Where the wind blows

For the last several days I have been host to a pathogenic strain of microorganism – possibly a virus. My nose was running like a river, I had to pee a lot, and there was there was mild, overall body pain. The mood was one of patiently waiting for recovery. In the meantime, the monkey mind was often busy causing short bursts of focussed attention. Flashes of logos?  

Logos (from greek lego "I say") is a term in western philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and religion derived from a Greek word meaning "ground", "plea", "opinion", "expectation", "word", "speech", "account", "reason", "proportion", "discourse",

Logos became a technical term in philosophy beginning with Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BCE), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge. Logos is the logic behind an argument. Logos tries to persuade an audience using logical arguments and supportive evidence. Logos is a persuasive technique often used in writing and rhetoric.

I am minded of quotes from St John’s gospel

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
King James Version (KJV) John 3:8

In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
King James Version (KJV) John 1 and 2

Ach so! Judaeo Christian myth and magic. The concept needs updating from the latest findings of neurology and linguistics

types of work

the 'job' concept

how do you understand it?

some ideas from time past - click HERE

Winning peace of mind

My level of peace of mind varies from minute to minute (fast) and from decade to decade (slow). The details are rooted in my genes (nature), in my natal culture (nurture), and in the unexpected (serendipity). 

My human brain is the result of evolutionary tinkering that goes back millions of years in the vertebrates and millions of years before that in the invertebrates. The changes along the way served three main purposes – to spot the dangerous things eg predators, and avoid them; to spot the good things eg ripe fruit trees and move towards them; and to spot the neutral things and ignore them. 

A large amount of the process involves knowing my place in several social hierarchies and thus my chances of mating. [note for the record – I committed to zero population growth in 1971.]

I have the impression that my mindbrain is constantly churning to match incoming stimuli with materials in the memory. Given the enormity of the data processing task it is therefore reasonable and preferable to use crude stereotypes that are fast than to be eaten by a predator while slowly philosophising about the human condition.

As a human being I am linguistically programmed by both nature and nurture. I easily learned to listen to and speak a natal language. And, with a bit of organisation, I learned how to read and write. And, at the beginning of the 21^st century, I have learned how to make my utterances global and instantly available on the social networks of the internet. [note for the record – my blog gets a modest 40 page views per day on average but they come from a wide range of countries]

I want it

Normally I don’t feel negativity but this may be because it is hidden from up-front consciousness. It comes in two forms – anxiety that sometimes leads to panic, and rumination that leads to pessimism, depression and low self-esteem.

Positivity is my normal state. It sometimes involves the ecstatic joy and bliss of the numinous. But more often it involves focus and flow especially when the mindbrain is non-egoic, non-judgemental and in the present moment. 

When in non-egoic flow it cannot be said that “I am happy” because, by definition, there is no “I”.

“I want xxx”

“Fair enough, but who is the I that wants and why do they want it?”