There are three main focuses of yoga: physical exercise (asana), breathing (pranayama), and meditation. The first two have changed my life around, and meditation would too, if I was to let it.
The problem I had with meditation was that it tends to cause a person to lose the ability to be angry, and when that happens it's impossible to maintain a political focus. A yogi takes the long view: this will all pass away, and it won't be too long before it does. And what does it matter if human beings destroy the earth? The universe will abide.
Take the long view and you're in danger of losing sight of the fact that this is an extremely screwed-up world we're living in, thanks to our species. Human beings, by far the most intelligent animal, are smart enough to have figured out a couple ways of destroying all life on earth, but too stupid to refrain from doing so.
The worst place on earth is this country, which is run by evil, lunatic gangsters. I don't wish death or destruction on any of these people, but I can tell you we're going to take this country, or at least its government (which they stole) away from them. Doing so will require intense focus, and the concentrated ability to speak with Lucifer's Tongue.
Photo: Lucifer's Tongue, ©2012 by Dave B, a.k.a. Catboxer
3 comments:
Dave, I might have found an ethical fix to the dilemma you have with meditation. I have figured out it is good to be angry at situations and not people. It's not just a mental trick because I have determined that getting angry at animals, including people, is unjust. Everyone, like all animals, is compelled by an innate drive to preserve oneself.
Basically, we are programmed by genetics, so the real focus as I see things now, should be on setting up our world so that we can live and have good lives. This is one of the big discoveries I feel that I have had about life and I am glad to have had the chance to share it with you.
Joe, didn't see your comment until today.
It's good advice, but I have a hard time getting upset about, for example, global warming without getting extremely sore at some of the very powerful people who are denying that it's happening, hence exacerbating the problem.
This isn't God's world any more, because the environment we live in is man-made. It's the humans' world now, and we've made a mess of it because of our trying to play God.
Thanks for the supportive feedback, I know what you mean about wanting to be angry at the malefactors. We like turning the tables on them yet we fall short of placing the blame at the right source and the overall result in the world is a perpetually out-of-kilter society.
I go far back in finding human culprits since I see population growth as the necessary and sufficient condition for global warming. I get upset that it didn't dawn on humanity ages ago that they were harming their environment irreparably.
It seems mammals have a sense of justice that leads them to keep tabs of social payments and debts. So the materially well-off coming out with notions of the superiority of their ways look shabby to some of us who see them for the social debtors that they really are. I think specifically of Romney, now, based on all I pick up about him.
I think humanity has always been on its own, and I so much wish for a divine caretaker.
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