Robert Gale Ongley

Category: Uncategorized

  • SUFFERING SUBDUED

    Buddha left us with The First Noble Truth. He acknowledged there is suffering in life. It’s evident that some form of suffering is present throughout much of the lives of us mortals. From quiet longing for better conditions for ourselves or others to dealing with intense physical pain, suffering has a way of finding us.

    Knowing how to handle suffering is a necessity if we want to make it through a day, let alone a work week, a season or a lifetime. There have been volumes written on the subject in one form or another. I’ll pull out a few references that will impart some wisdom, but I’ll share my own experience and views here because it’s what is most real to me. The main point of all this is to shine some light on how to relieve suffering, mainly the kind generated by the mind.

    The Problem With Suffering

    We tend to hate suffering. We try to avoid it, spend years setting up our lives to prevent it, investing considerable suffering along the way as a hedge against experiencing it in the future. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” John Lennon said. Some of us immerse ourselves in it, giving up and acknowledging it. This wouldn’t be the worst thing if a person was embracing it in a healthy way. Unfortunately, the immersion method of dealing with suffering means agony.

    The problem, as I see it, is we stick ourselves to suffering. Working in a job you dread doing because you’re working toward a big payday or retirement at the end of your life is a way of attaching yourself to the suffering in exchange for a later reward. Living in an unhappy relationship, suffering through without working on it and creating it in a positive way, is sacrificing your life for something you may not even envision. Sinking into an apathetic acceptance of our ongoing failures will bring us a lifestyle of suffering.

    Well, we don’t have to suffer. At least, we don’t have to suffer endlessly. Life does bring us challenges, setbacks and tragedy. However, we suffer from these only if we take them on in a suffering frame of mind. We can moan our way to the end of time if we choose. Or not.

    To Rise Above

    In my recent yoga studies, I came across a prayer/affirmation I have found helpful in dealing with mental suffering. I state it repeatedly as written by Yogananda. “When fear or anger or any kind of suffering comes to me, I will view it as a spectator. I will separate myself from my experiences. At all costs, I will endeavor to retain my peace and happiness.” This is similar to a recommendation given by a counselor/minister friend of mine who suggested confronting this kind of suffering by looking at it objectively and thinking of it as interesting. These both can release a person from the grip of the obsessed mind.

    In the book titled The Art of Happiness, written by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, an approach to human suffering is given. “The biggest problems in our lives are the ones that we inevitably have to face, like old age, illness, and death. Trying to avoid our problems or simply not thinking about them may provide temporary relief, but I think that there is a better approach. If you directly confront your suffering, you will be in a better position to appreciate the depth and nature of the problem. If you are in a battle, as long as you remain ignorant of the status and combat capability of your enemy, you will be totally unprepared and paralyzed by fear. However, if you know the fighting capability of your opponents, what sort of weapons they have and so on, then you’re in a much better position when you engage in the war. In the same way, if you confront your problems rather than avoid them, you will be in a better position to deal with them.”

    I now quote the book Buddhist Reflections on Everyday Life by Paramananda. “According to Buddhism, when we suffer, a possibility opens up, a crack appears in the habitual pattern of our lives. As with all opportunities, we then have a choice–we either enter our experience or do what we can to avoid it.

    “Meditation is a means by which we can enter more fully into our experience and, by doing so, deepen our understanding of it, and eventually move through it. When meditation is used just as a relaxation, to reduce suffering by avoiding it, it becomes a kind of spiritual aspirin taken to relieve the symptoms, rather than facing up to the deep-rooted patterns that lead to stress and unhappiness.”

    I want to make one clarification to remove any idea there’s a contradiction in what I’m presenting. Separating ourselves from our experiences can be done while entering “more fully into our experience.” In both cases, we can be calmly and objectively looking upon our suffering and the cause of it, not being all wrapped up in it and by it.

    Singin’ in the Rain

    By using these techniques, we can virtually smooth out those rough patches in the road. We know the bumps are there, but we ride over them without bouncing around in pain and misery.

  • TAKE IT SLOW

    Overrated! Speed feels good. Thrilling at times. Once we’ve had it, we want more of it. It’s addicting. What was once fast is now considered slow, even to the degree of being annoying. The need for speed erodes our ability to be here now. Well, let’s take a little of that precious time and celebrate going slowly.

    Forget What You Know

    Knowing what you know about time is mostly wrong. Einstein said time is relative, which for me means time is not a set, known quantity. One experiment showed that a highly accurate atomic clock flown around the earth ran slightly slower than an identical one that was left on the ground. Perception of time is clearly different from person to person. The student sitting in a boring classroom sees five minutes as a half-hour or so. Meanwhile, another student playing in the school band for the same period may sail through with a virtual wind at her back.

