Leap-Stones in The IMPONDERABLE

The process of thought
occurs prior to the appearance of thought.

It is an act of will
of wielding attention in directions of tantalizing memory
tantalizing imagination
or
toward the unknowable beyond memory
The Imponderable.

Thoughts are words
concretized positions of attention
made handily accessible
by sounds
made vocally.

words

Leap-stones in the imponderable pond of the Unknown.

Convenient ways of anchoring attention
by meaning the memory
roused by similarities between the obvious present moment, now
and a memory or many memories.

Words help
because of their linking with
and belonging to
memories . . . . .
memories of persons
                        places
                        things

memories of ideas
memories of dreams
memories of values
memories of experiences

memories,
the basis of recognition

words,
calling up memory

all associated memories
underlying words

tinge-ing, refracting and pacing experience
moment to moment.

Words are leap-stones on the pond of The Imponderable.

Conveniences for attention --
memory-laden attention.

Attention, too clouded by memory
is too distorted
and does not perceive very clearly or very accurately
and does not  assess conditions in a timely way
but lags behind
making many corrections.

Such a one proceeds through life
by habit,
habits triggered by memory
memory similar to the present

Such a one proceeds
hoping for the best
but not very spontaneously responding.

Slow to respond, and always checking.

Words are a convenient handle
for going from thing to thing
for making general assessments
but not very accurate
for communicating specifics
to one who hasn't experienced something similar,

Life in a daze of words
is attention distorted by memory
the lens of language lending spin and slant
the candle flame of attention
flickering
broken by the movement of thinking.

On a windy day,
they call that "ADD" or "ADHD".

Those lost in thought
go from word to word
from memory to memory
into and out of distortion
into and out of focus
in and out of relational participation.

When words take over
memories take over
and things seem as if known
but even the very present moment
as "now" as "now" can get
is memory
clothing the movements and positions of
the Imponderable
for recognition purposes
since patterns do persist

Even the very present moment
is recognizable
only because we have memories.

Leaping from leap-stone to leap-stone
from thought to thought
from memory to memory
always skirting The Pond of The Imponderable
that no words touch
for words are leap-stones
and The Imponderable is imponderable.

So, there.
So, here.

By pondering the leap-stones,
two or three at a time
alternating between them
until memory can hold them both,
new leap-stones appear as the integration of them,
new distinctions
new words
new memories
new ways of twisting, turning, and refracting experience
new points of focus, some smaller, some larger,
new ways of placing leap-stones in The Imponderable
and temporarily taking the emergent leap-stones
to be The Imponderable.

But they ain't.

They's jest leap-stones
in The  Pond of The Imponderable.

The Somatic Jack-in-the-Box

To be somatically aware
is to be aware of ones internal state or process
as well as aware of what is (apparently) external.

To be aware of our internal state
is the current growth-edge of human development.

It is a movement away from predictable,
programmed reactions to external conditions
without much internal awareness
toward novel, evolving responses to external conditions
with awareness of ones internal state
which includes emotions, thoughts, and subtle feeling-perceptions
as well as sensations of bodily movement.


Novel responses are emergent behaviors
catalyzed by attention to internal
as well as external
conditions.

Attention is a catalyst to development.
Attention feeds and pushes into growth.

Whatever attention is on
grows and develops.
When attention is on the internal state
the internal state grows and develops.

As the internal state grows and develops
more perceptual faculties emerge
more distinctions can be detected in experiences
more intelligence develops
more capacities come on-line
and the perception of the external world changes
even as we make changes in the external world with interaction and creativity.

The growth-edge of human development
is attention free to move between internal and external.

The move internal
is the current move of somatic awakening.

The free movement between internal and external
is the move of somatic intelligence developing --
full-spectrum.

Somatic development is full-spectrum evolutionary development.

To the honoring of wisdom
is the acceptance of ones function
in the formation of the continually
emerging
now.

Got a Limp? not limp

Well, if ever there was a misnomer, it's the word, "limp" -- as in "Got a limp?"

you know -- a movement impediment

Got a limp?  Use a walker or cane?  Think it's because you're aging?

I've got news for you.  It's not aging.  It's the accumulated stress patterns of a lifetime.  You're not "old"; you're in the grip of your life experience.   You're tight and it's your muscular tightness that makes you stiff.

The word, "limp" is completely wrong.  If you have a limp, it's not because your muscles are limp, but because they are extraordinarily tight -- not limp -- pulling you down from upright posture and free movement.  You're not limp; your muscles are not stiff.

Injuries and stress cause people to tighten up.  It's a nervous reaction below the level of control, one that commonly lasts for decades.

It's a common feature among the aged and among the not-so-aged.

I'll get right to the point:

Ready to take back your life?

Better start somatic education -- education for the place where so many people are ignorant -- their own bodily existence.  Get educated -- not mentally, but bodily.

Extraordinary, isn't it, that people -- doctors and therapists included -- are ignorant of their own workings.

Something as simple as a yawn, when applied in novel ways, frees us from the grip of muscular contractions that cause people to limp.  Somatic exercises make use of the Whole Body yawn to get people with a limp to straighten up and stand on their own two feet, again.

Two or three practice sessions of somatic exercises -- or one clinical somatic education session -- cause improvements that might take six months of standard therapy.

It's a matter of doing the right thing for your condition.

Wonder where to go from here?

Ask.  Click here.
or read the article on aging
or send for the information packet (a lot of information).

Is the Tail Wagging the Dog??

I would like to propose the question
"Might there be a fundamental misunderstanding
of the nature of individuality?"

