All posts by Larry Plesent

Sound Bite Philosophy

My buddy Ivan claims that electron beams come out of our eyes when we look at something.

“How else would you explain why people almost always know when someone is watching them?”, he would demand.

Anyone who has had the experience of turning suddenly to find someone staring at them; or been thinking of a friend or relative only to have them ring the phone a few seconds later has experienced the phenomena known as “intent”.

I first learned about intent from a Kung Fu instructor who had formerly been a trainer of Special Ops personnel. He taught us to tune our minds to sense dangerous intent focused on us. In this way we would know if someone intended to do us harm before they had a chance to act on it, just like in the movies.

On another level intent seems to solicit a “call and response” type reaction from the world at large. We put our intentions out there, loudly or softly and the world and people around us mirror them. Individuals and resources are attracted or repelled to us every day, and the mysterious and extraordinarily literal process that makes this happen is intent.

So constantly being on guard against attackers might well have a role in bringing trouble into our lives. However being unprepared could easily put us into unexpected random danger.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” is a good old New England motto, and one I recommend highly for personal adoption.

As long as I am jumping down and down on the limb of yet another difficult to prove hypothesis about the basic workings of existence, and since you haven’t stopped reading this to better utilize your time scanning for household battery pack deals; let’s talk about species evolution and intent.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the subject of evolution and I defend wholeheartedly your right to have one! This question is interlinked with our basic individual belief system of just what this existence IS, and what if anything is the purpose of the whole beautiful mess of it. Incredible stuff to think about and form opinions on. You of course may already have some opinions on the subject.

So here’s mine. What if DNA mutation is not just about random mutation by gamma rays, survival of the fittest or just plain dumb luck? What if it is also about intent, defined in this context as focused consciousness. Nothing language based, this is more akin to the urge to pee. You just gotta go. And it always happens. Fins to legs baby! There’s new lands to conquer up ahead. Think of it as intelligent design from the inside out.

Crazy and simplistic? You bet! And I do hope you have enjoyed this sound bite philosophy moment. Keep thinking! Whatever we think it is more than that.

2×4 Zen (a lesson in lessons)

Note: Getting this one can potentially save you a world of pain.

A 2×4 is a piece of wood. It is the basic building block of residential construction.

Zen is a kind of spiritual self-help program.

Here’s how 2×4 Zen works:

Let’s say there is some lesson, some information you need to understand, a message to receive; something you need to learn or a life change that you need to make. Well, first the Universe gives it to you gently.

It says, “Hey Kid! Did you hear about suchandsuch?”

Now you may or may not pay a lot of attention to this message, and may simply hurry on with your busy day.

A few days later you might be talking to someone and out of the blue they say, “Hey Kid! Did you hear about suchandsuch?”

Now you may think it quite odd that for no apparent reason suchandsuch is mentioned in your presence once again. Then you get on with your busy day. A couple of weeks later you visit your long lost cousin that you haven’t seen in ages. As you are catching up she reaches into her handbag and pulls out a book, “SUCHANDSUCH REVEALED”.

Now, maybe you forgot your reading glasses, or maybe you really just don’t want to think about suchandsuch at all, but let’s say that somehow you miss the cue.

The Universe has been lobbing you softballs up until now, at worst a paper airplane to the side of the head. And if you do not pay attention, one day the Universe is going to WHUP you upside that thick skull of yours. But before it does that it might just give you a CLOSE CALL.

We’ve all had that close call. The one that starts, “It’s a miracle anyone survived that fillintheblank”.

THAT is the whistle of the 2×4 coming through the air to whup your sorry you-know-what. Do yourself a favor. Learn to duck. Quickly.

Hopefully you agree with me that paying attention, that “listening” is way better than getting whupped with a 2×4!

“OK. That’s great”, you might say. “But how do I pay attention more? I have a busy schedule. If I pay attention any harder I’ll give myself a migraine!”

My immune system buffer signals me this way. First I begin to feel very small. I breathe in little panting breaths and my face goes pale. Then I begin to feel panicked and claustrophobic and my focus becomes very narrow.

My wife and I have a key phrase we use when this happens.

If I say, “Shit! I gotta get out of here quick.”

Then she says, “I got it honey. Why don’t you wait for me in the car?”

Life should ALWAYS run so smoothly.