An image from this day: Dogs of Bali is a commonly used expression to refer collectively to all the dogs that live on the island. The frequent and playful deployment of the expression is testament to the popularity of the dogs among the tourists, who can often be seen contributing to their welfare in partnership with or alongside the residents.
Wednesday 18th March 2020
As cynical as it might seem to assert that people’s motivations for modifying their behaviour often don’t come from a basis more admirable than self-preservation, there are reasonable explanations for this hypothesis.
If all we are is random physical occurrences in the continuum of universal development, which seems to be the perspective offered by those who do choose to disregard, or even ridicule, the possibility of anything remotely spiritual, where is the motivation for wanting to exist harmoniously?
If we say that we follow certain philosophical or ethical guidelines in order to reduce our negative impact, that’s a nice start. We could make a more positive statement by changing “reduce” and “negative” to “increase” and “positive”. Some would suggest that the two statements amount to exactly the same thing, but some would consider the second offering an improvement on the first. Here, we can observe the alteration in relation to what has already been discussed. In recognition of semiotics and psychological techniques, we acknowledge the power of the words being used.
The effects of making such changes have been studied and proved to be beneficial for whomever is making the adjustment. Like any habit, it’s rare that someone is introduced to one such example and immediately catches on, readjusting their world view accordingly and living in peace forever as a result.
Lots of people will be so unaware that even the suggestion that this might work seems preposterous. Some might try and try, but not manage to notice the benefits of making such changes. This can often happen because the person wants the effects to be immediate and is hopeful that others will respond more positively to someone who changes the way they speak. It can be discouraging for a person to know that they are making huge efforts to adjust their presentation so that it becomes easier to engage with others more harmoniously, only to find that so many others don’t want to engage as harmoniously as they might themselves suggest. This is another example of how important acceptance really is, as an inability to accept manifests in the form of attachment to outcomes.
If we notice patterns of behaviour and adjust accordingly, we hope for improvements across interactions. When this doesn’t happen, we can allow ourselves to become disheartened, or even frustrated. Immediately, we’re back into a conversation with ourselves about how people are this, or people are that, asking ourselves why we bother and simultaneously trying to work out what we can do next time to get a different result.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Being aware of the words we use, both internally and externally, is a great start. Changing the words is an integral step. However, we are dealing with the mind here. It is full of little mechanisms and tricks it has developed throughout its existence. As such, it will often find a way to fool you. Do you ever really ask yourself in all honesty whether you are honest with yourself?
© copyright Guerrilla Nature
A track for this day: RJD2 Ghostwriter (Deadringer, Definitive Jux 2002). A melodic medley of samples featuring fat beats mixed with strings, keys, horns and vocal harmonies that speak no lyrics. Proper hip-hop. There’s even a tingsha (“yoga bell” or whatever people call them) at just the right time for perfect percussive punctuation. This is a great track for writing to and is therefore also on the playlists named “For Writing To” (YouTube) and “Rappers Delight Instrumentals” (Spotify).
The full Sunny This Position playlist can be found on the Guerrilla Nature YouTube channel, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/@GuerrillaNature
And on Spotify at the following link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VHLzupQ2vvR9xMfcIxyZC?si=T-SjjKOfSPiDRS31HBSeRA&utm_source=copy-link
Above: Sunny This Position entry 2020-03-18
Below: previous and following entries or back to Prose
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