250131 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act , Inspiration (Rubin) --- Pu , the uncarved block. Beginner's mind. A state of potential, without assumption or prejudice. Ready for what Nature brings.
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250130 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , V.9 (Waterfield) Or, as Hicks and Hicks put it: Here's how Hays translated it: "Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human--however imperfectly--and fully embrace the pursuit that you've embarked on." I'm not sure which I like better. Hays beginning is best by far. The triplet with the alliteration on the second and third. The imagery of the packed days. The attraction of 'wise and moral'. Much better than the more sterile presentation of Waterfield and Hicks. 'Principles don't consolidate into permanent habit', for example, is just so . . . institutional. Compare 'get back up!' and 'celebrate' to 'go back and be happy' and 'return to reason and be content'. Which is more encouraging? Which more . . . humdrum? Hicks I ...
250129 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Nietzsche was right: no one can help me unless I want to be helped. And nobody cares about me or my future as much as I do, so I better take care of business or chances are it isn't getting done.
250128 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act , Beginner's Mind (Rubin) "It's not that [I'm] ignorant. It's that [I] know so much that isn't so." My knowledge limits my ability to come up with ideas, direction, intent. I think I am limited to A or B or C so Q never even enters the picture. I corral myself into limited understandings and pauce alternatives. Finding a Beginner's Mind is challenging for me: I've always considered knowledge one of the most important things in life. I've tried to learn so many, many things and to be conversant in a wide range of topics. Willfully stripping away my learning is like going naked in public. It's scary and embarrassing and to be avoided. But it's really not. I just fear it because of all the rules and assumptions that have are bedrock in my mind. It's risky. It's scary. It needs must be done if I want to progress.
250127 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): Stop waiting for XYZ to come to me. Live the life I am given. Right now, I have a family who needs my love and attention and effort. Right now, I have a job I need to do. Right now, I have virtue to pursue and my soul to cultivate. These are too precious to put off until the time is 'right.'
250126 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act, Patience (Rubin) I was surprised to find a hint of Epictetus in my woo-filled creativity book. Acknowledgement that some things are not up to us and that the wise act accordingly (lest we achieve wasted effort). If I don't follow Nature, if I take dicey shortcuts or skip steps, I'll end up with shoddy foundations. Maybe I could call ACME Foundation Repair and get it shored up, but that won't be the same. It won't ever be as good as it would have been if I had just been patient and done it right the first time. That said, it's always a good time to fix a mistake. If I did do it wrong, it's always the right time to start doing it right, to go back to the beginning and be a padawan learner again.
250125 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act, Patience, (Rubin) I struggle with this. In general, I pretty laid back. Even-tempered and easygoing, I often spend time relaxing and going with the flow. But not when I have a mission. When I have a task to do, I often find myself driving toward my goal to the exclusion of other things. Not being an asshole, but rather focused and determined to get it done. Even if the task is something like "go do XYZ with the family." I fixate on my destination and forget to live the time between now and then. If Mrs. Student notices, she understands and will gently remind me that it's ok to go lower or take a detour or just unclinch. It's another reason I love her.
250124 What I learned in my studies this morning 5**
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act, Patience, (Rubin) This applies to me in spades. I have to go back and reread things constantly. (Or rewind and listen to them again, for my audiobooks.) Sometimes this is a drawback. Preventing me from gathering in the full meaning of the author's words. Other times, it's fine. It can be a time for my mind to explore and create. Or to simply relax and take a break. I'm ok with that.
250123 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): What is it about these few weeks that has me so inattentive to my meditations? I think about it but don't do it because I'm busy. I rethink about it when I'm tired and want to go to bed, when my brain isn't firing on all cylinders. Gotta stop procrastinating. When I remember it in the morning or during the day, I need to set aside the time. I've done it many times before. Why is now different?
250122 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): Rules and rule-breaking in my Creative mediation today. More like assumptions and challenging them, once read. The idea is to expand possibilities by exploring options. Done it one way? Try the opposite. Try a variation. Look for inspiration and suggestions of new paths. Paths to explore. Paths to embrace. Paths to reject. Paths to adapt. Paths to ignore. Sometimes choices paralyze. Sometimes they distract. But sometimes they offer a breakthrough. Does this apply to my philosophy?
250121 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act , Rules (Rubin) The whole point of the rules is to give you a foundation. Once you sufficiently master the rules, you will know when, and how, to break them to make your work interesting. But you have to learn them first. ===== Yesterday's quote from Shaw — “ Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature. ” — still seems apropos .
250120 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): The Creative Act , Rules (Rubin) This reminded me of a quote from Shaw: “ Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature. ” Things I learned in the background — whether from a childhood since forgotten, from unconscious osmosis, or from my imagination / subconscious whole-cloth and without a source — can limit me. The more I take them as expressions of Truth about the world, the more so they can stymie. Some assumptions / rules are true. 2 + 2 = 4. Light travels at 299,792,458 m/s. Etc. Almost nothing else is hard and fast, strictly delineating and always separating one thing from another. All these other things — taste, opinion, religion, morality, consciousness — admit to gray areas (more grey than anything else) and good and bad admixtures of the relative components. I must learn to tolerate this ambiguity and to better navigate through the dusky world, lest I fall prey to vice and viciousness.