    What’s Important

    It shouldn’t matter whether you’re fast or slow when you’re working or playing or you’re idle. I’m getting right to the point early in this post and I’ll let the remainder of the article work itself out without any planning on how to pace it. Time be damned! It does matter what you’re experiencing as you’re doing whatever you’re doing. I submit here and now that you should be right there with whatever is happening in the moment and grokking the hell out of it. Immersing yourself, absorbing as much as you are capable of, resisting nothing about it allows for the full experience with all its energy and inherent enrichment.

    I’ve grown away from that over the years, but I have recently remembered that I know how to do it. The power to take it slow and enjoy something for all its worth is still within me. In fact, it’s part of who I am. I daresay it’s part of everyone, but there must be many who would not only disagree with the concept, but also are repelled by it. Taking it slow represents boredom to them. Taking it slow doesn’t mean you’re moving at a snail’s pace. Flying through work for many could be done mindfully and taking in all the nuance of the fleeting instant. In my estimation, these people are gifted. I just don’t possess that gift and I happen to function best at my own pace. Long live difference!

    Perspectives

    There are wiser people than me who have written some eloquent words about the wisdom of living slow. For instance, the Moody Blues recorded a song called Candle of Life that touches me deeply. The hook goes, “Burn slowly the candle of life.” That puts me in the perfect state of mind for how life should be lived.

    Here’s a book excerpt that nails it for me. “The best thing about knitting is its slowness,” says Murphy. “It is so slow that we see the beauty inherent in every tiny act that makes up a sweater. So slow that we know the project is not going to get finished today–it may not get finished for many months or longer–and that allows us to make our peace with the unresolved nature of life. We slow down as we knit.”
    — Carl Honoré (In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed)

    What a concept–the Cult of Speed. That’s the kind of thing I was alluding to in my introduction above. If it isn’t fast, it’s inferior. I believe the human race is in a phase where we are habitually reaching for increased speed in almost everything. Examples abound. High speed internet isn’t enough for some–it must be highest speed internet. Same day shipping. Same day service. Speed dating. Baseball was once considered action-packed, but now is often seen as boring by football, basketball and even soccer fans. The agony of waiting for a website or streaming service to stop buffering is almost unbearable, whereas the same wait for the same result 40 years ago would have been a technological marvel.

    The Ecstasy of Slow

    The array of hasteless activities to be celebrated in mellow yellow mode is far-ranging and easily available. Pull up a stump or a lawn chair and go fireside. Gaze into the flames until they fade into dying embers. Drop a line into your nearest lake or stream and fish your cares away. Sink into a good book and really immerse yourself in that world. For a more proactive approach, take on a project in your favorite art or craft to get the same type of enjoyment the knitter savors. That’s the key word right there. Savor every moment, every hour and every day. Burning slowly the candle of life lights a glow that may last a lifetime.

  • PERSISTENCE

    I wonder when I became a persistent person. Was I born this way? If so, I didn’t notice it until somewhere along about mid-life. Humor me please as I turn back the pages of my memory in search of a day or an event when I might have evolved into it.

    Back, Back, Back…

    There’s evidence of this persistence in my writing. I haven’t devoted proper time to it very often in my life, but I peck away at my projects. I’ve been working on my current novel for over three years now, but it nears completion finally. My novel From the Beginning was started in about 1993 and wasn’t finished until 2013. I’ve knocked out many short stories, songs and scripts through the years. Part of my memoir was written concurrently with my novel Boundless Trust and took our memoir writers group to complement my own intention to get it done. Earlier in my life, I wanted to write, but couldn’t get around to it consistently. Some stories got a start, but didn’t make it to completion.

    About a week ago, a group of my former co-workers from American Family Insurance had a reunion of sorts, as we tend to do every couple years or so. It made me think again about my primary career as an insurance adjuster. I started with that company when I was 49 years old and as the years passed in this high-stress occupation, I was building a pension and a 401K account with an eye on retirement at age 65. I was approximately 10 years in when the company changed. They stopped hiring new adjusters, which meant as employees quit or were terminated or retired, no replacements were brought on board. The remaining adjusters were forced to take on larger workloads. Other changes made it increasingly difficult to do the job with the care and attention to detail that translated to good customer service. The stress made the job less confrontable, less doable actually. I wanted to get out of there so badly, but I had a lot invested in time and retirement goals, some of which I would potentially lose if I resigned. I stayed on and did my best, drawing on my reserves of persistence just to keep going despite skyrocketing levels of anxiety. I had my first panic attack while working for the company. I hung in, though, until they fired me because I was not “a good fit.” It took 12 years for them to come to that conclusion, and this despite my winning customer service awards in these later years as an American Family adjuster.

    For better or for worse, I’ve shown that when I get an idea in my head, I’m going to do what I need to do to carry it out. An example of this is when I decided I was going to travel around the USA for a year back in 1973. When the targeted time came, I was not going to be stopped. Maybe to my own detriment, I departed without enough savings, leaving behind a good job where I was appreciated and a relationship that was working better than any I had ever had. My car died two weeks into the trip, but I was determined to complete my trip. I did the rest without a car.

