Thinking to re-think

I haven't been doing much thinking recently. I've been concentrating on the doing aspect of existence. And without too much thought I began to worry that my mind may go or perhaps become out of practice. I have discovered this to be impossible, instead the mind becomes focused and sharp. There is no frivolous conversation needed. Your intentions become wholesome and true.

For instance, I have not attended any big social occasions such as an art opening, for a VERY long time. Now that Luciano is older and enjoys going out, we attended such an event. People want to talk for the sake of hearing themselves speak. They stand in circles with their mouths moving and their eyes wondering around the room behind you, occasionally peering over your shoulder. This is terrible engagement. I look in to a persons eyes when they speak to me and try to gaze into their soul and feel their energy and get a sense of who they are, where they have been and perhaps what experiences have brought them to say what they wish to communicate to me.

This is hard to find, even a friend who calls himself a Buddhist could care less about what you are saying to him and prefers to eye up everyone else standing around you.

I was considering this stupid credit and 401k believing generation that we come from and its progress in the context of humanity. There is a chart of human inventions through out the years and this chart shows a peak around the time of Thomas Edison and a recession thereafter. I attribute this recession to the mass consumption of, yes, TV among other useless time consuming activities, like working in retail, driving cars across town, talking on the phone endlessly, computer games and by now everyone knows what I am saying.

It is so hard to regain this mind frame. A mind free of brainwashing and conditioning. I suffer it, I know I do. Someone once recommended an Anton Wilson book titled Undoing Yourself. When money comes I might give it a try. I need everything to be a new, semi first time perspective. Un-fog my mind.

Otherwise, gaining complete discipline and self control is a start. But this becomes complicated when involved in a relationship and your partner perhaps isn't in the same place. It is like being vegan and your partner not, can you really eat separately and be connected, I don't think so. Progress must be made together and one must be careful not to out grow the other. And of course the desire is stronger in one then the other. But not enough to tread on that sacred line

every couple has that keeps them balanced together.

I finally started a new painting and some new photos: