Monday, February 25, 2013
Saturday, February 02, 2013
Just Some Thoughts
It's funny how life gets us so busy thinking outwardly that we pay so little attention to what's in our hearts and heads. Or, the outward distractions we choose to see in life are conveniently placed so that we can ignore more important issues that need dealing with; put them off for a later time. What if later never comes? A person could live their entire life like that, never saying what needs saying, never righting a wrong, or healing a hurt. We, as a culture, adopt the most popular or insistent belief, and go with it, without question, without thought, because it's what everyone else is doing. It's easy. We find ourselves on a spiral that we are no longer aware is going up or down. We are blindly-focused people. We see what we choose to see, and miss out on everything important. If people were able to focus inward for minutes a day, to check in with their emotions and thoughts, would it make a difference in how our world works? Just minutes. The time will pass anyway.
Everything we do each day is fueled by one of two things; Thought, or Emotion.
Thought is deliberation, it is drawn out of the depth of experience, made of facts and calculations. Thought allows us to contemplate a situation, any situation, and act with the most appropriate and effective means possible. Actions based on thought can be damaging. For the sake of oversimplifying, here's an example. "This hammer put to hand will cause physical pain." Or helpful, such as "this hammer put to nail will get the damn roof on."
Emotion is wild. It is swift and deep, tumultuous and sometimes violent, sometimes soft, warm and quiet. Not every emotion requires action, because acting upon pure emotion can have devastating consequences. Not every thought requires action either, but one thing I've learned is this: If you don't spend SOME TIME each day, contemplating your thoughts, emotions, and actions? You will live a blindly-focused life. Your relationships will feel empty. Your work will not be fulfillling. You will feel caged, suppressed, maybe even depressed. Here's the thing; we ALL have all of these emotions, whether we can admit it or not. It's part of the human experience. Passion brings out the colors of life.
Not everything has to be assigned "meaning." But if we live each day with meaning, with deliberance and compassion, I think it becomes a little better, every day. I think that emotion warms the thoughts, it rounds them out, causes them to feel fuller, more complete. Sometimes this fullness can even take on a mind of its own, fueling the thoughts in a way that can cause pain to oneself or others to the point of counterproductivity or destruction; and before that leap is made, before actions is taken, that is when we need to center again, to find the balance, to hold emotion in one hand, and thought in the other, and make a decision. "Who will this help? Who will this hurt?" If the answer to the former is "many" and the answer to the latter is "few" That is the best action.
"If you can, help others, if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." ~Dalai Lama
Everything we do each day is fueled by one of two things; Thought, or Emotion.
Thought is deliberation, it is drawn out of the depth of experience, made of facts and calculations. Thought allows us to contemplate a situation, any situation, and act with the most appropriate and effective means possible. Actions based on thought can be damaging. For the sake of oversimplifying, here's an example. "This hammer put to hand will cause physical pain." Or helpful, such as "this hammer put to nail will get the damn roof on."
Emotion is wild. It is swift and deep, tumultuous and sometimes violent, sometimes soft, warm and quiet. Not every emotion requires action, because acting upon pure emotion can have devastating consequences. Not every thought requires action either, but one thing I've learned is this: If you don't spend SOME TIME each day, contemplating your thoughts, emotions, and actions? You will live a blindly-focused life. Your relationships will feel empty. Your work will not be fulfillling. You will feel caged, suppressed, maybe even depressed. Here's the thing; we ALL have all of these emotions, whether we can admit it or not. It's part of the human experience. Passion brings out the colors of life.
Not everything has to be assigned "meaning." But if we live each day with meaning, with deliberance and compassion, I think it becomes a little better, every day. I think that emotion warms the thoughts, it rounds them out, causes them to feel fuller, more complete. Sometimes this fullness can even take on a mind of its own, fueling the thoughts in a way that can cause pain to oneself or others to the point of counterproductivity or destruction; and before that leap is made, before actions is taken, that is when we need to center again, to find the balance, to hold emotion in one hand, and thought in the other, and make a decision. "Who will this help? Who will this hurt?" If the answer to the former is "many" and the answer to the latter is "few" That is the best action.
"If you can, help others, if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." ~Dalai Lama
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