Happy New Year. I don’t need to tell Paul, the anthropologist, of all people, but I have discovered that the first rule of any species is to reproduce and perpetuate itself. This applies to institutions and cultures. Cultures are perpetuated with myths. Most myths are lies. So, for me the process of learning is the process of unlearning or deprograming or un-brainwashing. . ” The life we live after that” means to me living with what I have discovered as truth. That means owning my values, not just perpetuating what someone told me were my values. As it turns, out many basic assumptions about life through cultural eyes are just bullshit. As a convenience we have agreed to drive on the right hand side of the road, not the left. It is not metaphysical truth. Some people benefit by selling bullshit as metaphysical truth metaphorically and as metaphysical truth. Political, economic, religious and social systems are peddled as metaphysical truth. So what a great News Years greeting. What a great wish and challenge for all of us – to step into our truth, our individual and collective wisdom, and even perhaps, what a big thought, our divinity.
Happy new year Roger. Thanks for elaborating on and illuminating the Malamud quote.
I’m still doing yoga a couple times a week. Well, it’s a more loosely structured yoga, fitness center yoga and not studio yoga, but in my book, it’s yoga. After about 40 minutes of this and that movement and intentional breathing, there’s the 10 – 15 minutes in the relaxation pose, what some call Savasana, with even more intentional breathing. At any rate, it’s during these Savasana moments when I do some of my most significant unlearning. I’ve pictured it as exhaling dozens of cubic feet of dogma and doctrine (myth?) and inhaling enough refreshing, replacement thin air to go back down for more….but, guess what, there’s an endless supply.
Paul, good for you. Some people are knocked on-their-ass in a split second of enlightenment or off- their- ass, like on the road to Damascus. As for me, I have had to work at it. I have gotten it intellectually and in social consciousness but I am a work in process and in progress in absorbing it subconsciously. I think in 2014, I turned a corner, despite less exercise and less meditation, because of semi-co-parenting responsibilities of my granddaughters. Ironically I have learned from a little 3 year old master with down syndrome but quite the opposite very active ,who reminds me of my inner child. In 2015, I am committed to jumping back into the Y swimming pool, return to more frequent meditation, and now encouraged by your blog to do frequent journaling. Thanks for the inspiration.
portfoliolongo 
Happy New Year. I don’t need to tell Paul, the anthropologist, of all people, but I have discovered that the first rule of any species is to reproduce and perpetuate itself. This applies to institutions and cultures. Cultures are perpetuated with myths. Most myths are lies. So, for me the process of learning is the process of unlearning or deprograming or un-brainwashing. . ” The life we live after that” means to me living with what I have discovered as truth. That means owning my values, not just perpetuating what someone told me were my values. As it turns, out many basic assumptions about life through cultural eyes are just bullshit. As a convenience we have agreed to drive on the right hand side of the road, not the left. It is not metaphysical truth. Some people benefit by selling bullshit as metaphysical truth metaphorically and as metaphysical truth. Political, economic, religious and social systems are peddled as metaphysical truth. So what a great News Years greeting. What a great wish and challenge for all of us – to step into our truth, our individual and collective wisdom, and even perhaps, what a big thought, our divinity.
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Happy new year Roger. Thanks for elaborating on and illuminating the Malamud quote.
I’m still doing yoga a couple times a week. Well, it’s a more loosely structured yoga, fitness center yoga and not studio yoga, but in my book, it’s yoga. After about 40 minutes of this and that movement and intentional breathing, there’s the 10 – 15 minutes in the relaxation pose, what some call Savasana, with even more intentional breathing. At any rate, it’s during these Savasana moments when I do some of my most significant unlearning. I’ve pictured it as exhaling dozens of cubic feet of dogma and doctrine (myth?) and inhaling enough refreshing, replacement thin air to go back down for more….but, guess what, there’s an endless supply.
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Paul, good for you. Some people are knocked on-their-ass in a split second of enlightenment or off- their- ass, like on the road to Damascus. As for me, I have had to work at it. I have gotten it intellectually and in social consciousness but I am a work in process and in progress in absorbing it subconsciously. I think in 2014, I turned a corner, despite less exercise and less meditation, because of semi-co-parenting responsibilities of my granddaughters. Ironically I have learned from a little 3 year old master with down syndrome but quite the opposite very active ,who reminds me of my inner child. In 2015, I am committed to jumping back into the Y swimming pool, return to more frequent meditation, and now encouraged by your blog to do frequent journaling. Thanks for the inspiration.
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