Thursday, November 10, 2011
What must we do to break through the undifferentiated and uninterpretable noises of our modern life?
Merton has said a grand gesture (his example was a Vietnam protester who immolated himself) while riveting becomes contestable in three days and forgotten in ten. I think in 1965 when he wrote this he was right. Merton however was writing when the news cycle consisted of a morning paper and the evening news cast. Then the local news broadcast was about 15 minutes and the national feed was ½ hour. The home delivered paper could be dispensed with comics and all in under a half an hour. Now six hours is the time frame for contestable and 24 hours maximum for forgettable. We are inundated with media; cable, internet, radio are all pumping information non stop.
My concern is that the blaring noises drown out or ability to clear our minds. If we opt to unplug and tune out we lose hold of the cultural fabric and become irrelevant. If we hold on we become overwhelmed, our attention spans are lessened and our direct one on one interaction with others becomes muddled or lost. Maybe that is why I am drawn to mediation right now. We have to establish a ritual of silence.
Sitting in quiet trying to empty one’s mind is then when real perspective returns. The act of clearing one’s mind allows the clutter to dissolve away to the point of relative importance each piece of that jumble should hold. Let go of the world’s madness for a few minutes each day, don’t be the monkey holding the banana in the empty gourd, trapped by your own inability to let go.
The problem is that we must make time for the quiet. We have to disconnect manually and regularly from the world at a time when our mind is still active. Seeking quiet is not something we should be doing just before bed when we are tired. It can be morning, midday or evening but we must have something left of a spark in us when we sit down to meditate.
We make time for our bodies at gyms and by running and walking. We need to make time for our minds.
1 comment:
Your advice is beautiful but how, I ask, can my ADHD mind accomplish this impossible task. For me, quiet is in giving, doing, helping. I guess that is why I am a nurse.
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