Robert Gale Ongley

Month: May 2019

  • THE ZEN OF WISDOM

    Zen and wisdom have one major thing in common. We know far too little about them. An interesting point about them is they may be interchangeable. I could have titled this post, The Wisdom of Zen. There’s a beautiful symmetry in that, but this isn’t about Zen. As I understand it, Zen is a movement within Mahayana Buddhism that teaches enlightenment through direct “absorption” rather than through studying books and manuscripts unless they somehow aid in bringing enlightenment to the reader as an actual experience. So, the Zen of wisdom suggests that wisdom is gained through experience and not reading about it or hearing people talk or watching television.

    Conceptual Versus Practical

    The argument may arise that in order for there to be a growth in wisdom, the person must receive information, which requires reading or listening or watching. We could throw in some other senses there as well. It’s not that any of these sensory inputs couldn’t help us in our quest for wisdom, but the fact that we’re exposed to them doesn’t guarantee we’ll be able to glean any understanding from them either.

    Sensory perception is limited. We use our five senses and information is processed through our brains. As fantastic as our brains are, they are not infallible. There have been studies that show how the brain can be inadequate in its interpretation of external stimuli. A TV show called Brain Games has interactive segments that demonstrate how the brain can be deceived or simply can’t be accessed fully to use all the data we are bombarded with from moment to moment. With all of the distractions of our daily lives, we can’t trust that what we read, hear or see is the whole truth.

    The larger point is that written content, verbal input and visual entertainment provide us most of the time with a conceptual understanding of their subjects. We can get it, but not really get it. An example of this would be a tutorial on how to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission, how to feel when the time is right to lift the foot off the clutch, to a person who has exclusively driven vehicles with automatic transmissions. They may understand it conceptually, but only with experience do they grasp it on a practical level.

    This is what the Zen master wants, that we know on a deep level what it is that’s being taught. Occasionally, when we least expect it, something we take in through reading or whatever can hit us like a ton of bricks and we truly internalize it. That’s great, but we’re more likely to completely understand through the process of experiential learning or coming to know through our intuition.

    Developing Wisdom

    The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
    ― Socrates

    If you’re 16 years old and you read this quote, you’re probably discounting it. If you’re 16 and you see the truth in it, you’re way ahead of me at that age. The older you get, the more you realize you don’t really know anything. Yet, there’s a wisdom in this knowledge that you know nothing. And if you go far enough into it, there’s peace to be had in the uncertainty. I do feel certain that wisdom gets a foothold when we comprehend Socrates’ words.

    Most of us are going to gain some wisdom along the path of experience we travel. One bit of it that I did get by watching someone in real life would be worded something like, “Don’t snow ski on a dirt road while being towed by a car.” We can accelerate our accumulation of wisdom by being open to it. At some point in life, many people develop an attitude that they know it all and stop being open to learning more about the world. Being thirsty for greater wisdom opens the floodgates. With that attitude comes humility such as Socrates illustrated.

    Developing wisdom is a game of growth and, as such, it brings with it growing pains. Here is a quote I like along these lines:
    Developing the muscles of the soul demands no competitive spirit,
    no killer instinct, although it may erect pain barriers
    that the spiritual athlete must crash through.
    – Germaine Greer

    Be Yourself

    A saying comes to mind. Experience is the best teacher. This is our own experience, not someone else’s. Our everyday events are our teachers and they’re in the people we know and meet. They’re in our successes and failures. Most of all, there’s a teacher within. Pay attention. Allow the teacher to be heard in the silences and the spaces. Peace and wisdom!

  • THE MAGNIFICENT DANCE OF MOTHER EARTH

    Earth in rotation

    On a night in May when a waning blue moon has risen huge on the eastern horizon, I take in the stars and planets shining bright in a clear sky. Palm trees along the street are silhouetted in the foreground. The scene couldn’t have been choreographed more beautifully. I’m full of awe and gratitude for being born in this garden spot of the universe.

    I reflect on how the planets, the solar system and the galaxies are waltzing around their hubs as they simultaneously hurtle on their primary courses through space. The Milky Way and Andromeda, for instance, are on a collision course expected to happen in about 4.5 billion years.

    Yet, there’s so much we can’t see with our naked eyes–the cells, molecules and atoms. And they’re all in motion. They may not be as predictable as the larger bodies out there, but they are contributing to the overall dance.

    Following is an excerpt from www.discoverycube.org that was written in February of last year. It illustrates the deliberate, organized movement found in nature.

    Patterns

    “The patterns found in nature have fascinated scientists for many years. Humans have looked at the stars to find patterns – called constellations. Each day we experience a sunset and a sunrise – patterns caused by the Earth’s rotation around the Sun, which we call time. Patterns help us organize information and make sense of the world around us.

    A pattern exists when a set of numbers, colors, shapes, or sound are repeated over and over again. Patterns can be found everywhere: including in animals, plants, and even the solar system!

    Some specific patterns are called fractals or spirals. Fractals are patterns that repeat at different scales. This means if you zoom in on a picture, you will see the same pattern replicated, and much smaller, inside the larger image. Broccoli is a great example of a fractal because a small piece of broccoli, when zoomed in, has the same pattern as the larger head of broccoli.”