We somehow make the tacit assumption
that there exists a central individuality to us
that doesn't change

and that our feeling states,
accompanied by vision, hearing, smell, and taste
come from outside ourselves,
like the humours of the night
or caused by "tangible circumstance"
or from inside ourselves
as unbidden moods
held in secret
happening to that central individuality.

The "central individuality" is just the belief that there is a central individuality
added to all those other sensations.

Actually, all there are are those sensations, labelled, "me".

In reality, we have no way of ascertaining whence our memories of experience come,
since the emergence of memories trails events
unknown until they become recognizable -- only after the fact
-- by spontaneously comparing them to memories.

Continuity of self
is continuity of memory.
Change of memory
is change of self.
(Whatever doesn't change is persistent memory.)

HOWEVER, that doesn't address the question,
"Whence cometh those memories?"

For, from there,
also cometh individuality.

Do memories come "from the outside, in" to us?
Do they emerge unbidden from within ourselves as imaginings
or both, with imaginings coloring memories that come from outside?

And how can we be sure which is which?

Ay, there's the rub.

Perhaps our individuality
is all-pervading
all connected with everything else,
but because of the optical illusion of seeing, itself,
taken as our primary information source about reality
we take ourselves to be contained within the skin surface.
We take things to be separate and distinct.
Outer vision does that.

And so we profess that "my location,"
is where I am seen,
and is the perspective from which I see,
according to the location of "I" in the world.

But the sense of individuality is more than
the sense of seeing or being seen.

It is the agglomeration of memories
that we label as "I", myself.

Those memories may come from inside ourselves
(as surfacing imaginings and dreams)
or from outside ourselves
(as impinging circumstances, which happen before we know them for what they seem to be)
or both at the same time.

Without that answer,
we can't know the source of individuality
-- and in fact, to the degree that the memory-of-self
comes from outside
we have no individuality.

And yet,
we act as if we exist as individuals in control
(or out of control).

"Dog wagging the tail"
is "Our lives are controlled by something bigger than ourselves."
"Tail wagging the dog"
is "I am in control of my life,"
both very popular perspectives.

If we really pay attention,
we can't really tell if the dog is wagging the tail
or the tail is wagging the dog
whether our individuality is true, unitary, and independent,
or the changeable result of forces greater than ourselves
summarized as our memory of the belief in ourselves
and our impulses to "be something".

Moments of Balance with Fred and Ginger

The reason Fred Astaire
was such a consummate dancer,
and the reason his partner,
Ginger Rogers,
was such a dynamic match for him,
was that they had a consummate sense of balance.

Fred Astaire knew where his moment of balance was with every step, leap, landing and turn.
He landed with the economy and grace
of an Olympic diver.

Ginger was his magnificent match,
without ever seeming like she was keeping up with him,
always keeping with him
with the grace of a horse jumping a high gate.


Their balance was both dual and individual :
dual/relational -- balancing off each other
individual -- having a sense of where the moment of balance is while moving.

Their dance,
such a beautiful expression of physics,
goes beyond physics
to metaphysics.

Fred and Ginger,
their consummate sense of balance
and their feeling where the moment of balance would be with each stop or turn,
enabling them to play with each other
without concern for their footing
in the rhythm of the dance.

And remember:

Everything Fred did, Ginger did
-- backwards in high heels.

Balance?
 It's a moment of balance
   again,
    and again,
     and again.

To Know Self Totally Is To Disappear (urp)

"I"
as body embodying mind
am soma.

Whoa, hold it right there, partner.
Better get that one before moving on.
Take your time.

"I"
as soma
can never be completely known.

To know myself in totality as soma
equalizes attention in all directions
so nothing stands out
except a kind of equilibrium
indistinguishable from 'no knowing'
no known place
no certain time
float.

So "I"
as soma
can never completely be known.

Which means that the meaning of this stanza
also
can never completely be known,
for this stanza
is about being soma.


Being soma, I am somatically
embodied mind.

I am soma,
somatically embodied mind.

What I am
can never completely be known.

Thus, I am continuous with rested mind.

Who I am
can never completely be known.

Whatever I am
is who I am
altogether.

To know myself thus fully,
is to spread myself in all directions
to encompass all.

Spread so thin
my center disappears
and with it
me.

I am a lump of butter
spread on the bread of life
only it's an enlarging slice.

"I"
as soma
can never completely be known.

Never mind.

Never known.

Now, since we don't know what that is,
know neither soma or mind
in any summary or complete sense

nor the meaning of this stanza, altogether.

And that is its meaning.

Despite all that,
we can have memories of things
even aggregate memories of similar things
and so seem to know things
and yet
it's approximate knowing of what IS
only approximate.

Life is Not What We Think It Is

Life is only approximately what we think it is.

Our ability to think is based upon memory
and only then extended as imagination.

Life is never exactly that, however close we may be.
Life is a moving target.

To believe otherwise is to believe the dream
of memory

to enact life as dreamed in memory
sparring with dreamed others

who are not exactly what or who we think them to be.

To believe otherwise leads to misunderstandings
stemming from our memories of self and of experiences,
acting as if they are now exactly that way.

But life is only approximately what we think it is
and even only approximately what we feel it as.

The same is true of all other people.
 
Even the "hard and fast knowledge" of science
is statistical
and variations occur in each individual case of experience.

We have to allow for the possibility of unexpected change
and for being wrong, or "off"
and for course-corrections.

THIS GOES ALONG WITH:
Everything Happens Before We Know It