Thoughts on Thinking

"When somebody persuades me that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?" John Maynard Keynes

"If you're unhappy with your life, change your thinking." Charles Fillmore

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it." Eckhart Tolle

"People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them." Epictetus

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

"Consciousness is a terrible thing to waste." PunditGeorge

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Dancer and the Beast Perspective


Perspective – you beast!
How dare you foil a simple mind
and confuse old thinking
with an expanse of Life
without time.


Confounding relationships is the ability of two or more people to observe/experience the same moment yet perceive it quite differently. Two people, perhaps on a date, are watching the same movie. For one, it’s exciting and is over all too soon. For the other, the tortured ordeal seemed to never end. Same experience, same “time”, much different interpretations.

Life is personal and strengthens the concept that we (each of us individually) create our life experience. We aren’t at the mercy of a capricious universe (Dreaded headlines: “SUV kills three,” “Gunfire erupts at party.”) Yet those old beliefs (re-thinking the same thought until it establishes itself) still trip up the most ardent truth seeker.

I ran across an intriguing illustration of this in an Australian news story about right brain, left brain functions. The link was noted in Neoneocon’s blog, which is always a source of considered thought.

The spinning lady, or dancer, is moving clockwise. Or counterclock-wise. Or both. Now, to really get sporting, notice when two or more people are observing her. Someone will see her twirling contrary to the others at the same instant. That is perspective.

No matter how hard some folks work, it isn’t possible to force everyone to think the same, thus perceive the world the same. Life is an individual thing. And, as the dancing silhouette demonstrates, it’s an inside job.*

* It’s not the SUV running amok, it’s the driver. It’s not mysterious gunfire appearing, it’s people showing up with guns and pulling the triggers. Use the links to see the dancer do her thing.

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