On January 11th, 2016, I started a daily practice of writing a joke meditation of the day called Cracked Pot Meditations. I was still recovering from the treatment of cancer, and I was having very challenging cognitive issues, so I chose just to put something simple and easy to write every day. Posting it to the blog allowed me to have some accountability. Some of those meditations were poorly written and unedited. I have gone back and begun editing these and adding an illustration, starting with the April 27th meditation. I hope you enjoy.
Meditation for June 27th
Being An Observer
We have six senses: touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and intuition. Our senses were beyond important when we were mere survivors; they saved our lives. We had to have our senses work together, or we were doomed.
Now that we live in “civilization,” we have become more inwardly aware and are losing our ability to observe. We are in our phones, thoughts, and dumb, selfish monkey brains. We are self-centered and believe ourselves to be the main character in a movie, and everyone else to be extras and supporting cast.
We don’t notice signs or people upset about our presence, get lost easily, don’t care about things, and struggle to understand basic environmental concepts. We have issues with spatial awareness. We must be told where to go and need things to be precisely the same, or we won’t comprehend. Like the cattle, we will go where other people are and can’t stand not knowing.
Here are some reasons why and what we can do to make ourselves more observant and thus more intelligent.
We accept being dumb as being normal
We will laugh at liking shitty TV and terrible regurgitated music. “Yeah, it’s my guilty pleasure,” we say sheepishly. We don’t read. We won’t read. We might snatch up some popular YA wizard book, but we won’t be bothered if the movies are coming out. We won’t even read the hours on a store door before checking the door or seeing if anyone is inside or if the lights are on; we are on a mission, and the world will need to be adjusted to that mission, or we will Yelp! We can write if it is the most passive-aggressive way of letting the world know about our disappointment, but we won’t read anything. If you’ve read this far, thank you; you are a fantastic person. Take the patience and know-how you used to read this to read other things.
Remember Revenge of the Nerds? Remember how the idiots were so against nerds that they would waste their whole day ruining the nerds’ college life? Well, you are all ogre, the dumb jock who lead the assault. Dumb, against fine culture, got through college without critical thinking, and sporty, happy. Now we celebrate being dumb!
Curiosity doesn’t kill
No one is curious anymore. They think that everything has been discovered and that it is the scientists’ job to know, and that is, if they decide to believe the scientists. They walk around knowing things so you don’t have to. You aren’t even curious. You’ll buy into complicated worded face moisturizers and fall for dumb shit like bulletproof coffee. Still, you don’t know that you are being duped by marketing that is taking advantage of your lack of curiosity about science.
It isn’t science either; it’s just the world around you. If you’ve ever thought this is the worst the world has ever been, you have never read anything historical. Sadly, I’m not saying everything is fine, but it’s the best. Mainly because you’re not curious about how to improve it. You’re still reacting to your emotions about how to vote and what to stand up for. You keep trying to find a team to root for instead of understanding the policies they are trying to implement.
Curiosity also lets you see the beauty in the world. Curiosity slows you down, and you look at things. You will stop and see a bumblebee on a pink rose covered in pollen. You will notice your partner looking at you lovingly, and all the loneliness in the world will wash away.
Fucking meet yourself
The more you know yourself, the better you see the world. I know, it’s scary learning about ourselves. You might have to uncover some dark truths about yourself, which might make you feel, but guess what, butter buns, that is the whole human experience.
You’d rather stay numb and will pull your phone out the second a feeling starts to incubate. You reach for exterior things to make you feel better, so you can remain a stranger to yourself. The world becomes hard to understand because you no longer know what being human is like.
You can look a person in the eye, and though you might not know the exact pain that person is going through, you can see the depth of that pain. You might understand someone with an opposing view. You might become a good person instead of the gossipy, self-centered, back stabbing superficial asshole you are now.
Intuition is being a social psychic.
Understand a person’s body language, eye movement, and the words they choose to say, and pay attention. Adding to your list of things will help you avoid telling a long, pointless story, offending someone, creeping someone out, or offending someone who doesn’t like you.
Listen to your gut, but match what your gut tells you with the facts you have. If you have no facts, go with your gut till you hear otherwise. People might say to you when you’re being too much, but you can’t count on it because everyone is too scared of confrontation – even the aggressive people; they shock and awe before there can be a real conversation.
Learn body language. Not everyone has the confidence to tell you to leave them alone. Are they turned away from you? Are they looking everywhere but at you? Maybe they aren’t saying anything, and you are just rambling at them.
Pause
Yes, pause. Look around you. Read things. Pay attention to things. Take in the larger picture. If something catches your eye, walk up to it and look at it. You don’t have to rush in, run around confused, and then get irate when nothing makes sense because you’re in a hurry. Please slow down, you will die soon enough, but you have enough time to take in the world as it presents itself to you.
Wander
Like pausing, wandering can let you reconnoiter your surroundings before trying to understand the environment. This allows you to see the whole picture before you hope everything you need is in the first place you look. It usually isn’t. You’re sitting here, disappointed with the entire world.
You will never understand a neighborhood driving through it or commuting through it on foot, but wandering around will open up a different world and vibe you never noticed before. Wandering is my favorite type of meditation. I will take Rufus to a different neighborhood and walk through, checking things out and letting my mind wander as my feet physically wander. Soon, my mind and my body connect.
Basically, stop being a self-centered idiot and take a look around you. You are not the main character, so you should try to get along with the world around you.