Who Dat?

The prospect of life after death has been invading my consciousness for the past few days. It is intriguing to say the least. When one considers that we are part and parcel with our bodies, our brains being part of the package, it is a stretch to envision existing after the body dies. And in order to give credit to the power of the brain, it will be “brain-body” in this entry.

The brain-body has capabilities that allow it to function on many levels simultaneously. For example, I ate a meal a little while ago and all the while I am doing whatever else since, my body is digesting that food and putting it to use wherever it is needed or storing it for later use, or not. More complex activities are going on as well, there is a scab knitting the skin back together over a scrape that occurred two weeks ago. It keeps getting smaller and the skin is closing over the injury, one molecule at a time. Answers to puzzles become apparent when the puzzle is re-addressed after being put down for a while. We go to a place for one reason only to encounter someone about whom we have been thinking. The list could go on infinitely.

Yet there is an entity that exists that uses the brain-body to fulfill his purpose. It may be a collection of entities but let’s not complicate this any more than it already is. This entity, for lack of a better name, can be called Master. If he exists, he could be from previous lifetimes because by our definition he exists above nature, in other words he is supernatural. (And I say he because I am a male, someone else could say she or it or whatever. I doubt if Master has a gender.)

If the purpose of Master is to eventually exist as an individual in a spiritual world, i.e. without a brain-body, then that process may take many lifetimes. During any lifetime, since the brain-body is mostly reacting to its environment, he may only have limited opportunities to pursue his purpose so he keeps coming back in new and different brain-bodies. The newly inhabited brain-body has no memory of previous lifetimes because memory is a brain-body function as is every other mental and physical process. Master, existing supernaturally, may have memory but the brain-body isn’t privy to it.

The horse and rider analogy works here. Just as a horse has memory for what he has been schooled to do and a rider knows how to put the horse through his paces to achieve an end, so too brain-body is trained to deal with his environment but Master has his own agenda and uses brain-body accordingly.

So what I decide to do today is a function of brain-body; Master allows it if it is even remotely consistent with his aim. It is like an employee who has a lot of general skills and is made a member of the organization. He is allowed to do whatever he wants within a certain set of parameters of which he may or may not be aware. As long as his actions promote the general welfare of the organization he is given scope and when they run afoul of same, he is reined in by a superior.

If and when the employee gets so far off track that he can’t be brought back, he is fired in the analogy. In the real world, when Master can no longer pursue his aim in this brain-body, he causes it to die and if he goes on with his development, at some point he inhabits a new brain-body. This habitation could take place at any time in the life of a brain-body, currently it is my opinion that it takes place at first inspiration, when the brain-body begins to function completely on its own.

The brain-body has no direct communication with Master; he is mute. Everything of which we are aware is a function of the brain-body; Master is here but not in any apparent way other than imagination. This function of the brain-body, imagination, is the bridge between the brain-body and Master; between the natural and the supernatural. The relationship is not reasonable, nor physical, nor emotional; the only clue we have to its existence is that we can imagine that it does. This could be the genesis of Faith.

The purpose of Master is mysterious; only he knows what actions taken by the brain-body will move him towards his aim. He is patient, he has eternity to achieve his aim and as long as the combination of the brain-body currently inhabited and he are making any inkling of progress, he patiently allows whatever else to go on.

There are features of the brain-body that enable it to achieve its own aims and perhaps concurrently the aim of Master. Those that come to mind now are memory, imagination, reasoning (both intuitive and logical), and decision making. Memory is the store of raw data, imagination draws upon that data and forms some possible conclusions, reasoning tests those for possible action, and decision making enable action. Experience shows us that the process is not perfect.

It must, however, be stressed that these are features of the brain-body. The memory is fed by experiences that come through the senses including observations made of circumstances and the results of actions taken from decisions made.

The features of Master are unknown; the aim of Master is unknown. A guess was made above but only a guess. There is no way that the brain-body can know the aim of Master. Glimpses can be made via imagination but there is no way of verifying them, only objective, long term observation of past actions and results there from. Even this is fraught with possible misinterpretation. The only one who knows the aim of Master is Master. If brain-body is allowed to continue its existence, Master may see hope for progress in the achievement of his aim.

