In the day of virtual office spaces, cell phones, pagers, Blackberry's, PDA's, Vmail, Email, Instant Messaging, I-Pods and other noise makers it's hard to find a quiet space.
Engineers talk about the ability to communicate intelligence in terms of a signal to noise ratio. As we all know there is often a lot more noise than signal in our electronically connected world. We have become very good at ignoring a lot of it, and doing our best to separate the wheat from the chaff, but we can reach a point where in shutting out the noise we begin to lose appreciation for some of the beauty around us.
These electronic tethers tend to fly in the face of a Buddhist philosophy of mindfulness - being in the present moment. If you are going for a walk, for example, we could enjoy the air, the birds, the trees, the sky, your breathing...instead of multi-tasking - walking and talking on a cell phone or listening to music.
We tend to sometimes like the hustle and bustle, the appearence of activity (which at times is more circular than leading us anywhere). Buzzing around is fun. It makes us feel important to have the phone, the pager, the email, vmail etc. If that makes us happy, constitutes our definition of the good life, then who's to criticize? On the other hand, some people in that environment may wonder, as Peggy Lee, sang, "Is That All There Is?".
Balance is always hard, and not always all it's cracked up to be (perfect balance can mean stasis) but we have a lot to gain by cultivating a quiet inner space.
Take a break every so often, let the river flow for awhile without you, take some quieting breaths, mute the external and internal noise, and listen to what you hear. If you've never tried any type of meditation, you might be surprised, after you practice doing this for awhile at how much intelligence there is inside you.
You already know everything that's really important, it's just a matter of being aware enough to understand that. A guide could help you with the questions and where you might look for answers, but the answers to life's most important questions belong to you alone. Don't let anyone tell you different.
Depending on your current mindset, you may think - How could we possibly know everything? I don't know the square root of 59 or the best place to buy designer jeans or the phone number for the Ames, Iowa YMCA. Those aren't really important, and one clue why is that they are easy to answer (provided you can use the Google machine).
Questions that thoughtful people have thought about for ages. What is a good life? Who do I want to be? How do I want to be remembered? What is my contribution to this place on earth? What makes us different? The same?
Now those are tougher, more interesting and best of all - you don't have to use anything other than your own beautiful mind to find the answers.
Boing Boing: Better visual working memory stems from ignoring stuff
John Prine lyrics for "Spanish Pipedream" aka "Blow Up Your TV".
Thich Nhat Hanh Peace is in Every Step
