Cast-Iron Thoughts

Rather than write for 15 minutes, I'm going to nail 2 thoughts to the blogtree:

1. In Zen. Henry reminded me tonight that any Zen practice is always about allowing, surrender and inclusion. Trying to emphasize a task, such as to focus on a koan, requires that I not shut out the opposite of my task: not focusing on a koan. This makes a tremendous amount of sense, and yet is completely counter to how I am used to doing things. I'm glad I've got so much good work ahead of me. A lot of focusing and also allowing myself to not focus.

2. I've been talking about brainwaves a lot with Penelope. She says that one's attraction to zombie-like activities (tv, video games, pointless web-surfing) is an attempt to reach Alpha. If this is true, I think what this means is that we're all sick of dealing with the voice in our heads, and we're trying to shut it off - the voice in our head being largely (though not entirely) associated with Beta. If this is true, then it would mean that those who spend the most time in Beta, that is, worrying, thinking and planning, will have the most aggressive tendencies to throw themselves into an Alpha state. Those who find themselves in Alpha more often won't be so extreme. I wonder if I could test that out, somehow? What gets us into Alpha? Non-zen, guided type meditation (Zen allows a lot of Beta), yoga, playing music, creative activity. There's quite a lot.

That's it. Good night, all.