Where

This may turn out to be a combination entry. There are several things on my mind: ennui—cause and effect, the disposable nature of location, change caused by focus, what choices are made and maybe a few more that I can’t think of right now.

We are staying inside most of the time, everything we need is here—food, water, exercise, access to the world, and a smidgeon of personal contact; Carola has been suffering from a bout with sinus infection and congestion but otherwise we are doing just fine. We could go out and I do whenever there is a good enough reason but on the whole I am reminded of space movies where the hero/s are self contained in a space ship and traveling through the void with all the same accouterments that we have here. The parallel is there, the space ship is this planet we are on.

Life goes on and there is a recurring theme for me; work to get somewhat good at whatever, then move on to s.t. else and start all over again from the beginning. There is a point where doing it again doesn’t increase the quality of the result enough to justify the expense of it so enthusiasm for the task is lost. This happens often and unless it is compensated by payment of some kind or another, mostly in the form of money but it can take other forms as well, such as appreciation from/by others or obligation as in meeting a responsibility, the endeavor is abandoned as ennui ensues.

I am seeing this now in “location.” We’ve been in Louisville now for 18 years and I have studied it for as long. There is history of which I am familiar, there has been a progression of improvement of which I am pleased, there are facets of it that make it a unique community and I am gaining an appreciation of them, there are personalities that make up the community, and there are factions that tend to protect personal interests instead of the common good.

This is as close to being part of a community as I have ever been. I am not a member of an organization that exists apart from the community, as I was in Newport News and Houston, or a foreigner as I was in France. As I recall Saint Louis and my time growing up there, I never considered myself a part of that community even though I very much was. It may be the transition that the population went through from close quarters in the city neighborhoods to the county in the 1960’s (and it happened again in the 1990’s to even farther out.)

I am vaguely becoming aware of the limitations of being here and can only wonder if these same limitations wouldn’t be in effect wherever I may be. Having never felt part of a community, it could be that I am just not able; comparing it to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, even Paris it could be that I want more than it can offer. I am not ready to move but the stirrings are there for an even more cosmopolitan, more sophisticated society.

The limitations may be personal v. community based and it harkens back to my seeming inability to work effectively along the second line, i.e. with others of like mind. I know this limitation exists, it is not unchangeable, and having recognized it and keeping myself aware of it, I am confident that I will make the necessary alterations to my method of operation and succeed.

There is only so much time left. If I lower my sights and become satisfied with being part of a scene here, then there is little more than attention to detail that needs doing. It is more quality of the surroundings than anything else and this may be a case of familiarity breeding discontent.

The people in charge seem to have the vision and resources to make it first class but there aren’t enough of them. Large private clubs, like Lake Forest CC, or Standard CC, and Louisville Boat Club, seem to have made the grade but they are the exception and not the rule. In NYC, Chi, SF, and Paris there are enough who have the vision to make it the rule rather than the exception.

 Aside, Lexington KY seems to have the vision for quality; I see it downtown, in the neighborhoods, in the farms, in the area in general but even with the University of Kentucky and wealthy individuals, they lack critical mass of population to make it truly cosmopolitan. This may be true of Louisville as well because the community is dissected into geographic classes and individually they too lack critical mass.

As I proceed with my acting career, I may at some point pick up and leave here and go to one of the big cities that lures me, such as Chicago, New York, or San Francisco. And you know what; I’ll be starting all over again there as a stranger to the place. It will take me four years or more there, just as it has here and Houston to get acclimated to the new environment; this can be good or not so good. I’ll keep this in mind as I go forward. Since there are only so many years left of this lifetime, I may opt to stay put and accept my surroundings, however aesthetically disappointing they may be. I quickly add that all of my needs are met here except the aesthetic.

It would seem that some of the other things on my mind will have to wait. While this doesn’t deal directly with the whole list, it points to a restlessness that seems to always be nearby; what am I doing, where am I, what could I be doing, where could I be, with whom? Once achieved, is it what I really wanted? The good call is the one that stops pursuit of the unworthy.

