Archive for the thoughts Category
This morning on NPR I listened to a story about Poppa Neutrino. He is a man in his eighties who plans to sail a junk raft across the Pacific Ocean from San Fransisco to China for the 2008 Olympics. Sounds insane and foolish I know, but he sailed from New York City to Ireland a decade ago on a junk raft with his family.
I am not the type of person who can live on the streets, simply knowing I will have enough food to live and able to find shelter in pine boxes or abandoned cars, but something about Poppa inspires me.
Watch the short video YouTube about Poppa Neutrino that I embedded below. It is from the documentary entitled Random Lunacy.
I don’t know the man, or much about him, but if he is a decent person, kind and loving to his family, friends and the people he meets along his journey, then it seems to me that he is a hero of sorts.
In the NPR story he spoke about the people of Massachusetts town where he built the Atlantic raft. He told about how those people there gave him a diesel generator for the raft and much of the materials to make it seaworthy. Someone who is mean or crazy does not usually generate enough goodwill to find benefactors like that.
With his family in tow he traveled Mexico and the states, busking for money with his band, The Flying Neutrinos. Now the band is ran by his daughter, Ingrid. I actually like her music a lot…
Sometimes it is so hard to keep in mind that we should allow ourselves the right to see ‘everyday magic’, but clearly Poppa has lived his life following that rule.
OK, I just wanted to share, this one was too bizarre and good not to let others know about it.
What motivates you? I am at a point in my life where I should be striving for a better body, a longer more health-filled, prosperous life; and yet I go home at night and eat dinner with the family and then relax. Why can I not seem to get the routine again where I get up early, do some yoga, hit the gym or dojo for some judo and then start my day in the office?
I really believe most successful people are internally motivated. I am about somethings, but not others, maybe not the important ones. I think I am a good father and husband, a good friend; getting close to having the whole ‘compassionate to others’ thing down and a part of who I am. But being compassionate towards my self, that one I am lacking in.
It should be easy to roll out of bed and get out into the open air of the morning for a walk or run, but I don’t. It should be a priority to get to the gym and get my body more defined and maybe, I don’t know, increase my lifespan, but I must have other priorities.
So I guess I need external motivation. Hmm, well my wife is in great shape. She goes to the gym almost 5 times a week, lifts weight, does her cardio routine or running and kickboxing; she looks amazing. (Thank you babe.) That should be motivation enough to get my in shape, right?
Knowledge has always been something I am more comfortable with. I can read almost any genre if I think I will learn from the book or article. So on this front I am internally motivated… there is a perceived reward which I wanted to achieve.
I read books all of the time about science, religion and philosophy and enjoy that very much. Lately most of the books on religion and philosophy have been about Buddhism or Hinduism, both are interesting to me. The books on Hinduism I view as a historical reference for my Buddhist understanding, just as to really understand Christianity you need to have a firm grasp on Judaism.
Anyway, I am going to follow my wife’s example and focus on my body. The body is the temple of your soul, right? My reward will be to have a temple that my soul can inhabit for a good long time while I am on this journey.
How are you motivated?
Just a few quick thoughts:
1. Most people are not comfortable with themselves.
To a large degree I’m not comfortable with myself either. I am not happy with my anger, with my hypocrisy, my fears and prejudices, my weakness, my lack of will power, my lust, greed, laziness or any other trait you “negative” might be able to name. I don’t think I am alone in this either.
So these emotions cause a problem for anyone seeking to understand who they are, and why they react as they do to any given situation. This poses a threat to meditation. Calming your mind, listening to your own intuition, to your own mind, or at least what we think of as a ‘mind’.
When I first began meditating I was lost on a sea of thoughts that would bombard me as I would try to still my mind. I would hush my self and concentrate on not concentrating and then a conversation would come to mind, or a thought would bubble up and off I go on this wild goose chase of internal conversations and fantasy. The only thing this would accomplish is suffering.
2. Learning who you are is often misleading.
You like the way I stated that?
I know it seems like a gimmick, but it isn’t, not really. As I began to get a grasp of who I was, when no one else was around, when I was alone with my thoughts and able to hear my heart; that still wasn’t me.
That was the me I saw threw the lens of society. It colors every thought we have, or think we have. I was paying more attention to the persona I had become to the outside world than I was to who I am. In fact, I could not find me until I let go of the world and myself; then I caught a glimpse. Like seeing a shadow in the darkness, unsure if it was really there or if it was simply a trick of light in the dusk.
Close your eyes and walk around your house in the middle of the night, you will see what I mean.
I am no Bodhisattva, no Buddha, though I am… paradoxes are fun huh? But I am aware of who I am, and I accept myself. I would be a friend to Matt, sure he has problems, yeah, he can be a jerk, or a complete whiner sometimes, but I am good with that. Just as long as I move on, see the positive again and embrace it wholly.
I could get in to a lot of stuff here about the “I” being an illusion of Sams?ra and the oneness of universe here, but I will save that for another time.
Light and Love,
Matt
