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laramie at 09:28am on 18/09/2007
laramie at 09:28am on 18/09/2007I’ve been reading Echo Bodine’s book, ‘A Still, Small Voice’ about learning to use one’s intuition, and/or psychic abilities. I very much like the introductory quote by Albert Einstein,
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
That last sentence is one that I can apply as well to myself as to society. I know I have a good intuitive sensibility, but rationally, I tend to discount it, much to my own frustration.
One of the things Ms. Bodine recommends is to “talk to your inner wisdom throughout the day” (then stop to listen.) I put this into practice today by talking to myself about some of the issues that came up during my discussion of Right Livelihood.
The main issue has to do with feeling both overwhelmed by the extent of my own ambitions, and having a sense of dichotomy within myself that sets my goals apart from the rest of my life (socializing, eating, playing, physical health and home making). When I think about it, it’s clear that my goals are inextricably intertwined with the rest of my life.
My artistic goals are rooted very much in my identity as a social being. Stories arise from deep feelings triggered by relationships, personal and societal. And, of course, music is very directly a social experience. Visual artworks are attempts to communicate inner visions, particular ways of seeing things, to a wider community. (I could go on for paragraphs about the ways I see time and space interwoven or the ways I see living beings as vessels of light and energy, but a picture is well worth a thousand words.) Ambition to spend time doing art arises with the desire to show others what I see. And that ambition gets all confused with what people are willing to pay for, and how some things are within my abilities, which I wish to prove, but aren’t necessarily part of the original visions I have to offer.
Yet, despite this close relationship between my artistic goals and my social sensibilities, I have a tendency to think about them as if I might be happy doing nothing in my life but work towards those goals. Which is ridiculous. Spending time with friends and being involved with my community are vital to my artistic processes. They are the root and the fruit of the artistic flower.
But my overwhelming ambitions are not confined to the artistic ones. I also need to take care of myself on the physical level: keep myself healthy, keep a home, stay out of debtors prison or trouble with the IRS. And again, my tendency to focus on my goals as separate from the rest of life gets me in trouble. If yoga has taught me anything it’s the importance of balancing effort with ease, tension with relaxation, movement with breath.
Thinking that there’s so much to do and so little time, the tendency of my rational mind is to try to schedule every minute and sacrifice everything to efficiency and productivity. There’s seldom room on the schedule for anything as frivolous as the arts, let alone simple leisure activities like computer games and movies on DVD. Naturally, I rebel against myself. Who could blame me? (Other than myself, that is.)
If I’m truly wise, I’ll learn from this exercise and, if I must schedule myself, schedule time for the things that are important to my soul as well as my physical life, and schedule periods of relaxation to alternate with the periods of effort. My intuition tells me I’ll be a lot happier with myself if I do.
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
That last sentence is one that I can apply as well to myself as to society. I know I have a good intuitive sensibility, but rationally, I tend to discount it, much to my own frustration.
One of the things Ms. Bodine recommends is to “talk to your inner wisdom throughout the day” (then stop to listen.) I put this into practice today by talking to myself about some of the issues that came up during my discussion of Right Livelihood.
The main issue has to do with feeling both overwhelmed by the extent of my own ambitions, and having a sense of dichotomy within myself that sets my goals apart from the rest of my life (socializing, eating, playing, physical health and home making). When I think about it, it’s clear that my goals are inextricably intertwined with the rest of my life.
My artistic goals are rooted very much in my identity as a social being. Stories arise from deep feelings triggered by relationships, personal and societal. And, of course, music is very directly a social experience. Visual artworks are attempts to communicate inner visions, particular ways of seeing things, to a wider community. (I could go on for paragraphs about the ways I see time and space interwoven or the ways I see living beings as vessels of light and energy, but a picture is well worth a thousand words.) Ambition to spend time doing art arises with the desire to show others what I see. And that ambition gets all confused with what people are willing to pay for, and how some things are within my abilities, which I wish to prove, but aren’t necessarily part of the original visions I have to offer.
Yet, despite this close relationship between my artistic goals and my social sensibilities, I have a tendency to think about them as if I might be happy doing nothing in my life but work towards those goals. Which is ridiculous. Spending time with friends and being involved with my community are vital to my artistic processes. They are the root and the fruit of the artistic flower.
But my overwhelming ambitions are not confined to the artistic ones. I also need to take care of myself on the physical level: keep myself healthy, keep a home, stay out of debtors prison or trouble with the IRS. And again, my tendency to focus on my goals as separate from the rest of life gets me in trouble. If yoga has taught me anything it’s the importance of balancing effort with ease, tension with relaxation, movement with breath.
Thinking that there’s so much to do and so little time, the tendency of my rational mind is to try to schedule every minute and sacrifice everything to efficiency and productivity. There’s seldom room on the schedule for anything as frivolous as the arts, let alone simple leisure activities like computer games and movies on DVD. Naturally, I rebel against myself. Who could blame me? (Other than myself, that is.)
If I’m truly wise, I’ll learn from this exercise and, if I must schedule myself, schedule time for the things that are important to my soul as well as my physical life, and schedule periods of relaxation to alternate with the periods of effort. My intuition tells me I’ll be a lot happier with myself if I do.
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