Philosophy, Theology and Science

I set out to try to document some of what I am doing in my own Search for Self in this blog and I am hitting wall after wall. I have lots of posts started that make sense to me, but they are in no particular order. I have wandered back in my recent past to recall some of what I have done and wrote about that while trying to stay current at the same time. The result has been a sort of stagnation as nothing is getting completed, just started.

I realize why just now. I have no starting premise to frame what I am doing, nothing to call the starting point and no particular end point in mind yet. Some of what I have started makes no sense without the supporting ideas that form some of the basis.

So here is one such base.

I have been reading about, and working on some changes that I would like to make in my personal repertoire of unconscious skills as well as establishing some new habits directed at improving myself in various ways. In doing so I have come across some varied ideas and theories as well as some research into related topics.

Interesting stuff. 

Rather than taking a superficial approach I have dug far deeper and have delved into a more basic and spiritual train of thought so my reading has been... well... very eclectic to say the least. As varied as the sources are I am finding that everything... from the Bible through turn of the century thinking up to modern day speculative writing and scientific research... is leading in the same general direction.

Yes, I mentioned the Bible, I did say eclectic after all.

I'd love to be able to say that, "the long and short of it is...", but there is no short version. Everything from here on is based upon the initial premise that we are all of two minds. Well, at least I can accept that I am. The one, consciousness and the other, unconsciousness. This equates to our earthly selves and our souls. There are many ways to say the same thing depending upon your view of life and humanity whether philosophical, theological or scientific. So I will let any reading come to their own conclusions.

Jeff.

Dissolving Stress and Anxiety

I have started a bunch of blog entries and just found them too large to fit into about a page due either to the topic's complexity or my inability to succinctly articulate the ideas in writing... so I will keep trying. Eventually I will end up with some material worth posting that is not so long an cumbersome as to put anyone to sleep.

Meanwhile, expanding on my meditation topic might be a good idea to continue with for now.

I have managed to keep the meditation up almost daily, missing a day or two here and there as the odd time my schedule gets in the road. I do consider it a habit now and it is something that I look forward to as it completes my day even before my day begins. Although I have been enjoying that still time in in the pre-dawn while the house is quiet it is something else to have a particular plan and to execute that plan every time.

During my meditations I have been experimenting with relaxation, posture, breathing, focus, un-focus and various other aspects of meditation. The interesting part is that some of these "new to me" things (not that I thought for even a moment that I was breaking ground) I read about shortly after "discovering" them. Others I am sure I have read sometime in the past but have long forgotten them, at least in my conscious thought.

A cool method for literally removing stress and anxiety intentionally and directly was one such example. In some places it is referred to as "clearing" and perhaps known by a few other names and not specifically associated with meditation. The simple version is that focusing on the anxiety as an inner energy, letting it flow to an external imaginary point and dissolving it, effectively removes the anxiety and it stays removed. This has worked wonders without even having to know what the anxiety was about or what it's source may have been.

I will admit that any underlying issues are not directly addressed nor are they just covered up either. Unlike  just "thinking happy thoughts" it feels more like telling my inner self that I am OK with the issue no matter what it is. The anxiety and stress over some unresolved issue only serves to keep me away from directly addressing it anyway, so eliminating the anxiety will ultimately let me at it at some future point.

Besides, I think that a lot of this negative energy is just that, negative energy for it's own sake.

I know, like any other methodology it is easy to shorten it to an almost unusable description and call it simple or easy, so I will work on the specifics another time.

Jeff.

Meditation by Intent

About a month ago I decided to try some meditation in order to settle myself into a calm center. Seeing as I had dabbled with it quite a while ago I figured it would be easy enough to just step back into, sort of like riding a bike. The thing is it feels like a different bike. I am different than I was so many years ago so I must look at the inner self from another angle now, which I suppose was to be expected.

Finding the time to create a quiet atmosphere seems to be the trick. Once things get going in the morning and everyone is up and getting ready for the day there is no real quiet time until everyone settles into bed at night. That ranges from about 6 or 7am until some time after 10pm. I tried meditating late in the evening but found that I would just fall asleep. Seeing as I already like getting up early to capture some of that quiet time before the sun rises I figured I would just time things to have more of that time to myself. As a result my new optimum wake up time is 5am, which poses the problem of getting enough sleep to function for the rest of the day.

Getting a minimum of eight hours of sleep a night is a decent goal so I now just set my alarm (ipod crickets) for eight hours after I go to bed. This has my wake up anywhere from 5 to 6am if I can get to bed by 10pm. At least as winter approaches and night creeps in much earlier this is not so hard. We also heat with wood so on the really cold windy nights I might be up at 3am anyway re-stocking the woodstove.

I went looking for some online information about meditation as the one book that I have is a small "Easy Guide to Meditation" by Roy Eugene Davis. While it is a good start it doesn't cover as much as I would like, although I am not sure what there is to cover really.

Like everything else there is very little signal to noise online so my BS filter has to be set on high gain while I dredge through all of the possible online links. I ended up not really finding anything that suited me, most were trying to sell audio meditation aids, so I am just going to push on and do my own thing.

My own thing seems to be working just fine anyway.

Jeff.

The first post, there always needs to be a first.

Although I have a few blogs I decided that I really don't have an appropriately titled blog to let me just write stuff that does not necessarily fall into any particular category. The result is an idea to blog without any particular goal in mind other than to post about stuff that I am doing personally that doesn't fit into another blog. Currently my focus is in the direction of personal growth or enlightenment on one level or another... who knows what that might produce.

Seeing as this is a first post I don't think that I will go anywhere with it so I guess that this is more aimed at letting those who might stumble upon a blank blog have something to read.

So, if you are reading this, there will be some stuff here along the way.

That's about it.

Jeff.