Photo Courtesy of: ‘Flock’ by Vladimir Yaltskly – Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kronny/8538605711/
I’ve read some interesting and provocative books and articles lately about our political leaders and policies, some hugely complimentary and some strikingly derogatory… lots of deducing and speculation on both sides of the spectrum vaticinating from prosperity to disaster. The authors engaged in connecting a myriad of dots… It got me thinking about the dots… about connecting ‘bits’ in time, and then how we develop a spiraling constellation of them. For me, ‘bits’ could be words, but also feelings, images, memories and stories…bits of meaning.
The mind universe I conjure seems to be made of bits, they seem to ‘flock’ like birds… a chaotic flutter, and they’re everywhere. And I am continuously engaged in ‘connecting’. And as a consequence, I’m off wondering about how I chose what I connected. I have solicitude over the veracity of the bits I’ve chosen. It’s not that I’m unable to be decisive, having made a 3 decade career of decision making over military service, and in junior and senior management. You weigh alternatives, make a selection in a moment of time, compare results against the projection, and then move on. Repeat as necessary. And at a more fundamental level choices are also made on a moment to moment basis habitually, in accordance with tendencies developed over time.
Nevertheless, while some are sure of their bits — conclusions and opinions, I often swim in a sea of dubiety. So over the years I’ve made a goal of attempting to cultivate a more ‘open’ perspective… mindful not to come down ‘too hard’ on a particular conclusion… which cuts off further examination. I’ve become much more appreciative of the condition of not-knowing. Final conclusions foreclose openness in effect by hardening a position…a ‘bit’, if you will. (A decision ‘to’, is conjointly a decision ‘not to’.) You connect enough bits together and you can easily create a mindset. And while it is a construction of the mind, it’s also a system of relationships that gather emotional momentum in time, not so unlike a powerful weather system… the mind-constellation can be a whirlwind of turbulence in mind-space, or on the other hand, if held lightly like a gust or puff, may easily dissipate.
So I’m thinking whatever my position might be, however I gather my ‘bits‘, I want to look into how I’ve structured my opinion. How much have I invested my identity in the position…am I THE position…is it solid, or is there an openness to it…is there space between…are other possibilities available? Have I in the moment reduced myself to a ‘bit‘?
Inquiring further…Perhaps even deeper or more fundamental than bits, are what Rinpoche has described as ‘dots’. More about them here…
Even Dots Ripple…
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Hi Michael,
I used politics as a catalyst to discuss a more open perspective, which the time, space, knowledge vision invites us to explore. Political discourse in recent times has become increasingly polarized, some might argue even toxic, which I believe is fertile ground for exploration of subject-object dichotomies, and the nature of the ‘zone‘ that’s created between them.
For me, it helps to look ‘into‘ in order to ‘open’ up tightly packed cherished opinions… ‘bits‘.
You mentioned you, “feel the singing song of the whole tree more than the individual leaves spinning.” For me right now, the political song (the whole tree) is a cacophony of discordance that hurts my inner ear… the individual arguments that I have invested in, accepted, emotionally drenched in personal validation… those are the ‘bits‘, hardened objects, individual leaves of the tree politic… that I must examine, open until I’ve found the roots and fundamental spaces of the not-known.
David,
I like the idea that phenomena cannot be completely, unambiguously described except as in some ways particles and in other ways waves. Personally I incline to see life in waves more than as particles. When the wind tosses the branches of a tree in Autumn, I feel the siging song of the whole tree more than the individual leaves spinning. Similarly with the rich range of images and analogies used in TSK, the nanosecond bits in Dimensions and the flowering assemblies of sixteens in SDTS, are images I tend to read through more quickly than the field, and other oceanic images, which awaken my interest and fathom my experience directly and evocatively.
I suspect that you have more articulated thoughts and images than I do and that harmonizing the bits and dots provides a move toward greater understanding and peace for you?