    I may have first learned about persistence in paying my debt to society over the course of about 18 months. I landed in jail as a naïve kid, ashamed and afraid. Once I knew I was going to be there a while, I put my head down and lived a day at a time in many respects to get through to the other side.

    How far back does this persistence go? I didn’t show it much in high school, nor in elementary school. So, maybe it came with the dawning of maturity. While that was unfolding, though, I was persistently holding on to my adolescence in many ways well into my 20’s. Funny twists and turns on the path.

    A Boon to All Who Use It

    For the person who sets out to accomplish a difficult or complex task, there will come times when it seems beyond their capabilities. Writing a book requires solid planning, determination without end and a propensity for problem solving. Making a business work calls for the same elements. Whatever the goal, when going gets tough, those who strive to get to the end must bear down, assess the situation and push on through to the finish line. That’s what it takes.

    Persistence is a tool we all can use. There’s nothing to show it’s an inherited trait. It can be developed with our will power. If you want to rebuild a classic car or get a degree or mend a damaged relationship, you can start with a decision, fuel it with your will and refuse to give up. Time and distractions will scheme to pull you away, but if you stay strong in your resolve, you can complete anything you set out to do.

  • THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN: STAR-CROSSED BRILLIANCE

    It’s time for a film review. The film has spoken to me and I feel compelled to write about it. Panned by many, praised by others, The Professor and the Madman seems to at least inspire strong opinion. There has been in-fighting, legal battling and disowning. Yet, with all the dysfunction surrounding it, The Professor and the Madman presents as a striking work of art.

    I do not hold myself out as a film critic. I occasionally do a book review and I have written a few blog posts on movies, but I don’t claim to know the nuts and bolts of film critique. I’m doing this one because I recently watched it solely because a friend happened to pick it from a Netflix menu and I was moved by it. There’s room for a difference of opinion and I recognize there is probably a more informed basis for film analysis than I have at my off-the-cuff disposal, but I hope to at least make a few valid points in breakdown of the film.

    Overview

    The Professor and the Madman is based on a true life story, centering on the ambitious project by Oxford University Press to create a comprehensive dictionary of the English language, including all the words, all their various definitions and complete etymology. Eventually, it was titled The Oxford English Dictionary. I think of it as the King of Dictionaries.

    Professor James Murray, played by Mel Gibson, was appointed in 1879 to be the editor of the new dictionary. He is a family man who is now going to be virtually consumed by this lengthy, daunting task of pulling together the complete language from all the people and places where English is spoken and tracing the usages past and present. He is given a small team to work with him. Murray sends a letter to all English speaking countries, asking people to send the Press any words they can contribute on slips of paper. After it becomes painfully clear that the team is far too small and their pace at working through even the “A” section is far too slow, they receive an offer of help from an unlikely volunteer.

    William Chester Minor, a former surgeon in the United States Army played by Sean Penn, sends in 1000 slips with words and states he can provide definitions on the most challenging words to properly enter into the dictionary. The most interesting part of Minor’s backstory is that he had been committed to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in 1872 for killing a young husband and father who simply answered his door when Minor beat on it. Minor had been running through the streets in terror because he thought he was being pursued by a man who was intent on killing him.

    The Thickening Plot

    Minor is granted the right to use the library of rare books owned by the asylum’s doctor. He is highly productive in his role of providing complete word entries for the dictionary and is considered a valuable member of Murray’s team as well as a friend. He seems to be making excellent progress mentally as well. He has a guard at the asylum offer his army pension to the widow whose husband he killed in his insanity. Despite her reluctance to accept the pension, bleak prospects for survival for her children and herself make her reconsider. A unique friendship develops between Minor and the widow which takes an unexpected turn.

    The Appeal of This Film

    On a personal note of minor consequence to many, I started to really enjoy this movie when I saw the work being put into this project by Murray and his team. I have a healthy respect for dictionaries and what goes into a definition. If I had room for the full Oxford English Dictionary, I would own and proudly display one. To watch these dedicated men work their way through the entries, word by word, gave me great joy. It’s a quest worthy of recognition in a film and Murray’s dogged pursuit of a product to be proud of made my respect for him soar.

    The Real Professor Murray

    While I’m mentioning characters, I have to say Minor is one of the most compelling I’ve ever seen. Penn’s portrayal of him is riveting. Gibson turns in one of his best performances as Murray, who appears to be a true professional while also being humble and loving as a father and husband, though overly distracted.

    Natalie Dormer as the widow displays more of her depth as an actress. Eddie Marsan plays a familiar role as a person keeping order as a guard, policeman or even as a criminal. He is simply fun to watch and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of him.

