Words.
This blog would not be possible without them. Words serve as the linchpin to a good deal of human communication. If they magically disappeared one day, most of us would be lost a good deal of the time.
I have an intimate association with words. My computer is filled with various types of word games. When I am not busy reading or writing words, I am trying to unscramble letters to form words.
It interests me that I can sometimes look at 6, 7, or 8 scrambled letters and, in a matter of a second or two, form an intelligible word utilizing all of them (which allows me to move on to the next round). At other times, I can look at a scrambled assortment of letters and nothing pops into my head. I draw a complete blank.
When the brain cells seem not to be functioning as well as usual, concentrating harder only makes the situation worse. "Why can't I see it?" I demand. So I scrunch my eyes and try to hone in all my intellectual faculties on the jumbled letters. Whenever I resort to this tack, it almost guarantees I will not see the word in the allotted time.
Sometimes, I kind of throw up my hands in exasperation and mutter, "Why do I play these sorts of games all the time? I'm simply torturing myself!" My mind starts to drift and I conclude that I should close the program to do something else. As I am about to do just that, the correct word pops into my head! Poof!
I have come to understand that when I purposely think, the mental pathways become clogged with expectations and internal mind static. When I am able to look at jumbled letters with a clear and un-thinking mind, my brain often dispatches the issue in no time at all.
From a Taoist perspective, I believe that the difference in these two for instances is that, in the former, I desire to solve the puzzle and my desire clouds my innate ability to achieve a successful outcome. In the latter happenstance, I leave my desires and expectations at the door which frees the synapses to do what they do best...unimpeded by my own self-imposed hubris.
This blog would not be possible without them. Words serve as the linchpin to a good deal of human communication. If they magically disappeared one day, most of us would be lost a good deal of the time.
I have an intimate association with words. My computer is filled with various types of word games. When I am not busy reading or writing words, I am trying to unscramble letters to form words.
It interests me that I can sometimes look at 6, 7, or 8 scrambled letters and, in a matter of a second or two, form an intelligible word utilizing all of them (which allows me to move on to the next round). At other times, I can look at a scrambled assortment of letters and nothing pops into my head. I draw a complete blank.
When the brain cells seem not to be functioning as well as usual, concentrating harder only makes the situation worse. "Why can't I see it?" I demand. So I scrunch my eyes and try to hone in all my intellectual faculties on the jumbled letters. Whenever I resort to this tack, it almost guarantees I will not see the word in the allotted time.
Sometimes, I kind of throw up my hands in exasperation and mutter, "Why do I play these sorts of games all the time? I'm simply torturing myself!" My mind starts to drift and I conclude that I should close the program to do something else. As I am about to do just that, the correct word pops into my head! Poof!
I have come to understand that when I purposely think, the mental pathways become clogged with expectations and internal mind static. When I am able to look at jumbled letters with a clear and un-thinking mind, my brain often dispatches the issue in no time at all.
From a Taoist perspective, I believe that the difference in these two for instances is that, in the former, I desire to solve the puzzle and my desire clouds my innate ability to achieve a successful outcome. In the latter happenstance, I leave my desires and expectations at the door which frees the synapses to do what they do best...unimpeded by my own self-imposed hubris.
Actually, that really sounds more like a Buddhist perspective to me, all preoccupied with desire and overcoming it. I think it is when you abandon effort, teh solution comes...you still have a desire to solve the puzzle, but it comes when you're not trying. I suppose you can conflate effort and desire, but I think it is more like basic wu-wei that's the key
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