F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

metaphysics

Mindfulness

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This past weekend I saw a 60 Minutes spot on the current movement of The Supremely Stressed to gain a more “mindful” approach to their lives. To forgo their electronic leashes and all the stress that accompanies today’s lives for their own thoughts and presence-of-mind. Peacefulness.

I find this interesting on many levels.

If you go to the above link, you’ll find you’ll be immediately pummeled by a loud and frigging obnoxious commercial for 30 annoying seconds. Then the 60 Minute spot starts and after mere seconds you are again redirected into the same fricking annoying soul-sucking commercial for another 30 seconds! At least my viewing of it was. I couldn’t X-out of that damned video fast enough.

For real, CBS? Did you not watch your own spot on “Mindfulness”?

My own stress level at the launching of that commercial shot through the roof.

A curious point brought up in the segment was that those creating, marketing, and promoting the very things that lead to elevated stress levels—the iPads, the cell phones, the very technology being eschewed in this retreat—are those being schooled in this new movement.

The condensed version of the 60 Minute segment is that one focuses on the present.

Does not multitask.

Learns meditation.

Becomes comfortable with their own thoughts.

There are various methods for doing all of the above (e.g., focusing on one’s own breathing), but what I wanted to get into was not the mechanics of it all, but that it is so cool that people are really “getting it” that we need to modify our behavior. That doing things like this makes one calmer, more open to listening, cooperating with each other, and that one becomes nicer.

I’m far from perfect, but for most of my life I’ve tried to live by these principles…but, admittedly, it’s not easy in today’s world. It’s like the proverbial Chinese Water Torture…when you constantly get pinged by anything—even the most calmest of us— eventually it’s easy to, well, snap. There are so many different directions I could go with breaking the whys and wherefores out…but, again, that’s not what I wanted to do, here. I just wanted to bring out the movement. To show that this retreat and other methods out there are showing us that there is a better way to live our lives and to hopefully plant a seed in those out there reading this to find your own way to a calmer path in your own lives.

You don’t need to have a bigger and better cell phone. That promotion at the expense of your happiness.

Try this…I dare you:

Sit down to eat any meal—at home—all by yourself. No distractions. No conversation. No music. Silence. Just you and your food. In a quiet location.

You might be surprised at how calming and enjoyable you find it.

Remembering Jane Roberts May 8, 1929 – September 5, 1984

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This is where it all started for me. Seth Speaks, by Jane Roberts, ©1972, Prentice Hall
This is where it all started for me. Seth Speaks, by Jane Roberts, ©1972, Prentice Hall

I never was able to interact with Jane Roberts.

I’d written her back in the 80s, but—little did I know—she was already full-bore into the health problems that ended up taking her life: complications from rheumatoid arthritis. Now, what was really cool was that her husband, Rob Butts, wrote back. And from then until his death in 2008 Rob and I wrote each other. We never met—almost did—but we did talk on the phone.

Jane and Rob—and Seth—heavily influenced my life by showing me what’s behind the curtain of life. That there was more than we physically saw…and that we can see this stuff. Manipulate it. Make it work for ourselves. I found their work with the 1972 publishing of Seth Speaks. I was hooked ever since, have read all the books, multiple times for the original work in the 70s and 80s.

So, I’m remembering you, Jane! Wondering what you’re up to now! What cool adventures are you having?

I love this poem she wrote, which is in this link. I don’t normally use things without permission, but I am doing my best at attribution. I hope Laurel Butts doesn’t mind me using it, but if she does, I’ll remove it.

Here’s to you, Jane!

Death is following,
I hear his step upon the stair.
And birth is waiting,
And behind this death and birth
A million doors
Which will open and close,
Through which my image must pass.

There is always one following,
And one waiting, and none forgotten.
For the end shall overshadow the beginning,
And the shadow of the rock is the rock.
This moment is Forever, poised upon our dream.
I am born a million years and know no tomb.

© Jane Roberts
November 17, 1954

Related Articles

Inspiration

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A friend of mine and I were discussing writerly inspiration, when I got inspired to “pen” this post.

What is it and where does it come from?

Can you force it?

Hey, maaan, got any techniques to maximize its potential?

I may be a bit too hardline in my way of thinking, but I really feel that each of us are built to do certain things. Sure, we can change our direction[s], and that can get heavy into metaphysics (which I do get into, below), but as to “teaching” others how to be inspired…well, all I got is that you “simply” need to allow yourself to be aware of your own, unique, whispers.

That’s it. No secret handshakes, no intricate nor arcane protocols.

Tell yourself you allow yourself to be inspired. Go on, do it now. Out loud. Mean it.