    The visual quality of this movie is outstanding as well, seemingly true to the period with its grit and simultaneous classy warmth.

    Summing it Up

    I’m not going into the problems that occurred behind the scenes. It’s unfortunate, but as a viewer I knew nothing of that and I saw it as it was on screen. The quality of this story, the memorable characters with heartfelt performances and the production value prompt me to say it’s the best movie I’ve seen in quite some time. My thanks and respect to all those who contributed what they did and those who refused to do what they didn’t want to do. It all turned out fine from my humble perspective.

    The Real William Minor

  • WRITING: DO WE REALLY NEED IT?

    When the first set of symbols took hold to bring a city or kingdom the written word in Sumer around 3500 BCE, it was likely met with resistance. “What do we need this for? This is going too far. We’re going to lose our oral tradition, and then where will we be? Our civil order will be destroyed.” Sounds ridiculous, you say? Well, reactions by communities then weren’t that different from citizenry now to media we have made part of our everyday lives.

    Before Language Was Written

    Obviously, humans used speech to communicate prior to written language. From its humble beginnings of grunts and defensive yelling, language became sophisticated to the point of being a medium of education. In Will Durant’s masterpiece, The Story of Civilization, he refers to primitive peoples as the natural man. Education among those folks was mainly “the transmission of skills and the training of character.” By the age of 10, in the Omaha tribes, a boy had learned all he needed for life. Among the Aleuts, the boy of 10 had moved out of the parents’ sod-covered house, found his own place and sometimes a wife.

    Children were taught verbally and by showing. Their memories were strong, learning happened and the information they needed was retained for the sake of survival. The people recited the stories of their culture and personal history, passing them on to generation after generation. Presumably, they didn’t forget what they needed to know and they didn’t lack for knowledge. At least, that’s how they felt about it.


    And Along Came the Writer

    Durant speculates on the possibilities of writing’s origin. Pottery was being crafted before language sought a tangible medium, so perhaps the potter needed to identify his work with “trade-marks.” Commerce and trade very well may have created the necessity to label the work and make records of transactions and such. Numerals may have been among the earliest intentional markings. Fingers drawn to denote numbers may have led to a symbol for a hand showing five fingers that eventually became a “V” in Roman numerals. Two “V’s” made ten, thus an “X.”

    Durant wrote, “Doubtless the invention of writing was met with a long and holy opposition, as something calculated to undermine morals and the race. An Egyptian legend relates that when the god Thoth revealed his discovery of the art of writing to King Thamos, the good King denounced it as an enemy of civilization. ‘Children and young people,’ protested the monarch, ‘who had hitherto been forced to apply themselves diligently to learn and retain whatever was taught them, would cease to apply themselves, and would neglect to exercise their memories.’ ” Sounds like parents’ concerns over TV, video games and screens in general.

    Attitudes were not all negative, though. Written material was thought to have magical powers. There’s a story about Naneferkaptah, who was a son of Pharaoh Mernebptah, in which Naneferkaptah uses a method for memorization of content of a book. To start, he obtained a sheet of new papyrus. The following quote is a from a later book titled, Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah. “He wrote on it every word that was in the book before him. He soaked it in beer, he dissolved it in water. When he knew it had dissolved, he drank it and knew what had been in it.” This was not an uncommon belief that ingesting the written word was how to fully internalize its power.

    Sumerian Writing

    The theory that writing was invented by gods or God has been quite popular down through the centuries. Some would say that Moses was the first to introduce it with his tablet containing the Ten Commandments. The Israelites passed it on to the Canaanites or Phoenicians north of them and the Egyptians to the south and it was spread throughout the world from there. Interestingly, some of these gods were identified as the world’s first scribes. I like that. It’s such a lofty position for a writer back in the day.

    Languages With No Writing Today

    I find it surprising that there are approximately 7000 languages spoken on this planet currently. Approximately 50 percent of them have no written form. Half the population speaks 23 of those languages. Nearly 3000 are considered endangered. In areas where there are many languages used among a relatively small number of people, it is found they also have tremendous biodiversity. It would seem these are tropical climates and industry has not really flourished there. In those places, writing has not been found necessary. They have a great deal of impressive knowledge about their plant life and habitat that has not been recorded. Each generation is trusted to pass the information down to the next one orally. From all indications, they have been doing an outstanding job of it.

    Conclusions

    As commerce grows, there is a bigger need for keeping track of your stuff. Markings identified merchants’ stuff. Numerals and pictographs and symbols all helped get writing started. Communication across distance became appealing and chronicles lent importance as well as status to individuals right on up to kingdoms. For a piece of clay or stone or parchment to convey ideas was seen as magical. Later, it was considered a foundation of civilization and later still a form of lofty art. Where would we be without it? I’m not sure about that, but I would be missing one huge purpose in life.

  • DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN FOR A REASON?

