Fourth Post: Get Out of My Way!

Playing the Game of Life

What does our society tell our children?

Society has this process of conditioning children of going to school and preparing and preparing for the future. We are in a constant need for getting things done. What's next? Where do I go now? What's next to learn? What do I want to be? How do I get to this ideal point in my life? You go to school and think about everything that's coming and then once it's happened you take on the next thing which is sometimes even harder.

What is our society's "preparation" in life?

The preparation that society tell us that is basically required to do is school. School. School.

School... And, oh look that's new! More school! We are sent to preschool, then elementary, then high school, then college if you ever want to have a good chance at a decent living. Then maybe Graduate School. Technical School. A school for the arts. Schools for things that are absolutely required if you ever want to be in that profession.  Then when we actually get into that job I think that there is some sort of cycle that we are going through and someone is spamming the repeat button so hard!

When one arrives, Watts claims that he or she often feels cheated. Why?

Well, because you have basically spent a good portion of your life preparing in school that sometimes you won't even need in order to work for the ultimate goal for retirement. Once we are in retirement, where we are supposed to have enough money and time to do whatever we want, but by then we are too old and tired to actually do the things that we want. I basically feel like life's used tissue. 

What is the final goal of our society?

RETIREMENT! But I have no idea why it should be. You are just too old to work. Something that should happen so naturally whether or not you're thinking about it is being revered and anticipated as the final stage in our lives. This is a terrifying notion to think about. Does my life really end when I have enough money and old? I don't think so! Life is full of other goal and achievements that are waiting to be done. Whether I have work or not doesn't change the fact that life has new things and new aspects that we have never explored. I'm not going to wait around for one thing or the other to happen when it can right now. Abhorrent conventions of society are expected, things worth enjoying in life are not. Take life moment by moment.

What is the problem for living ever for the future?

We are not taking things by the moment they come. I tend to think of life as a river of energy or the waves of an ocean. Moments come, they live, they excite and they die without our permission. If we are too busy for the now, because our minds are in the future then there is no purpose for the now. Just like the ocean, you can enjoy the energy of one small, gentile wave or you can try to take on the tsunami that is sure to come.

The Secret of Life

What is the Chinese word for nature? What does it mean?

The Chinese word for nature is zìrán, which means something that which happens of itself.  Not under any control under an outside boss.

According to Watts, you stop the spontaneous flowering nature by doing what to it?

Spontaneity is, by definition, something that happens without premeditation or external cause. If we try to take command and be the cause of the action that has no cause, then it essentially loses its beauty and purpose of just being there. Life becomes too calculated and and we are pressuring something that is to fit into a design rather than making a design out of something that is.

According to Watts, what are human beings?

We are the every fabric of existence. We are no less in reality than a flower, or a bug, or a star. We are what we are.

What is the secret of life according to Watts?

The choice of reveling in existing in life. Life is just one huge parade of existence. So join the party!

You're Already Awesome!

What was Dr. Brewer's Experience of Flow?

He was a bike rider, which he did in the mountains.

According to the Harvard study mentioned by Brewer, what percentage of time do we get caught up in thinking?

About 50%. Which is so true especially for me!

Finish this sentence: A wandering mind is "..."

An UNHAPPY mind.

What happens to the brain during meditation?

We are thinking about thinking instead of putting in our minds in a state of mindfulness and not control freak mode. Certain part of the brain gets stimulated which is an indicator of thinking about what you are doing.

In nine minutes, the test subject mentioned by Brewer learned the difference between what?

That there is a difference about thinking and about just letting it happen and feeling what is.

Reflection:

Well, about everything that we've learned I think that there is truth to the allowing of the body to do what it has to according to what is given. In acting, we are put into an atmosphere where there is nothing but action and reaction to everything around us. The same thing can be said about most things in life. But the problem is is that we are trying to micro manage and predict something about to happen instead of facing things or moments one at a time. I think that whatever you do, you can do them if you take them in small doses like moments of time.