People—it seems to me—are always looking outside themselves to find themselves. Trying to unnecessarily complicate matters.

All we are is within us.

All you need to know is already within you and me. We simply have to become aware of who we are, and to do that we need to listen to our inner voices (my standard disclaimer of mental aberrations and crazed ax-murderer inclinations NOTwithstanding…).

You already know who you are.

You do, I bet you do.

You may be afraid to admit it, you may be obfuscating it with other issues, but deep down, it’s all there. Sometimes we have to dig through all kinds of other “stuff” first, and that is something some need to do. There’s a reason for that, and you have to find it, discover your own answers—no one else can do that for you. Techniques for that are abundant, but it again comes down to listening to yourself, your thoughts, your dreams, how you deal with the world…ask yourself questions and allow the answers to come in whatever form they choose to reveal themselves to you in. A TV show, a dream, a phrase on a roadside sign.

Now, the flipside to that—for creative types—is, well, okay, I know who I am, yeah, I’m cool with that, but I seem to have issues expressing it. Please, to help me, Kind Sir!

See above there are no secret handshakes, no intricate nor arcane protocols.

We all have daily inspiration. It’s unavoidable. The problem might appear to be that you are not experiencing what you feel inspiration should be.

The problem may be that you got inspired to write a book, paint an acrylic, and now, nothing else is coming forthwith.

This is what I have to say, and you may not like it, and where my hardcore view comes into play.

You may not a writer nor a painter be.

You may have experienced a bout of said, you may have been inspired to do a single or handful of singular creative acts, for whatever reason your inner self needed that expression, but you may not be a writer. May not be a painter.

And there’s nothing wrong with that!

You may be a reader…may be a viewer…an illustrator, a coder, a cover artist. A cop.

And—getting totally metaphysical on your collective asses—I feel this is the case because you may be very well already be said writer or painter in another life…another existence…but in this existence, you’re experiencing the other side of the coin.

Life is far too complex, too rich to be limited to one single, expendable existence. It’s far too limiting a concept, so I believe we have to live other, simultaneous existences…where all our other existences interact…bleeding through talents, and, yes, inspiration…to all of our other existences.

And what is inspiration?

From Merriam-Webster, it’s “something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create: a force or influence that inspires someone.”

Where does it come from?

It comes from the nonphysical realms of which the mind is a part. And that gets into individual beliefs. But, for me it comes from the playgrounds of the soul. I look at the brain as the medium, the means of intersection between the physical body and the nonphysical mind. I do not see the mind so much as resident within the brain, but Venn diagrammed with it. Accessed through the brain. And as such, our mind has access to a wondrous and neverending array of concepts we simply cannot even begin to imagine…but try to! We have such wondrous access. And since our beliefs drive our lives, and since beliefs are nonphysical, part of our mind, if we don’t believe we can do something or don’t believe we have access to something, anything nonphysical will be so hindered. Our beliefs are the keys to our lives…our thoughts.

So, “forcing” inspiration? See above.

Additionally, what if some inspiration is a thought or a feeling from one of your other selves? One of your other selves’s actual experiences?

Inspiration.

Now, for just a minute, play a little gedankenexperiment. Try to imaging that the life you’re living now is not the prime, only life…but that this life is a probable life to another you, somewhere else…bemoaning their existence and wondering what the hell you’re doing…that they could actually be you.

Wicked freaky, huh?

And, admit it, as belief systems go, wouldn’t you rather that kind of universe exist over one that says you have but one—and only one—life to live? Wouldn’t it take the pressure off having to do one and only one thing? Doesn’t it leave a bit of breathing room, my friends?

Doesn’t it put an entirely different spin on a lot of questions? A lot of angst?

People may use Tarot cards, chicken bones, scrying, handheld pendulums, or whatever to “deliver” inspiration, and that’s fine, it’s okay, it’s part of who they are…and you can go ahead and try them. But, I say, and truly mean this, because I really do care about people, listen to yourselves. Discover what makes you tick and just be yourself. As for writer’s block, that is usually not so much a lack of inspiration, but (in my humble opinion) an obfuscation of inspiration. Something is blocking your methods and I feel it’s usually stress or some other issue that needs resolution before you can move forward. Sometimes you just need to stop and take stock, but I feel the correction to “writer’s block” is as varied as—and directly related to—the causes, rather than just listing out a series of “steps” to follow. Again, listening to your inner self can only help.

And if you’re not a writer, have no more writerly inspiration in you, that’s okay. Write out your one or two books and be good with it, if no more ever comes to you…or doesn’t manifest itself for years to come. Enjoy your life and who you are. Move on.

We need readers, too.