    Everything happens for a reason. That age-old saying has been used as a comfort and a thought provoking statement for longer than I know. It has a weight of mystery that bids us to plumb its depths and a lightness that makes us question whether the speaker is even thinking at all before speaking. Magical thinking is what comes to mind when some hear it while others sense a truth that needs no explanation.

    Come with me on a little journey here. Find out what some very bright people think about this adage and see what you think after tossing it around a little.

    Pro

    “Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.”— Albert Schweitzer

    “I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.”— Oprah Winfrey

    “I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. So you asked, ‘When things get really, really difficult in your life, what keeps you going?’ For me, it’s always that the most difficult moments in my life, the moments in which I believe I’ve completely failed or hit bottom, I can actually directly link them to something later that is either a true success or a dream come true. So, I do believe that if you can maintain that everything happens for a reason, you can find the strength and the lesson in those difficult moments and grow stronger.”–Troian Bellisario

    Con

    “I’ve never had a tremendous amount of peace with the sentiment. I think it gives the terrible stuff too much power, too much poetry; as if there must be nobility and purpose within the brutal devastation we may find ourselves sitting in. In our profound distress, this idea forces us to run down dark, twisted rabbit trails, looking for the specific part of The Greater Plan that this suffering all fits into.“–John Pavlovitz

    “The fact is that we’ve colloquialized the notion of there being a reason for everything to the point of absurdity. It’s not that “reason” is completely absent from our lives, or that it should be, but that we use it as a crutch for avoiding growth and often look for it in all the wrong places; a higher power, fate, a preordained script for our life, a greater purpose, or some omnipotent force of the universe that knows what’s best for us. What if it’s none of the above?”–Thomas Koulopoulos 

    “All it takes is to discard the vain notion that everything happens for a reason is to imagine one small way that one small thing could be better. It would be better if everyone suffered a little less. It would be better if Lisbon and Port-au-Prince were not subject to hauntingly similar and equivalently tragic natural disasters on either side of modern history.”–Nicholas Clairmont

    Reasonable Doubt

    To declare that everything happens for a reason might seem completely unreasonable. I mean, come on, there’s a vast if not infinite universe out there where an incomprehensible number of things large and small are happening every instant. There are desolate places void of life where whatever happens would appear to be inconsequential. Is there significance in the longevity of a rock on an asteroid hurtling through space which will continue to do so until a supernova vaporizes it out of existence? Taking it to a higher level, does the unheard fall of a deceased tree in the forest happen for a reason?

    It doesn’t take much to cast doubt on a sweeping theory that is mind bending to the average person. It’s used mostly as a matter of faith to comfort those who have suffered a loss of some kind or to bring order to a limited human mind that is understandably bewildered by the workings of the universe.

    On the Other Hand

    Despite the many logical arguments to dismiss the suggestion that everything happens for a reason, I’m inclined to believe in this theory. To begin with, I subscribe to the theory of intelligent design. Recurring patterns in nature, the ingenious course of evolution, and the presence of complex and specified information in natural objects are seen by many scientists as evidence of design as opposed to accidental development.

    Secondly, I refer to my own intuition and my own experience. I can’t prove that my perceptions are accurate and rooted in truth, but we can only interpret our experiences for ourselves and accept them or reject them as we see fit.

    It was approximately 15 years ago when I was in a spiritually transformative phase of my life that I perceived more than ever my connection to all that is. I had a heightened awareness of the natural life force within, often manifesting in love and joy. At some point during this period, I came to understand that every minute occurrence was significant. It was as though the Omnipresent was speaking to me always and if I could but listen attentively with an open heart and mind, I would be able to glean meaning from it all, even the whisper of the wind. In a sense, everything that happens is a long, ongoing glorious song, or better yet, symphony. It’s not always beautiful, at least in the traditional sense, but it all fits together in a mosaic that is truly beautiful in its esthetic complexity. Each piece has a reason for being there, though when perceived solitarily, its existence is not fully understood.

  • TO CREATE A MOOD

    It was a cool autumn evening in the small Pennsylvania town where I went to high school. Almost all the shops in the tiny downtown district were closed for the night. I strolled by one that sold curios among other items. In the darkened store display window, a light caught my eye. An artistically shaped glass bottle housed a bluish liquid through which various sized doughy balls of blue floated leisurely to the top while others sank in slow motion from the top toward the bottom.

    I stood mesmerized there in the quiet darkness, gazing at this mysterious object that was introduced to me as a lava lamp. It fascinated me. It soothed me. It reached me on a level I had not often felt where sensuality met spirituality. Watching a lava lamp created a mood of reflection, much as a campfire does.

    This post will explore how we can create a mood for a variety of situations, some important and others not so much. Just know it can’t hurt to adopt the proper frame of mind to enrich our lives.

