I never had any interest in sports; my physical activity in high school was dancing. I did take some Judo classes to improve my balance and that made a difference in my dance movements. I graduated high school at 165 lbs. with a 34” waist. That summer I joined a new gym and talked the owner into making me a trainer. Two years later, I was 210 lbs. with a 28 waist. I did well but needed a larger income for college expenses so quit that job to work in a grocery store. When you are working out with weights you tend to eat a lot of food. I knew I had to make a food intake adjustment when I changed jobs so did a 50 day fast. Because of the fast my friends at college thought I became a Buddhist. I entertained that a real goal and a perceived goal are offers that could be fun to play out. Eastern religions were in style and I played that hand but in fact went to Karate classes when I told friends I was learning to meditate. Truth has limitation and often not as interesting.
I did well in Karate and became a teacher to a plethora of children for a couple of years. The few young adults that I taught encouraged me to form a meditation circle. Not sure if I was influenced or I influenced them this but it made for an interesting turn. We participated in various Eastern meditation events and retreats along with every questionable energy exploration group we bumped into (the ‘60 and ‘70 era). I recall us being in a dark room attending to a box opened on the face side and chatting with a light glowing within. Phenomena is amazing, not because it offers up secrets or reveals the future, but because it inspires one to get out of their story and reexamine their life potential that they ignored or hid from their small window of consciousness. Over time the members of our entourage changed but we played with these encounters for over ten years. I started my own personal discipline to learn what reaction was common to us all and what was unique to each participant. In a meeting with Erich Fromm, a Neo-Freudian psychoanalyst one afternoon, I asked him why I always became the teacher with friends. He said it was because I attended to how someone created their experience more than what they experienced. I left the meeting inspired.
Have you ever defragged your home computer? It restored all your data with improved structure. I learned that people store data in patterns and many are very similar between subjects. The difference I observe is location and preference in the variation of how the elements are arranged. You can work with this but only as clues and not as a guarantee. Even more interesting is that some of the variables are potentials (imagined), not part of our logical world and maybe part of the issues where super-computers are failing. Normal stuff if you think about all the crazy ideas that you entertain but never seem to integrate into your life.
I have been a mediator for over 60 years and have shared some of that time with others. I can only report on my experience and I don’t believe there is a right or wrong anything. For what it is worth, I offer my perceptions from my experience. I like short 20-minute meditations because I seek questions to build range. Movement is how we manage life and not time; map directions for potential movement I believe is more essential than “the answer” or “the truth.” Those long hours of meditations are fun, but I believe what you discover are streams of potential (imagination), no reality and mostly not relevant. Great story indexes and inspiration to some but not secured. If I can “see you” and support, by my action, you’re becoming what I can find that I can’t yet see in me. We humans “walk” together and develop in accordance. Love is a preference.
Chriss
