Raising and settling questions is a positive process, good for a person's mental health. Science and philosophy are about this. Science is better at settling questions than philosophy is, I think. Religion is a little different. There are questions in religion, but they are assumed to have a primordial existence, to have existed from the beginning. The possible settling of those basic, organic questions is also assumed to be primordial. I think that science, philosophy and religion actually have a great deal in common. The role of doctrine, of human thought in religion is undeniable by anyone, except the most fanatical zealot, the kind of person who thinks you are going to hell or are fair game to be killed because you doubt some formulation to which he or she clings as God's word. My dear friends, one ought to get over that attitude. God does not speak in words. Reality is God's speech. "God of our fathers, whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band of shining worlds in splendor through the skies.." I wish that the authors of such beautiful, even if sexist, expressions of gratitude for our existence would stay off the thrones and things like that.
I don't want to get into psychology too much. It is a most deep subject. It's really all about psychology, by which I mean, the reality of our experience as individual human beings. Religion, art, science and philosophy are all psychological. Obviously religion exists because human beings exist. Religion is about reconnection, which is indeed a basic need that human beings tend to feel, a question that does come up for us, as if it were created with us. Animals don't have religion. Their connection is not in question. The connection of pre-linguistic children is not in question. Our connection is in question. It is a psychological issue.
I think that the process of formulating questions that express our emotional confusion, questions that touch on our pain, is good for our mental health. We suffer. Animals also suffer. We can think, and we do think. We can think about our suffering, try to understand it in our thinking. It is obvious that we do this, and must do it, because we do suffer and because we do think. It is inevitable. The inevitable is God's will. The question for us is whether our will is congruent with the inevitable.
It is said that we have a free will, although this is also disputed. I think that this formulation does refer, beyond question, to an experienced reality of our lives, namely, that we seem to have the power and responsibility of directing the voluntary muscles of our bodies, and less obviously but even more basically, of directing our attention. And we really don't know what to do with either. So there are a lot of questions. We are exposed to both satisfaction and punishment, that is, positive and negative reinforcement, as a result of the choices that we make from moment to moment in the use of our voluntary muscles and of our attention. Therefore there are questions of great practical significance for us, essential questions.
For me there is an organic relationship between feeling and thinking. In my feeling I experience both my satisfaction and my non-satisfaction, my gratification and my pain. As yet, I do not experience continuous ecstasy. What the hell? In fact, I experience quite a lot of pain at times, sometimes excruciating pain. It is inevitable that I think about this most serious emotional reality of my life. This is practical thinking. It is inevitable, and it is my responsibility as a thinking, feeling living being, also known as a human being.
The point is, and this point ought to be obvious to anybody, I don't care whether the body is male or female (I exempt children, those with profound mental retardation, and the demented) that we have choices to make, innumerable choices, from moment to moment, and it certainly seems to us, and I do mean you, God damn it, that our choices make a great difference, and probably all the difference, regarding whether we are experiencing and will experience gratification or agony. Obviously, our choices do not make a bit of difference regarding what we HAVE experienced. What's done is done. But the present is up for grabs. We are free. May freedom crash down on you like a thunderbolt.
The edge of frustration in my tone comes from this: I happen to be aware that our freedom does not just apply to how we use our bodies. Our freedom in the direction of our attention is even more radical, and more basic. But we neglect that freedom, and in this case "we" refers more to you than to me. That is a difference between me and many of my readers, because I have "steeped" in the practice of awareness of reality for many years, and you probably haven't.
It comes down to a question, and beyond question, to the present direction of one's attention, to presence. One might direct one's present attention to feelings. But, that is a partial focus, that leaves a lot of my reality unconscious, including my present behavior and including my thinking, which goes on constantly. A focus on thought is no less partial, despite the vanity of men. A focus on thought does not exclude feeling and behavior, but it weights the scales. The same is true of a focus on feeling. I certainly don't believe that there is any inherent, organic factor that mandates the direction of any human being's attention. It is not biologically determined. It is obvious to anyone smarter than a post that culture, transmitted via language and modeling, does direct our attention, and in fact leads it around by the nose, because we are very poor excuses for what a human being ought to be, or, to express a little of my patriotism, what an American ought to be. Jesus Christ! Please be present to us again in spirit, and instruct our excessive stupidity, because we in sore need of a refresher course.
Whether we are focused more on our thoughts or more on our feelings, our poor behavior is generally as starved of our attention as a stepchild, which is certainly alarming, since we are behaving constantly with all effects on other beings of all forms, on the Earth, and on ourselves. Thinking is good and necessary. It does not deserve the contempt of women or men. It could be said that men think to solve women's problems. That is facetious. I can already hear the feminists barking at my heels, and they are quite a vicious pack. Men think to solve their own problems. Their success in doing so is evident for the world to see. That is called sarcasm, if you are unfamiliar with that kind of expression. At least we men haven't managed to completely destroy life on Earth yet, although it is hard to put any limit on the creativity of our stupidity. Certainly we have destroyed much, In fairness, we do something right occasionally. Women's track record is just as good, and no better. We are all one. A person is not born from the crotch of a tree, you know. It is not better to focus on either thought or feeling. Both are realities of our lives, and neither is the whole reality. Behavior cannot be neglected.
This blog, of course, is an expression of some of my thoughts, of which I have many. I feel that I need to express these thoughts. I also, of course, feel continuously. This blog is also an expression of some of my feelings, a verbal expression. Communication is 97% nonverbal, but for readers of this blog who do not know me personally, it is 100% verbal. So you're missing 97% of me, should you happen to have the slightest curiosity. I am not merely a man of words. Not that my behavior is anything to write home about. I behave constantly, including the behavior of writing and typing this blog, to the neglect of other obligations. I am in relation with my fellow humans, oh boy and oh girl, also with you who read this, and I wish that relationship to express Rogers' core conditions. I am constantly in relationship with reality. I need to be present, impartially and simultaneously. It is the only way that I can experience and express the core conditions, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Presence requires direction of my attention to presence. It requires the will and it requires the skill.
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