    Romance

    I’ve never used Barry White or Barry Manilow or Barry Gibb for that matter to set the mood for romance, but I have resorted to music on occasion. The classical Bolero, a solo jazzy Sting album, or even Neil Young’s Sleeps With Angels have awakened the feeling of love on occasion. Of course, it isn’t always agreed upon as to what lights the eye of a man or woman. Coo-cooing may make one woman respond while it will cause another to laugh derisively. Somehow, when the planets align, we know just what to do.

    Sunsets, candlelight and city lights may each in their own time and place provide the perfect ambiance. For some, it’s the party atmosphere that sets them off. Mystery can get the engines revving for many while it does nothing for others. In any case, being authentic is probably what counts the most.

    Work

    Putting people in a frame of mind to do their jobs starts with the employer creating an atmosphere of competence, peace, appreciation and proper pay for the work. Everything else is secondary.

    From there, I think providing an environment conducive for work depends on the kind of work it is to a large degree. Music again comes to mind, especially for physical labor or tasks. If I’m washing dishes, I want some lively tunes to help create energy and enthusiasm. I think it’s great, too, for outside work. If I’m performing tasks at a desk, especially writing, silence is in order. I want no distractions. Yet, when I worked in an office, I liked having low-volume background music to help make the day pass pleasantly.

    The Road

    Heading out on a road trip requires three components to produce the suitable mood. First is the having the means (a reliable vehicle and ample money). Second is attitude by all making the trip, be it a couple, a family, friends or whoever else is riding along. Third is viable entertainment. Movies, video games, e-books, print books and…oh yeah…MUSIC! Forget about the kids and anyone else except you and maybe a companion of whatever ilk. You need road music. That’s going to mean different things to different people, but the key is the music makes you feel the excitement of hitting the road. Freedom is represented in the music. There’s probably a great song about the road from every decade. Born to Be Wild in the 60s, Ramblin’ Man in the 70s, On the Road Again in the 80s, Road Trippin’ in the 90s, and Another Travelin’ Song from this century are just a few samples of what music you can try for your road trip.

    Hiking

    To get the most out of a hike, don’t do so while carrying a golf club. That’s a cheap way of introducing the joke by Mark Twain in which he said, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” The point is that hiking should be done in a state of mindfulness. A healthy reverence for Mother Nature would also be a helpful state of mind. Hiking is clearly a physical activity, but it offers the opportunity to get a solid workout while opening oneself up to wonder. Whether you’re in a desert or a tropical forest, there are always amazing sights to see.

    The Nature of Reality

    Reality is largely how we comprehend it. One person’s tedium is another person’s exhilaration. Reality can be created and one way of doing that is to adjust your outlook or a small part of the world around you to cast a mood that colors your day just the way you want to shade it.

  • WHY YOGA MAY RESTORE YOUR LIFE–PART TWO

    My interest in yoga started when I was 18 years old. All I remember about it was standing in the living room of our family’s duplex and wanting to get involved with yoga. I don’t remember doing anything about it. I don’t remember what sparked my interest. I only know I was drawn to it. I reached to Eastern religions off and on over the years, but it took me until about the age of 43 before I actually started practicing it. I started and stopped for another 10 years or so, just doing the same routines of Hatha Yoga I’d copied from a book borrowed from a library. I learned to meditate when I was about 57 and by that time I was practicing those same routines of yoga daily. I’ve been keeping this practice going steadily since, but I’ve always felt like a beginner in yoga and I didn’t feel I’d advanced as I should have in my meditation. I didn’t follow any techniques beyond the basics I learned in the beginning. There were some amazing experiences in meditation, but I levelled off years ago. Now, this year I am all in on yoga and learning what it can do for me in deepening my meditation.

    Benefits From Here to Eternity

    There’s plenty to be gained from yoga on a basic, grounded level. As mentioned above, I’ve practiced Hatha Yoga for quite a while at a fundamental level. The writer/instructor who wrote the book where these postures appear stated something to the effect that these three rounds of routines would provide good stretching exercise for all parts of the body. By rotating them consecutively day after day, the practitioner would keep the entire body worked every week. I don’t recall the author’s name unfortunately, but on one of the pages I have, he lists benefits to be had by practicing daily. Here are some of those.

    Develop strength and muscle tone in all areas of the body. Increase endurance and heighten resistance to many common disorders. Maintain lifelong flexibility in spine and limbs. Acquire greater control of the body through cultivation of balance and poise. Overcome various negative conditions of the body such as stiffness, congestion, nervousness. Promote the regulation and redistribution of weight.

    I can say that as I’ve grown older, I have mostly maintained the same level of flexibility despite the added years and doing work that has largely been at a desk. Interestingly, I’ve wanted more from yoga. I aspired to the mental and spiritual development it promised. A good friend took it up seriously and encouraged me to do the same. He gave me a couple books on the subject, including Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I took some of what I learned and used it in my meditation, but I didn’t really commit myself to it. There is much more to yoga than the physical part of it, though. Testimonies by many people over many years give us some insight into the life-changing potential of this practice.

