Though a great invention with many practical applications, the on/off switch has overtaken our lives. Turn off the lights, turn on the car, start the computer… there is no end… ongoing throughout the day.
However in nature, the day gradually turns to night and the night to day. The seasons change gradually. Temperature, climate, arrival of a storm and then sunshine…. it all happens gradually. The few things in nature that are ‘on/off’ are at least somewhat shocking to the nervous system… for example lightening, thunder or an earthquake.
We run our physical life with on/off switches. It is no wonder that people try to run the rest of their lives that way asking, “What is THE right answer?”, “What time does it start?”, “How much do I owe?”, etc. We are taught to answer when, how, and why all of them with on/off, yes/no, types of answers. Then people wonder why they are so stressed by life.
The only straight lines in nature are sunbeams and moon beams. You can’t grab on to either one. Enlightenment is life in accord with Nature, your own true Nature.
You can function through a world of on/off. That is fine. But cultivate a state of awareness that is not lost to on/off. Life just doesn’t work in accord with your on/off switches. It’s time for a new way of thinking.
After writing this, my wife told me that Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs could not stand on/off switches. My iPod does not even have one. Interesting.
Dearest Bramarshi,
Namaste. I am certainly lost to the on/off switch cycle. I’m either fully committed to my evolution during class or at Mount Soma, or I back away because the switch is off while I’m not in your presence. It used to bring me to my knees to leave class or retreats. It’s already been too long, and I yearn for the dimmer switch to be cranked up to 100% After reading your previous blog On Thinking, I was inspired and ready to pump some serious iron. If I can’t work out with the powerhouse supermassive convergence point at the Golden gym, however, I quickly loose steam.
I know I am a product of our global consciousness, and I feel as though we are all caught up in this dangerous game of high stakes poker. Diametrically opposed ideologies are “all in”, fully committed and locked into their perspectives. Nobody get’s the concept of simultaneously valid yet contradictory realities. Why aren’t we teaching that in Kindergarten?
I hear myself writing these words, and I can’t help but laugh or cry because I am lost to the very thing I am talking about. If I really “got it”, I’m pretty sure I would be at Mount Soma right now. So, I’m trying to play my hand as best I can, without getting lost to my “all or nothing” programming. Conditioning…Arg! Good Grief! I feel exactly like Charlie Brown… I pine to be in your presence. Then it’s all good =)
May your light Illuminate the World.
Jai Guru Dev!
Omg… You seem to speak directly to my nervouse system… You once compared my nervous system as “broken glass” and you also mentioend a trauma…that I still cannot trace.
Resting quietly in my recliner…I am even shocked by the soft ding from a benign text on my dumbphone.
So, I’m wondering, if this will ever heal in this lifetime… I know you might say “build at Mount Soma” and restructure a lifestyle with that deeper nourishing reference or basenote. I have heard you. I feel my “fatigue” and I have heard you. ( Thank you… )
I can remember earlier times that seemed to be an endless flow of curiosity and laughter, timeless, when a simple concretion (on/off switch) didn’t feel so imposing on one’s nature…
It seems that I somehow associated “maturity” with being able to deal, manage or adequately protect oneself in a world of on/off light switches, demands, expectations and outcomes.
The answer seems to be more deeply visceral than anything I can talk myself through this time…
….just a rambling wounded warrior
Wow! This touched something in me that I will need to ponder for some time. The on/off idea seems so rational, so organized, so ‘taking care of business’ and yet as I feel into this blog I can feel that it is not balanced. Control is king in that mentality. It makes me think of the times that I been too ‘busy’ to tend to the quieter, less insistent part of life–the part that can be ignored in the process of accomplishing something ‘important’, the part that flows. Thank you!
All three of these comments are beautiful.
Life is all about a healthy relationship with…
in this case with the on/off switch world we live in.
have the boat in the water but not the water in the boat… that type of thing.
Balance is key. Many people build lives for themselves that are so out of balance it is difficult to evolve.
Jai Guru Dev.
It is interesting, when people are so “on” all the time that they have to check every ding, ring, blink and beep. And I wonder why I get so irritated when people do so; I’ve always felt it was optional to answer the phone at the moment it rings. Is that a sign of a healthy relationship with…think I need to do some second response next time someone else responds to the call of the “on” switch. In the meantime I’ll keep enjoying thunderstorms.
I particularly liked the line regarding no straight lines except sunbeams and moonbeams and how we cannot grab onto either, the rest is just tacking back and forth through. A funny example is our old dog can no longer go up the stairs with out tacking back and forth to get to the top. She always catches my attention and I stop for a minute and watch her persistance to make it to the top. Thanks again for the reminder.