As we wade into Term Three (already? How did that happen??), it is important to focus back on the notion of mindset. A lot of your work this term will be independent and require a kind of depth and attention to detail that can only emerge from Lynda Barry’s “calm and friendly” place: we will have open work blocks most days and it will be up to you to organize yourself and your mind to focus and get things done during those blocks (with my help – if you need it, ask! Remember: asking for help is a sign of strength – it means you have come up against your own limits and you might just need a little push or reorientation in order to move farther and deeper; there is no virtue in staying stuck).
In preparation for this work, please visit the revamped Mindset tab on the navigation bar of this site, and also explore the two poems below. Think about how you can apply these ideas to your work and to your life. We will discuss! (The video and music link are incidental – but can you make connections? These might be worth points for the Connections Game…)
The Diver’s Clothes Lying Empty
You are sitting here with us,
but you are also out walking in a field at dawn.
You are yourself the animal we hunt
when you come with us on the hunt.
You are in your body
like a plant is solid in the ground,
yet you are wind.
You are the diver’s clothes
lying empty on the beach.
You are the fish.
In the ocean are many bright strands
and many dark strands like veins that are seen
when a wing is lifted up.
Your hidden self is blood in those,
those veins that are lute strings
that make ocean music,
not the sad edge of surf
but the sound of no shore.
Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
Into a soul absolutely free
From thoughts and emotions,
Even the tiger finds no room
To insert its fierce claws.
One and the same breeze passes
Over the pines on the mountain
And the oak trees in the valley;
And why do they give different notes?
No thinking, no reflecting,
Perfect emptiness;
Yet therein something moves,
Following its own course.
The eye sees it,
But no hands can take hold of it —
The moon in the stream.
Clouds and mists,
They are midair transformations;
Above them eternally shine the sun and the moon.
Victory is for the one,
Even before the combat,
Who has no thought of himself,
Abiding the no-mind-ness of Great Origin.
A Taoist Priest, as quoted in Tao of Jeet Kun Do, by Bruce Lee
Listen to Become Ocean, by John Luther Adams