    “Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness.” – Indra Devi

    ”True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed; yoga is to be lived. Yoga doesn’t care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied.” – Aadil Palkhivala

     ”Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” — B.K.S. Iyengar

    ”Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.”– The Bhagavad Gita

     ”Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked.” –Desikashar

     ”Yoga takes you into the present moment.  The only place where life exists.” – Anonymous

    On a Broader Scale

    The use of yoga has been effective in programs across the world where change is needed. One example is in Kenya, where the Africa Yoga Project has created jobs by training young Kenyans in depressed neighborhoods to be yoga instructors since 2007. The increase of jobs has meant that more than 300 classes per week are being taught to over 5000 citizens, bringing physical, mental and spiritual progress to a lot of people in need.

    There have been a number of projects involving the teaching of yoga to incarcerated people all over the United States as part of their rehabilitation. An important part of practicing yoga is learning to control one’s emotions. People who commit crimes are often disadvantaged by a lifetime of poverty, discrimination, abuse, addiction and more. They have had to deal with situations that draw out extreme emotions and these can lead to impulsive action. Also, they are more likely to be focused on just being able to survive, trying to keep their bodies alive. Yoga can turn their attention to higher realms of existence, thus allowing them to concentrate on well-being and peace.

    Yoga has been found in studies to help children cope with stress and their performance in school. This is particularly important for those who live in poor neighborhoods where there is more stress. There are programs that are helping children in such situations to stay in school.

    Best Yet to Come

    The practice of yoga will lead to better fitness, mental stability and spiritual elevation. It’s good for the individual and the human race in general. I urge you to give it a try.

  • WHY YOGA MAY RESTORE YOUR LIFE–PART ONE

    When you consider the condition of your life and state of humanity, you are likely to find at least a few reasons for changes on both fronts. Are your current purposes and goals worthy of lifetime pursuits? Are you fulfilled? Are you deeply happy? In our busy lives, we don’t often stop to examine how we’re doing on these questions or whether we’ve asked them at all. There are so many distractions, so many vital challenges to be confronted that we can resemble hamsters on a wheel in our efforts to survive. But on what level are we surviving under these conditions? In this article, I intend to explore what yoga is about, what it can do for human beings and how it can bring about changes both meaningful as well as enduring.

    Where Did Yoga Come From?

    Yoga was developed between eight and ten thousand years ago in India. The word originates with the Sanskrit word yuj and means union of the yoga practitioner with universal consciousness (the Divine, God or that which shall remain nameless). The practitioners, also known as yogis, had written Indian philosophy into the Vedas, which are the most ancient sacred writings for the priests of Vedic religion. The four chief collections are the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. They were said to have been revealed to seers among the early Aryans in India. They were first preserved by oral tradition before being written.

    Classical yoga was included in the Vedas. After being in existence for as much as 5000 years, yoga texts were collected and systematized, then made more broadly available by Maharishi Patanjali by writing a book called Patanjali Yoga Sutra. One of his greatest contributions to yoga was his outlining of the yoga rite progression, known as the Eightfold Path of Yoga. It shows us the components of this practice that leads to God Realization, or if that’s a bit much to swallow, then think of it as universal consciousness or Self Realization.

    The Eightfold Path

    The Eightfold Path steps are broken down as 1) Yama, which means that which is prohibited. The aspirant to spiritual enhancement must adhere to certain rules of living. They include not injuring others, no lying, no stealing, control of sexual impulses and refraining from coveting.

    2) Niyama, stating what should be done. These come under the heading of self-discipline and include body cleanliness, study of scriptures and one’s inner self, and surrender to God.

    3) Asana, a part of yoga that is familiar to most people. It has to do with holding specified postures that can help with transcendence in meditation. There are many of these poses and they should be performed with concentration, but the most important of these is the one used while meditating. It’s vital for the spine to be erect, the reason for which will be covered in Part Two.

    4) Pranayama, or Life-force Control, is about controlling the breath. This has benefits involving physical and emotional health, but it goes much further. Breath is part of the life force and it’s said that the pranayama technique of yoga teaches a scientific way of separating the mind from sensations of the fives senses. This brings about an opportunity to free the mind for seeking a cognizant connection with the universal consciousness. It also sets up the next step.

    5) Pratyahara, or withdrawal, is the state in which a person is so interiorized in mind that they are not being subjected to external stimuli. This enables the meditator to observe oneself exclusively and gain insights into who they are, their obstacles to growth and how to resolve them.

