Filling in missing information.

Mistakes of imagination (future) are made up of my mistaken memory (past) and my mistaken perception (present). My memory is "filled in" with perceptions that are experienced after an event and this happens quickly and unconsciously. "Filling in" with extraneous data after the fact is the mistake my memory and perception do. I don’t take into consideration all the "filling in" that I've done when I imagine how I'll feel and what I expect to experience in the future. This "filling in" happens so fast and is so unconscious that I'm fooled by it completely. I see things that are not there and know things that really didn't happen. I imagine a future that will not come to be. Not only am I "filling in" details I am also "leaving out” details missing a world of possibilities.

If I can acknowledge this in me, then others must be doing it too. I have to give then the slack to be who they are just as I hope they would give me the same understanding for my mistakes of imagination. I want understanding where appropriate and I want to be called out when appropriate.

The microcosm of the quantum world and the unconscious are not part of my active experience and therefore are less interesting than those things that are part of my active experience. Things like focus, biases, common fallacies, virtues, ethics, and life trajectories. To me the question of the meaning of life and questions like this are uninteresting.  

Questions

Questions and questions?
Am I critical enough of my own thought processes? What are my aspirations? Am I leading the life I want? The life I will be happy with at death? Is what I do aligned with my goals? Are my goal aligned with what I do? Is this important? Do I share enough? What is enough? How can I improve my relationships? With Mary? Why am I so tired some days? Why has my reading, my top SUPERPOWER, been suffering lately? Why don’t I take more complete notes on what I read? What is the big interruption that is preventing me form reading? How do I become less self-centered? What should I do about my income? How is my health issues impacting what I do? How do I create impact? How can I create impact? What do I mean by ‘impact’? Does questioning help? What did I fail to do today? What went right? What went wrong? How do I simplify life? What is virtue and how I develop some? How can I show my friends how important they are to me? How can I live my ideals? What are my ideals? Can reality be different from it is? What would the opposite of reality be called? Are there shaded of reality? Am I tolerant of ours? Am I courageous? Am I ready to fight and die? Do I have the wisdom to act justly and with courage? Is all this questioning leading somewhere positive? Should it? Am I who I think I am? Am I otherwise? Why do I feel unique, separate, whole, privileged?

Being the best we can

How is my experience relevant to the quantum or astral worlds? Is it? How? My experience is a very, very small part of these worlds. Would things happen without me? Of course. Would they be the same? I not so sure. Causes and consequences, after a long time, would produce changes. Small almost infinitesimal changes. Nothing I can plan for or steer in any way. I just want to be the best person I can be.  

Happiness

With our thoughts we make the world.

Distractions

Went to Joseph Canyon, just South of the Grande Rhonde River in Washington Sunday and had a wonderful hike with Richard. We were a week or so too early for the Arrowleaf Balsom Root but the weather was great. Today it snowed. I took some other pictures but because the canyon was so vast and I didn't capture the scaled, they are unimpressive - bland actually.  

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Life can be full of distractions. But exactly, what are we being distracted from? I think this is individual. Distractions can be petty, like being distracted at dinner time by reading the newspaper. Sometimes we use distraction to avoid painful choices in life - this can be less than petty. The problem is we are poor judges of when our distractions are mild and when they are holding is back from living a full and engaged life. Ultimately distractions keep us from being present with whatever is happening and being present to whatever is happening is the path to leading a virtuous life.

Rather than worrying about distractions, focus on being present and when we notice that we are drifting away from being present, just return. This is hard work and something I’m practicing with mixed success.  

Fate

Fate has come through. I am awake. Another day in which to be human. Do human things. Be subject to humanness in the world. I get to choose between being awake, making choices that foster growth in me and others and the path of struggle. I see where I am bombarded with negative messages through advertising and media and friends - want more, want your own, want this. Want want want is the message that keeps me walking in the dark. Wake up and want less. Less stuff but more clarity. Wanting is so insidious. Here I am professing not to want stuff and at the same time I’m considering going on a long backpacking adventure this summer.

Today I want to share two notions.

Metacognition - Does what you think all day, effect you? How can it not. Does it change your world view or fortify it? How does what we think about interact with the happenings of the world that we participate in? If we think positively and optimistically, will our interactions tend to be both positive and optimistic?

I'm only good at something now because I spent 10 years being bad at it. Everything is practice and I am where I’m at this skill level because of the focused practice I’ve done. Where I’m at is a prefect reflection of my practice level and doing the best I can is the best way to get a chance to do better next time. Skill advances in small, almost imperceptible steps.