Welcome Back, Whither and Why

It’s been a while since I wrote an entry herein; there have been busy times in between, namely the holidays. I look back at the dates and see that after my last entry the play took a lot of time, we rehearsed or performed every night for about six weeks. That whole experience is worth an entry of its own; it was a 42nd Street-like experience.

The planning for 2011 took place during the month of December. It was allowed more time because I wanted to homogenize the dreams and truly use them for developing the strategy and goals for 2011. I now have a certain consistency in the progression of dreams from lifetime to age to present that hasn’t been evident in the past.

I also took the time to flesh out my history, adding three categories that help to describe what was going on at the time. One of these was the car(s) we had; the second was the money situation. These weren’t considered in the past because they’ve never been considered significant items and they still aren’t but they help set the stage for remembering the times past. Aside, there never seems to have been enough money to do everything in a first-class manner. The third memory jogger was the memory or highlight of the year. Granted that there may have been other, better choices made in selecting so I made the decision to go with what came to mind. I can always change it if I think it necessary.

Then with the history file brought up to par, I tackled “Dream for the Present” which became the Dream for the Present in the Performance Evolution tab entitled The Dreams. These came forward to the 2011 Planning tab, in the same workbook, and were used to determine the two main columns in the Endeavors tab, “During the Year 2011 I will_” (Strategy) and “At the End of the Year 2011 I will have_” (Plan.)

Thus I can look at where I am on each of the Endeavors every week throughout the year and be reminded of what I intended for each. This then becomes the determinant of what I will do this week to act consistently and not lose sight of the aim.

It is interesting to note that I have been doing this sort of thing since imagining it in Houston in 1985. I did it on paper and when I became proficient in Symphony, the first version of Office-type software, it was brought along and evolved into what I am using today.

An aspect of my planning efforts is work along the second line, of which I have realized the importance. Where I did it, the results came; where I didn’t the efforts fell short. One of the keys seems to be convinced enough of the efficacy of the desired goal that it can be openly discussed with the right people. Finding those people is another key. There are all sorts of people out there and all of them have motives of their own. You help me and I’ll help you.

When choosing people, I’ve often gone for the more interesting rather than the more sophisticated; the comfortable v. the challenging; those that were near v. seeking out those that would have been better.

There is another aspect that must be considered, it is what is going on in this complex being called me. We are comprised of many personae; each known in the 4th Way as “I”. It is apparent that a few of these are more prominent than others. There is one in this being, the observant I, that is prominent and active. He is an expert at after-the-fact observations of what should have/should not have been. Just like now as this blog entry is being written, he is quick to point out what was and what could be. So, he is an important influence on the shaping of the lifetime.

There are others who take action, who put the being in environments and situations where aim can be achieved; whatever that may be. Often they are cognizant enough to see where an opportunity may exist and then put the being in circumstances where he can take advantage of it. This happens a lot on minor aims as well as major. It is only after the fact that the observing one sees that it has taken place.

A pitfall is the timing of the observing one being in control. When he interferes with an acting one it leads to less than satisfactory results; often to mistakes, false steps, errors, wasted efforts, and disappointment. The challenge is to keep this one in his proper role and allow the others to achieve the aim for which they are striving. The elaborate planning method used/described here allows the observing one to articulate what is desired by the others and then stay out of the way as life goes on. The extant plan is the result of much iteration over time as each of the acting ones make their objectives known.

There is value in the process of articulating dreams, devising strategies, making plans, defining tasks, and accomplishing them. It maintains a certain focus that allows the observing one to step back and stay out of the way of the performers. If the dreams do not truthfully represent the desired results for this lifetime, the performers will still do what they must to achieve their particular aims. The observing one will wring his hands and fret over the lack of results but those results weren’t meant to be. Sort of like a body politic where the president/ leader doesn’t really speak for the people.

So there are two life strategies; one is to let it happen because it will anyway, and the other is to be involved on as many levels as possible as it happens. My choice, as the observing one in this being, is the second because it is more fun and there is a feeling of participation in the big picture.