Tag: Aristotle

Energetically Speaking

The mysteries of energy – what it is and how it works – are largely beyond me.

Personally, I know when I have an abundance of it. And I really know when I don’t.

I accept that energy is all around us and supports us and all other living things. Naturalists might interpret that universal energetic flow as god at work.

But beyond that superficial understanding and my reliance on electrical outlets to power up whatever device I need to use, my understanding of energy is scant.

Eastern religions have a deep and complex understanding of energy. They understand how the energy in us is connected to a larger energetic system.

Some Westerners have clued in and try to apply the knowledge of those belief systems to our own philosophical frameworks.

From this, many Westerners have adopted and follow the dictates of balancing their chakras and pursuing a yoga practice. In Far Eastern culture, internal energetic pathways in the body are called meridians which are the channels through which chi (life energy) flows.

This belief system attributes a lot of suffering and illness to blockages in energy flow. Acupressure and acupuncture evolved as methods to unblock the meridians. By doing so, the body’s own healing energy can take over and bring it back into balance, or a state of wellness.

It all seems like delicate balancing act to me to achieve and maintain a state of wellness in ourselves and on our planet. Many capitalists don’t think this way. Nature is seen strictly as a resource to exploit.

We are all paying a high price for that attitude with climate change and increasingly extreme weather events around the world.

Likely, we have all heard the analogy of how the butterfly flapping its wings can impact events on the other side of the world.

I will rely on this quote by Catherine McKenzie to better explain where that philosophy comes from:

“They say that if a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian rain forest, it can change the weather half a world away.

Chaos theory.

What it means is that everything that happens in this moment is an accumulation of everything that’s come before it. Every breath. Every thought. There is no innocent action.

Some actions end up having the force of a tempest. Their impact cannot be missed. Others are the blink of an eye. Passing by unnoticed. Perhaps only God knows which is which.

All I know today is that you can think that what you’ve done is only the flap of a butterfly wing, when it’s really a thunderclap. And both can result in a hurricane.”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10523011-they-say-that-if-a-butterfly-flaps-its-wings-in

That would appear to put an enormous amount of responsibility upon individuals to consider and monitor how their actions could affect outside events.

I believe there were great cultures that did do that as part of their inherent belief system. First Nation tribes believed spirit was in every living thing. They treated the Earth they lived on and the animals that were sacrificed for their survival accordingly.

I think it is a fair comment to say that sensibility was eradicated at the end of the nineteenth century as effectively as First Nations people and the buffalo were.

All to say, I superficially understand the dictates of maintaining my own energy supplies. I pursue practices and activities that I believe support that effort.

Mostly I have taken up certain practices through a zig zag process of traia and error over the years.

Yoga helps unblock parts of my body that are tight and tied into knots, essentially by tying itself into knots. No wonder so many Westerners think yoga is weird.

I have had acupuncture when no other modality seemed to improve that nagging bursitis in my right scapula. I don’t well understand how acupuncture works, only that it has and does. That is sufficient to my purposes when I am in chronic pain.

They say that the more you know, the less you know. Or as more accurately expressed by Aristotle: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

Regarding life energy, flow, Spirit and interconnectedness among all living things, that is precisely my experience. I know a little bit about a lot of things.

I am in a chronic state of tension as a result. I realize I will never reach that carrot of fully understanding the fundamental mysteries of life: where life started, what life is and what keeps us and life constantly moving forward.

I do know I appreciate the unrelenting quest and happily sacrifice a fair amount of my life energy to seek answers to those multitude of things I do not understand.

I pray for the sustained energy to keep me pursuing that quest for as long as Nature/Spirit/god permits.

Boredom Begone

I’ve never understood boredom.

I have been bored from time to time and usually for very concrete reasons. Sitting at a conference table listening to someone in love with the sound of their own voice, going on and on has been tantamount to coming close to death by boredom.

Some of my teachers and university lecturers were less charismatic than others. Some would drone on in a monotone that suggested they were more suitable candidates for administering hypnosis than complex intellectual theories.

Anything that is examined closely will often put you on a path that will yield more insight and education than you can possibly absorb in one lifetime. It can feel as if knowledge and insights go on forever and ever depending on the path of inquiry we pursue.

The word “gardening” is a pretty bland high level description of what most of us have passing familiarity with. We glean our familiarity either as the beneficiaries of some gardeners’ efforts or as gardeners ourselves.

I have been scouring gardening sites, looking for fast-growing plants germane to our climate and environment. What started out as a quick jaunt to get familiar with what might, and what will not work, in our yard, I am on track to earn a PhD in horticulture.

There is not only a dazzling variety of types and colors and heights and purposes for plants but a dazzling assortment of species and sub-species within any plant genus.

To many people – often depending on their age and stage of life – gardening is dead boring. An end of life activity that rates on the excitement scale right up there with watching grass grow.

But as you begin to tease out this plant’s hardiness and drought-tolerance against that one’s delicate and easily undermined growth temperament, the whole genre of gardening becomes complex and multi-layered. Master gardeners are often referred to as “artists” and with good reason.

Life is rather like this. Admittedly we all arrive on the planet with little other agenda than to get our needs met and survive. Sadly, some people get stuck at this stage for their whole life. I kinda feel like I was stuck there for an unnecessarily protracted period of time.

Curiosity has always been one of my primary drivers. I need to understand something inside and out and upside down before I can rest easy. This has applied to many aspects of my life from family, to religion, to alcoholism, to power structures, and money. I unashamedly admit the parallels with my life challenges.

So except for exposure to self-important windbags, I am rarely bored. It is said it was philosopher Aristotle who said: “The more you know, the less you know.” A blogger/software architecture developer called Ardalis (https://ardalis.com/blog) that I recently came across explained that phenomenon this way:

“Try to keep in mind that most of the things you have a cursory knowledge of, but which really are known unknowns to you, probably are similar in that if you were to really dive into them, you’d find there’s a lot more to them than you realize now. Doing this has several benefits. It helps keep your ego in check. It helps keep your curiosity and willingness to learn alive. And it helps you develop and maintain respect for others who maybe have taken the time to learn more about a topic about which you’ve only scratched the surface.”

This is a bugbear of mine in our modern world. Everyone is pitching themselves as an “expert” in spite of limited experience and equally truncated chronology.

“This paradox of “knowing just how much you don’t know” can lead us to a more human centric solution: “It’s easy to feel small when we consider how large the world (and universe!) is. It’s good to keep in mind just how big the world is, as it offers us humility, but to keep from feeling down it’s important to focus on what you can impact. This starts with yourself. How can you make yourself better? What can you do this day to make it so the you of tomorrow is better than the you of today? Once you’re on the path to trying to improve yourself, it’s gratifying to try and help others do the same. Can you help the whole world or move the universe? Perhaps not. But everyone can help someone. Even if all you do is share your journey and what you’re learning, even your struggles, you’re bound to help others facing similar hurdles. Do these two things, consistently, and you will look back and see the progress you’ve made and the lives you’ve touched and hopefully feel that you’ve made a positive impact.“

What I personally don’t know could fill volumes. Or copious numbers of concurrent blog posts. Given all I don’t know and all there is out there in the world to know, boredom is the last thing I, or anyone, should allow themselves to be.

Whether your thing is gardening or nuclear physics, there will always be more to explore and discover during your lifetime, even when it most seems like there ain’t.