Sunday, November 02, 2003

contemplatin' the Celto-Germanic mind Perhaps the Mediterranean mind is linear.   Emotions from dark to bright all co-exist in one long, colorful spectrum.  Perhaps that culture teaches children how to express anger and pain and sorrow and they grow up with a nice continuum of emotion. The Nordic mind, on the other hand, has a schism between the dark and light.  Non-linear.   Counting to ten looks like "1,2,3, 4, ..umm the square- root of negative 1, 10. "  The shadow is lurking always, but doesn't co-exist  with the daylight self.  So we have Hansel and Gretel, Jeckle and Hyde, James Joyce, etc. The Germans, perhaps, have bravely taken ownership of this shadow self and based their culture on the dynamic between the shadow and the light.  My only evidence for this is the word "schadenfreude" which translated literally means "damage-joy"  but it really means taking pleasure in the troubles of others.  A recent slate article has an example: Pardon my schadenfreude, but Joe Malone's harping on Paul Cellucci's $700,000 personal credit card debt is a lot of fun. But they don't get it exactly right.  In this country, it's always used to say you are enjoying the troubles of your enemies.  I don't think that's what it really means.   I have a feeling it's darker than that.  I mean, who doesn't enjoy the trouble of their enemies?  Why do we need a hitched-together German word to describe that feeling?  I believe it's a German attempt to give words to the schism between our daylight selves and our shadow selves.  And it is scaryfunny that Americans take a word like that and toss out the shadowy part and both use it wrong and feel smart while doing so.  Scary because we find the true meaning of that word unspeakable. Scary because if we can blame WWII on the schism I speak of,  and a culture that at least tried to come up with words for that schism so they could talk to their Jungian analysts about it couldn't help themselves from introducing the rest of the world to their shadows, then what does it say about a culture that completely denies the existence of their shadows?   3:57:17 PM    comment []

Meditation homework Meditation class yesterday:  We are to sit and concentrate on the breath.  While concentrating on the breath, things will slide into our attention.  For example, our nose will begin to itch.  We give attention to the itch.  How does it feel? "It's moving!  It's getting worse!  Oh!  It's unbearable now.   What does unbearable feel like?" etc.  Then, when we have given the itch enough attention, we move to scratching.  What does it feel like to lift our arm to scratch?  Ahh.  how many scratches does it take.  What is the relationship between itching and scratching? Same deal with emotions.  Fear, anger, sorrow, joy, stress.  bring your attention to whatever slides into consciousness and observe the sensation.  Experience the emotion.  When it sucks you in completely and you are not merely observing it, but living it, then it is time to identify it with a concept; "fear".  A concept is boring and identifying the thing as a concept will allow you to go back to focusing on the breath or giving attention to the next ball of hell that rolls out. Do this for 20 minutes per day.  That was the assignment.  I completed today's homework in the basement just now.  The thing that arrived at my attention was, "Wow.  It smells like cat piss down here."  So I meditated on cat piss for a while, cat piss and the weight of the glasses on my head. 2:34:19 PM    comment []