Harmony

I'm currently reading from Paul Tillich's The Meaning of Health, and it has pulled together some various ideas I've had floating around in my head over the years. First of all, the introduction, by Paul Lee, draws the comparison between immunology and the mental. To me, the immune system is a clear area where the "mental" and the "physical" interact. Not to say that I believe these respective categories are even valid, but given our scientific medical times, I would venture a guess that this will be the most vital and interesting area of study in the next 50 years or so.

As regards the title of this post, Harmony, I would like to leave you with a few points. (Also related to Tillich's book). Viewing health in terms of a wholeness, we can see that it is of vital importance to have harmony in our existence, in our lives. I think of this in terms of "vectors," like in physics. We can multiply the power of our efforts if they are harmonius, or we can negate our own efforts if they are conflicting.

The point is, to align our energies; align our "will" and the even more inclusive term "Intention."

The same energies that are vital to mankind; the energies (some have called libido) that push us out into the world to live our lives, can propel us toward fulfillment, or consume us if turned against each other. Are we able to live our lives under the Sun in one consistent arrow --> ?

If so, it is a life of integrity.

Attunement

One of the more important ideas I discovered from the existential philosopher Heidegger, an idea more fully flushed out in its significance by the Psychologist Medard Boss, who used Heidegger's philosophy, is that of Attunement.

For example:
A man who is starving can only see in the world all those things which correspond to his hunger, to the extent that the things in his environment reveal themselves to him, they are likely to reveal only their edible qualities, for instance. For his existence is attuned to hunger, and this is the way his Da-sein (Being) is open to the world.

Medard Boss puts these ideas to excellent use to explain the meaning of dreams, in contrast to Freudian theory which involves completely hypothetical and unrealistic assumptions - such as creating a dream censor that decides what content to "filter out." (so is there a little man in our heads, then, deciding for us? The paradox of an "unaware awareness.")

I will leave you with a few of my own reflections along this line of thought, which has been fruitful to me: It is impossible to remain in a state (attunement) of anxiety when you make efforts to be in a state of love, or Care (another fundamental concept itself for Heidegger).

If I have found anything to be the polar opposite of anxiety, it is Care and Love.

It is along the lines of this notion of "Attunement," that I relate Wayne Dyer's Power of Intention to Heidegger's existential philosophy. From Dyer;
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

Dyer immediately makes the leap to suggest that our attunement (he does not use the term himself) has an effect of drawing certain things closer or farther from us, and therefore advises things such as remaining in a state of constant gratitude. I see the reasoning behind his thinking, and in a sense it is well-known and common; ie "What you fear finds you." However, I have not quite yet arrived at the conclusion myself from the standpoint of Understanding, e.g. the process by which our existence can repel or attract things that are usually viewed as being quite separate from our "thoughts," such as money, being in a certain place etc.

If we can bring what we desire into our lives simply by the way we exist, more specifically by paying attention to the way we exist, the way we choose to live in and see the world, the potential is unlimited for attracting all the good things we want into our lives.

Spread too thin


In the time we live in we are pulled in many different directions. The technology that was supposed to make our lives simpler, and better has instead betrayed us. We find ourselves slaves to cell phones, computers, television, i-pods and all manner of time wasting devices. Yet we still have less vacation time than any other industrialized nation.

(Not to mention the fact that as this technology becomes cheaper and cheaper as newer and newer devices and technology come out, it provides a perfect disguise for the transfer tax, the robbing and fleecing of savers, [especially including the ever dependable backbone of the country, the middle class] better known as Inflation. This is the money illusion hard at work, although this is a topic for another blog. The bottom line is that inflation benefits borrowers and penalizes lenders. It hurts savers and encourages taking on debt.)

I find that our Being is likewise over-extended, pulled in too many different directions. Our sense of presence has evaporated until being becomes nothing but a vapor, a gas. There are too many things placing a claim on our existence, which is virtually a Heideggerian definition of what Stress is. (A much superior definition of stress, overcoming all of the inherent absurdity, juggling, and inconsistency of the cartesian subject-objects, and hence modern medical and psychological views of stress)

Is there a way to cause this evaporating, ever expanding, center of ourselves to condense? Or must we always live in the manic, ever-expanding-without-limit razor's edge of the universe? Hurtling at light speed towards the nothing, or as someone may call it, Running to Stand Still.

It seems to me that the best moments in life occur not while we sprint ahead in a manic fog of confusion, chasing some illusion of progress (which may or may not be tied to a now defunct idea of the American Dream), but in those rare, quiet moments when we can afford to offer ourselves to others in a meaningful exchange, take the time to actively listen, to cultivate & grow as persons.