250119 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Meditations 7.10 (Waterfield) It won't last. Good, bad, pleasing, annoying . . . doesn't matter: it ain't gonna last. No need to be too upset nor too satisfied: I always knew it was temporary. Not that it's easy. Yeah, no. Just that it makes sense and I need to keep looking for the right path. Perhaps it isn't there, it doesn't exist. But the odds are that there is a path if I apply some brain power. Even so, even if I never get it right and always fail, giving in to passions of good and bad. I can still try. And at least recover as soon as I can rather than continue my error after realization.
250118 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Talked about autism and detachment and dissociation. About fawning as a defense mechanism, in addition to fight or flight. About rules and rigidity. About mirroring. Some I'd thought of before. Others, not so much. Enlightening to discuss it with my family and hear there thoughts and reflections. I love Book Club.
250117 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): Several false starts preempt this entry into meditation. They were stowed elsewhere as they were not a good fit for here. Today was a good day. Spent time with family. Had a great discussion. Planned to meet friends soon. Gotta say it was a good day.
250116 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): I had a creative moment just now! It was based on idea in a comment on FB, but I took it and ran with it, expanding it to something workable. It wasn't art , but it was useful and fun. And I did make something 'new.'
250115 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Today's mantra is . . . distraction. Distraction as tool to allow unthinking thought. Like a mantra aids in distracting my conscious mind and allowing deeper thoughts to percolate, deeper truths, Taos, to be glimpsed. This is the first lesson from The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin which I've found intuitive and easily digested. It resonates and was immediately clear in my mind what he was talking about. The other lessons have been a bit woo for me and I've struggled to grasp their better meaning. I know I've benefitted from the difficulty: exploring new ideas is instructive and has broadened my point of view, whether or not I ultimately accept them. And I'm enjoying the challenge.
250114 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Mediations , XII.3 (Waterfield) Hadot explains that this passage breaks down the circles surrounding the hegemonikon into three categories: Other people The past and the future Automatic emotions What other people do and are is not up to us. Beg, please, convince, threaten, whatever . . . they do what they do and we cannot control it. The past is gone and unchangeable. The future is not here. Only in the present can we achieve anything. Passions arise automatically in our minds. Maybe from outside stimulation, maybe from inner thoughts, maybe from Lucretius' swerve. Regardless, they appear without our calling and without our permission. Ours is to assent to such emotions or to temper or reject them. But we cannot make them not appear in our lives. So how does this relate to me? To my journey? It's a reminder, a memory jogger that puts me back to the roots of this philosophy. It tells me where to focus, limiting me to those areas where I can make ...
250113 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): Wow, this is getting bad. Through 14 days of January, I've posted five of them a day late. One was two days late. If you count the end of December, add two more since Christmas. This has happened before, and isn't terrible, but it's indicative of how scattered my brain has been recently. Perhaps if I was making time to sit and think life would be less hectic and I would get back on track. Sounds like a plan to me.....
250112 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): Well crud. I just have not made the commitment I need to make to get to my journaling every day. I must fix this.
250111 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): There is wisdom in stopping needless activity. What is needless? What is teaching patience, persistence, perseverance?
250110 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): I need to read my creativity book with a more open mind. I'm distrustful of things that seem . . . woo-adjacent. I'm comfortable with ambiguity, with not being sure about things and working with flexible understanding.
250109 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Unless I have good friends who aren't dumbasses and who care about me. Then maybe they see something I don't. I do my best to be competent and honest with myself, but sometimes blinders blinker and I need help to see through my own bullshit.
250107 What I learned in my studies this morning 5**
Today's Meditation(s): I've had fever dreams and hallucinations. They can even be fun if I am in the right frame of mind. But, while they can offer insight into myself and my thoughts and feelings, they've never driven me creatively. Perhaps, if it happens again, I'll use that as a way to flow through it.
250106 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Today's reading about creativity concerned internal v external sources of inspiration. Seems to me that, regardless of whether the spark came from without or within, what happens to it happens inside. Am I unable to process ideas or do I not even notice the flash in the first place? It's not about feeling sorry for myself, bemoaning my sad fate. It's about examining my life, turning an obstacle into an opportunity.
250105 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Today has been slow and that's ok. Tomorrow is back I to the ring, back to work. Tonight, to sleep, perchance to dream.
250104 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 7.3 (Waterfield) Within the burly motion of neverending chaos, and the endlessly repeating events of history, is a place to hold fast to what matters: to the good I can do today.
250103 What I learned in my studies this morning 5
Today's Meditation(s): Still looking for that dream in the wrong places.
250102 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): “But not a better citizen, a better person, a better resource in tight places, a better forgiver of faults?" Meditations 7
250101 What I learned in my studies this morning 5*
Today's Meditation(s): It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life for me, yeah. . . . and I'm feelin' good. ===== It's the same old life, with the same old eyes and the same old body, but with a reminder to focus on . . . . . . discerning what's up to me and what's not up to me and acting with due regard. . . . remembering my duty to others and making it a part of why I wake up each day. . . . accepting passions as natural, but not controlling: I need not react to them but can instead choose to act with a purpose. . . . accepting facts as they are and not adding to them. . . . being consistent in using the cardinal virtues: — courage to act when I need act, to bear and forbear. — temperance to act moderately and to temper my desires, aversions, and other passions. — justice to deal with others in a way that follows Nature and reinforces my bond with the community of all. — wisdom to apply all of these well and truly, according to Nature.