Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Mindful Distraction


It is so much simpler to bury reality than it is to dispose of dreams.
Don DeLillo

...old loneliness unearthed like shattered tablets or multiple-amputee goddesses who don’t seem to notice...photos of long-dead people as smiling children...ladies’ shoes found incongruously on uninhabited south sea islands...coffin lids scraped by desperate fingernails...vampires, figurative and otherwise...legions of slaves buried intentionally if, no doubt, unwillingly, with their kings...organic waste turning gradually to petroleum while petroleum products don’t seem to be turning to anything any time soon...flowers and dreams we hope will bloom again come spring...landmines left over from almost forgotten wars, potent as ever...

...recently read about a guy who spent years in solitary confinement as a political prisoner in...I think...China....when he came out, people were surprised at how calm and centered he seemed following such an ordeal....he credited meditation with getting him through it...though, he said, finding time to meditate was a constant struggle...even stuck as he was by himself in a cell all day, every day...

...of course, these meditative disciplines mostly come from places—India, China, Japan—that, despite romantic pastoral images in western minds, have been really, really crowded and noisy for a long, long time...maybe that’s not a coincidence...

6 comments:

the walking man said...

Why does the mind need any image to enhance the meditative quality. Isn't quiet and darkness image enough?

Melinda said...

I think people can go one of two ways when they are imprisoned such as the man in China--you either learn to center yourself and come away mentally strong, or you collapse altogether. I think some collapse first and then learn to center. When I was in jail, I never meditated--but I did mental exercises to keep myself busy and psychologically strong. I love this Hemingway quote, which is going to be at the front of my book: "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

Baby Doll said...

Baby doll found in the post-apocalyptic desolation...plastic in place of skin...simulated sensation...going through the motions.

Can people still touch each other, skin-on-skin? Perhaps the skin has melted away, leaving only a plastic veneer...pour water inside, and turn it upside-down: it cries...turn her the other way and she pees...

Sorry if this is a downer: it comes from a sad and disconnected place...plug me in and maybe I'll dance around for you...ignore me and I'll die... 

Swapna Raghu Sanand said...

The quote in particular was interesting.

Brooks Hall said...

Dr. Jay, this is cool... I just easily found the poem that I (rather synchronistically) read to my class yesterday, by Hafiz. It is called, Forgive the Dream

Also: Love the title of your post...

Lana Gramlich said...

Good point about the crowding. I'd never thought of that...