Thursday, July 29, 2010

Between the Lines


There seems to be moments in one's life when one could say that they have experienced something or thought about something in such a way that now one is changed. We might use the word insight to describe this change. I underwent a series of thoughts to try and understand what might be happening within myself when this insight occurs.

To know one's self is to know change. Like the river that moves but is still a river. I am a collection of cells that constantly move and change yet is still recognizable as a human. This human is moving and it is with all my might of thought that I may try and stop or change this movement. Thought itself is born of the movement. For movement to stop so must thought.

Can thought change the movement? I tend to have the assumption that if I think about a certain idea long or hard enough, I can bring about this insight. Can I have a thought which then translates into something different happening to the cells of the body? Thought cannot stop the movement for it is itself a movement, but can thought change the movement? Which is then asking fundamentally can the movement change itself? We can see change over generations. When DNA from two animals of likeness merge together you have something new and different, with luck, more able to adapt to life's challenges than the previous two. But, can thought, which is a product of the whole movement of the body and its parts produce a change within the body so that something else, something new is occurring?

Is thought a product of the change? One other possibility is that one has a thought because the function of the body has changed. New pathways in a person's mind have formed and this could possibly bring about a new and different way of thinking. This idea is contrary to me who operates under the pretense that I have thought, I control my thought and I have the power to change the world around me and change the world within as well.

Is it possible, however, that the thought and the process through which this thought can occur happens at the same time? We tend to believe that because we have thought that we are the thinkers. The ones who think and the ones who produce change. Though, our thoughts are limited because without the body, the thought does not exist which essentially means that the body and thought are one. When the thought moves so does the body and when the body moves so does thought. They are not separate, but one. They move together just as my foot does not move without the leg moving as well. Did the foot make the leg move or did the leg make the foot move? Obviously neither.

As I was thinking and speaking with Tvrtko about this, I saw an image in my mind. An image which represents a power unknowable by the conscious mind. The darkness is the thing that brought about the change of mind and body. I wanted to try and convey what I could visually depict in my mind - the above picture is what came out of me. I cannot help but see images in this drawing which represent many different thoughts I have had over the past few months.

One thing seems clear; there is a lot more to life than conscious thought can grasp.