its own senses. And regain your own sense of reality by returning to what is so.
Learn to speak silently to the child, and teach them to speak silently to you. This is fun, this is quiet. Put your finger to your lips and point at stone or bird. Point with your eyes. Teach the child to point at what your eyes point at. Teach them to put a hand quietly upon you, do not intrude; await response, then point. Teach them to point with eyes or turn of head. Walk quietly upon the earth, watch where your feet tread. Teach the child to experience the world with you. Teach them to look for newness, pattern, for harmony in the context of all they see. Feeding the observant faculty in this way can be an aid to staying awake. Remember, we all need time to be quiet, to think, to absorb experiences, and to get enough sleep!
Balance is at the heart of wisdom and True thinking is silent.
