Returning . . .

It is a long-time returning from this war distraction. My mindfulness helped me during it, but I can also see that in many ways it over-powered the mindfulness.

Right now I'm back to reading in very small doses "The Power of Now." In a strange way the material feels fresh to me. I feel like I'm renewing acquaintances from the fall, but also getting a new and deeper perspective.

Tolle tends to degenerate into what I consider gibberish about inner energy fields. But reading this now I feel more generous - or maybe more relaxed. I see his talk about this inner energy fields as his way of explaining the unexplainable. Very much like ancient religions that describe incredibly silly - on their surface - creation stories. What we are really dealing with in these is myth and metaphor. To the extent we can see that - see what lies beneath the surface of the communications - we will be able to understand the author.

As in religion, the problem lies in taking all of this too literally. I need to be as forgiving of Tolle as I am of the Gospel writers.

Hmmmmmm. . . as I write this I am consciously touch typing. I have used a keyboard all of my adult life and while I know how to touch type, I came to that skill late in life and incompletely. So my usual approach is to hunt and peck - which is some mixture of touch typing and hunt and peck. The difference is, when I consciously touch type I watch the screen - the results - rather than the keyboard - the input. Anyway . . . as I do this I am struck by what Bren said the other day - as an accomplished touch typist she couldn't tell you where any letter is on the keyboard. And as I am touch tying now I am totally unconscious of where the letters are. It's a skill - a knowledge - that resides in my fingers, not my conscious mind. This is nagging at me now. . . I'm not sure, but it seems like there is an important message buried there somewhere. In any event, forcing myself to touch type I think makes me more mindful of the entire writing process - although my other self would argue that I'm getting caught up in the details of correcting typos as they happen rather than giving the input process the attention it deserves. We'll see - stay tuned. If I ever figure this out I'll come back to it.

Posted by Greg Stone at May 6, 2003 04:58 AM