    6) Dharana, meaning concentration, involves holding the mind on a single object. The object can be a mental construct, such as love or peace. It can be the concept of truth or some aspect of God one wishes to delve into deeply. Concentrating on the sound of Aum (or Om, as it’s commonly spelled) while listening to it being chanted seems like an intriguing possibility. You may have experienced something like dharana if you’ve ever been intensely involved in study or work or a creative project to the degree that you became unaware of whatever was going on around you.

    7) Dhyana, which is the attainment of true meditation. At this point where one been able to reach stability in absolute concentration through the previous step, a higher level of contemplation of the cosmos is reached. Uninterrupted stillness and silence within is realized at this stage.

    8) Samadhi, the ultimate goal of union with the Divine, is finally achieved. This is the level of enlightenment, the realization of truth beyond intellectual understanding. It comes with a state of ecstasy, transcendence and universal connectedness.

    Semi-Summary

    As Part One draws to a close, you can see yoga goes far beyond stretching and contorting the body. The feelings of peace and calm it brings from practicing it on the physical level merely scratch the surface of its benefits overall. In Part Two, we’ll explore what it can mean on a deeper level for you and your global family.

  • GLASSBLOWING–WHERE ART MEETS CRAFT

    Personally, I don’t think there is any more stunning work of art than blown glass. If art is meant to make you feel something, then blown glass sparkles in that category. Describing how it makes me feel is not easy. The visual impact puts it on an ethereal plane. A gorgeous piece with its sleek lines and translucent colors might have come into material existence through a portal from another realm, its unspeakable beauty too lovely for this coarse world. It can produce a sense of bliss. I’m practically giddy if it touches me deeply enough.

    In this post, we’re going to learn what blown glass actually is, how it’s made and what you can do to try your hand at it. Plus, we’ll get a look at a few spectacular glass sculptures.

    Ingredients

    Glass has three main ingredients: Silica, which is found in sand; sodium carbonate; and lime. There are some less important and some optional chemical elements that can also be added to enhance the glass, but that’s the primary makeup.

    The recipe for glass was first discovered perhaps as early as 3600 BC. There’s conflicting information on this, but somewhere between 3000 BC and 4000 BC seems accurate. Most agree it was probably first created in Egypt, although Syria is another possibility.

    The colors in glass usually come from metal oxides, chlorides or sulfides. For example, cobalt oxide lends a blue or violet hue. Interestingly, gold chloride makes for a red color and for yellow, cadmium sulfide is added. When a glassblower wants to add flecks of color to whatever color the existing glass has, he or she peppers in some colored crushed glass to the mix which is melted into the other ingredients. There are a number of other options available, including some fluorescent colors.

    The Process

    The equipment needed consists of a furnace that can reach temperatures up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, a crucible, a smaller furnace known as the glory hole where the soft glass can be shaped, an oven where rods known as punties and other pipes are kept hot, and an annealing oven where newly formed glass can be cooled slowly to prevent breakage of the new sculptures.

    Those who make these creations deserve to be called artists or sculptors, so I will refer to them as such. To start the process, they insert the punty into a furnace and crucible, gathering a mass of molten glass. The punty is also the blow pipe. The sculptor rolls the glass on a steel table to mold it into a cylindrical shape. Before it can harden, the glass is then inserted into the glory hole, turning it all the while. There will be multiple trips to the glory hole to keep the glass malleable as it is being formed as designed.

    The piece is rolled into a pile of small or even powdered colored glass to give the new glass color as it’s being shaped. The added colored glass, now stuck to the new piece, is melted in place as all of it is placed back in the glory hole. The table is used repeatedly to keep working the glass into the desired shape. The actual glassblowing through the blow pipe is part of this shaping process. Opening a bubble is important to shaping the glass and the glassblowing will be alternated with trips to the glory hole as needed.

    There are many more details to the process, but not all can be covered here. One key step, though, is the separation of the glass from the pipe. As the glass blower seated at a bench temporarily stops turning the piece, another portion of molten glass is attached to the other end, using another punty. At the right moment, the artist raps the blow pipe and the molten glass breaks away, leaving the original piece attached to the second punty. Another piece of glass is attached as a makeshift handle. More shaping occurs and finally the sculpture is detached from the handle with another whack of the punty. The blown glass falls into a box with lots of fire blankets for a soft landing. After many hours of cooling in the annealing oven, the work of art is officially complete.

    Cutting handle off blown glass

    How to Learn Glassblowing

    To do this yourself, you will first need to find a place with the specialized equipment mentioned above. I would suggest you find a class on glassblowing and get properly trained. They will have what you need to learn on and the skill to teach you. If you happen to have all the equipment, I would still recommend getting a professional to show you how to do this delicate and potentially dangerous work. I have found a good reference on Wikihow that gives an illustrated tutorial on the subject. Here’s the URL: https://www.wikihow.com/Blow-Glass

    Blown Away

    For more information and an entertaining reality show, check out Blown Away on Netflix. It’s great for watching how it’s done, various techniques and some creative ideas. Enjoy the journey!