Spinning Yarns

This past weekend was our summer seminar, and it was a very intense and powerful experience for me. I don’t think I have any way to convey that in words — an experience which is very strange for someone who is so wrapped up in the magic of language.

I think that we all have an intuitive understanding of what a “concept” is — it’s a kind of mental understanding that expresses some kind of generality about the world. Concepts let us abstract away details — and I think that, at least in the Western world, we tend to feel that the abstraction is somehow more important than the detail anyway. This weekend really drove home for me the idea that, while some concepts can be expressed in words or pictures, and thus shared with others, others are, for lack of a better word, inexpressible concepts. Their very essence is how each of us experiences them personally. How can I give you my own personal experience, so that it becomes your own? Of course, I cannot. You have to obtain it yourself.

This idea is pervasive in writings on Zen, which I have been reading over the past year or so. But nothing has driven this idea of inexpressible concepts home to me so much as this past weekend. I cannot even begin to convey the insights and revelations that came to me during our training. All I can say is that I am deeply moved, in many ways, and I do not know how to describe them to you.

I am working hard to prepare myself to be who I am, where I am, at this very moment.

Filed by Michael at 12:14 under Personal, Philosophical
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I’ve just finished up the last of my required classes for the Ph.D., and I’m now trying to plan out my research schedule for the summer. Naturally, I’m procrastinating by revamping my web pages.

It’s funny how fast time has flown since I started the program back in September of 1999. At that time, the only things I could really think about were classes and qualifying exams, and now that both are behind me, it’s a little scary. But that’s alright; there are all kinds of neat puzzles out there awaiting some hard work, so I don’t anticipate being bored in the least.

I’m also looking forward to the summer seminar with Sensei William Gleason, which is being held June 22nd-24th at Shobu Aikido of Vermont, the dojo where I practise. I think of all the things I have done over the past several years, starting the practise of aikido has been the single most positive. I feel healthier, stronger, and more centered both emotionally and spiritually, as the result of my practise. I feel very fortunate that I am able to do this, and my only regret is that I didn’t start years earlier.

Filed by Michael at 12:00 under Personal
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