Sunday 10 February 2008

My Biggest Mistake

Living in reality and preaching denial is one thing.


Living in denial and preaching reality is another.


Nobody knowingly stole my translation work from me and falsely claimed it as their own.


But a person living in denial tends not to know, and tends not to want to know, what they are actually doing.


My biggest mistake in life was, in my early 20s, to gamble all my eggs in the basket of a preacher of reality who was living in denial.

7 comments:

SlowZen said...

I have heard that life is a series of taking three steps forward than two steps backward. We have little choice but to keep moving forward even if we resist it. It just becomes a matter of how we accept moving forward.

Grasping at grains of sand seems to me to be a rather futile endeavor.

I hope you are feeling better soon
Jordan

Mike Cross said...

Hi Jordan,

Glad to see you are still tagging along. But could you make your comments a bit more pithy and to the point -- as befits a US marine? The string of platitudes you offer here might not cut it in the Brownies.

SlowZen said...

Ok,
Get up off your back side and do something useful. You are beginning to resemble a lister bag with lips.

Mike Cross said...

Now you are talking!

But listen: Towards the end of last year it occured to me that, if I remember what Marjory Barlow taught me in relation to the idea and action of moving a leg, and apply that to the idea and action of teaching the likes of yourself, then my challenge is this:- To completely and utterly give up the idea of being anybody's teacher... and yet teach.

That's what I am doing now on this blog, not asking for anybody's help or anybody's sympathy, but directly demonstrating to you what my own wrongness is, and thereby drawing your attention to the fact that human wrongness is generally rooted in vestibular dysfunction.

Hence, one of the great virtues of sitting-zen, is that it can facilitate -- if it is taught correctly -- self re-calibration of the vestibular system.

SlowZen said...

Mike,
From one non-instructor to a non-teacher, I offer you a little acronym that has helped me throughout the years. K.I.S.S.

K-keep (as in hold it to preciously like a bright perl)
I-It (or Inmo if you are feeling pretentious)
S- Simple (as in so simple a caveman could understand it)
S-Stupid (as in in trying to sound smart, we often come off as stupid, it is better to be thought stupid and have people learn from you than sound smart and just leave folks scratching their heads)

Good luck with that.
Jordan

Mike Cross said...

K.I.S.S.? K.I.S.S, my arse!

Somebody said, Einstein I think, that things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

How about this: It all comes back to the vestibular system.

The vestibular system means circuits of neurones in the brainstem, along with the nerves connecting those circuits with the left and right inner ear,and also with the cerebellum (little brain responsible for coordination).

To train a person, at root level, is to train their vestibular system.

Is that simple enough for you, soldier?

No? In that case....


ATTEEEN... SHUN!

LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT...

Gregor said...

Sure it's simple enough . . .

Was that the point of your original post here?