Heroes Not Zombies

I read the observation that we think more than we can say, we feel more than we can think, we live more than we can feel, and there is much more besides. (attributed to Eugene Gendlin).

I like that. I see it as a series of concentric circles of life – the smallest one in the centre being what we can say. Our words are very limited and we’re never able to articulate all our thoughts. Thoughts seem endless and unceasing, don’t they, and even in meditation we realise many of them pass on by far too quickly to be named or described.

Our thoughts though seem to emerge both top down, and bottom up, as the neuroscientists describe. Some originating within the brain but always meeting the ones coming up from the body, the probable source of most of our feelings. Remember how we use body metaphors to describe feelings…..heart ache, gut feeling, etc. We only become aware of a portion of our feelings, most of which remain in the unconscious, where they create the tidal flows and tones of each moment to moment experience.

And feelings are only a small part of the unconscious which is filled with a constant stream of signals and information from both outside and within the body, only some of which reach the level of awareness as sensations. We live more than we can feel.

And there is so much more besides….single cell organisms like viruses and bacteria, atoms and molecules of natural and manmade chemicals, a whole vast spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, and so on, constantly impacting on us, flowing through us, co-creating who we are and what we experience.

Astonishing isn’t it?