    Art It Must Be

    Even the scientific explanation of how the earth came into existence is a story of artistic creation. The early solar system was a cloud of dust and gas in a disk form. Swirling around with tremendous speed, the disk separated into super-hot rings. When the core was separated from the rest of the disk, the outer rings formed fiery balls of gas and molten liquid now revolving around the new sun. Eventually, the globes cooled into solid form and became the planets. The potter’s wheel at work, metaphorically speaking.

    From a fiery mass to a virtual big blue marble covered with water and teeming with life is a transformation so rare that we don’t know of any others in existence. The beauty of our planet is unmatched, in my opinion.

    The Elegant Word

    Nature is sharply focused on Earth, speaking to us through trees waving in the wind, through birdsong, through the wailing of the whales and in countless other ways. As human beings, we shape the grace of our terrestrial home with creative language, hoping to place in the minds of others the rapturous images we have in our own. In that spirit, I turn to some illustrious writers for their thoughts that celebrate Mothers Nature and Earth. I had hoped to assemble several memorable excerpts from the works of writers. Well, as I went searching, I found just what I needed in one article called 50 of the Most Beautiful Quotes about Nature. It appeared in www.rd.com. Here are a few samplings. Enjoy!

    “ ‘Is the spring coming?’ he said. ‘What is it like?’ …’It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine, and things pushing up and working under the earth.’ ” —Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden.

    “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” —Henry David Thoreau. 

    “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’” —Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

    “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” —Joseph Campbell

    Feeling the Connection

    Once while living in Santa Barbara, I drove to a saddle along a ridge where I could look down into a luscious valley away from the ocean. As I sat, drinking in the mountain beauty, the thought floated up to consciousness, I am the land. It was an expression of deep love for the earth.

    Santa Ynez Mountains

  • THE ENCHANTED PAINTER

    As a writer and musician, I know something about becoming engrossed in my craft. I’ve experienced having the hours slip by unnoticed as I happily write or play. The artist who is the subject of this article takes single-minded focus to an entirely different level, however. In coming up with the above title, I considered several adjectives for this painter. Descriptive words such as preoccupied, mesmerized and obsessed. Any could apply. She happens to be my wife.

    The Focused One

    Not made for multi-tasking, Sandy can take on a single task with nearly impenetrable focus. If she’s involved in something, a person seeking to communicate with her would be wise to say her name with the volume turned up a little before intruding with any further words.

    The result is that she works fast and efficiently. Not being distracted gives her a great advantage over most of us. It doesn’t hurt that she has always had a nearly inexhaustible energy supply, but it’s primarily concentration that enables her to accomplish so much.

    Only in recent years have I seen her abilities applied to painting. I’ve known for a long time that she wanted to paint artistically. She reflects on the origins of her dreams. “When I was 18 yrs old and thinking of my future life, I knew I wanted to be a wife and mother and make a lovely home for my family, but I also wanted to at least try art, all mediums such as painting, pottery, sculpting and sewing. I planned to have a room all to myself to do my art, just for my pleasure. It never occurred to me to sell it.”

    The Arts Take Center Stage

    It was about four years ago when we bought a house that was somewhat suited to her dream. It has an area that was converted from a carport to a family room. We divided it so half is hers for art and half is mine for writing and music. We bought some art supplies and slowly she started using them.

    “I am finally beginning to fulfill a lifelong desire after working full time for 50 yrs while being a wife and mother with no time for me. I was retired for two years, in my 60’s before I got the courage to try painting. I did not know the first thing about it. I had always done drawings with pencil.”

    My latest novel was published and she hand painted bookmarks to give away to book buyers. She could paint those fairly fast and they were beautiful. It was with these that Sandy started to enter a particularly imaginative zone. The ideas started flowing effortlessly–nature scenes, animals, dancers and so on. She would do them for hours, one after another. Eventually, she started selling them through a local used bookstore. The quality improved rapidly.

    “Currently, I am working with acrylic paints. I began with watercolors about two years ago or so. It’s hard to do, as watercolors are not forgiving. One goof and your painting is lost. I’m painting dogs and cats onto stones with acrylics at this time. I had been painting on canvas but that can get costly, and where do you put all these paintings? When my dog died, I received an adorable portrait on a stone from a friend. I loved it and wanted to learn how to do that. So I began painting them. They were awful at first, but I just kept at it. They are much better now. When some people have seen them, they’ve wanted to commission me to paint their pets on stones.”

    Spellbound

    Whatever the medium, Sandy becomes immersed in her work thoroughly, but it’s with the stones that she takes it to a new level. I’ve seen her start on touching up a stone that was considered near completion in the morning and get caught up in detail to such a degree that she didn’t finish it until eight hours later.

    “Painting is my meditation. Nothing is on my mind when I am painting. I can sit for hours and hours painting, forgetting to eat, forgetting everything. I think it increases my serotonin levels. It is truly calming. It is where I get my serenity, however temporary it is.”

    Life is Good

    Yesterday, I asked Sandy how her life is better since she began painting regularly.

    “My life is much better having my new hobby painting. It is certainly therapeutic. I feel better about myself. My thoughts turn to what I want to paint in the future rather than what I am worried about. I am doing my art, my thing and I can get that great serenity whenever I need to by sitting down to a jar of water, paint brushes, stones or canvas.”

    And so it is.