eThoughts : Chakras, Chi, and Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang

I have been away recently, to Georgia in fact, and to a little resort that is supposed to be peaceful. Actually it was, with one little exception–barking dogs. Now this noise intrusion is not on the same scale as it is where I live, but it is still a noise intrusion, and it is quite unnecessary. The dogs in question, which were located far enough away from the cabin in which I was staying so that their barking was somewhat muted, were merely barking to be barking. I walked down that way to discover what the issue was. And, as it is around my place, there was no obvious issue. The main barking dog was simply barking–just standing there or running up and down the fence- line barking. Except that the owners apparently let the dogs inside on occasion, I’m guessing the barking would have gone on for longer periods of time. In fact, when I walked down there, on more than one occasion as it was a country road and good for walking, there were people in the house moving around and not paying any obvious attention to their dogs and their noise making.

I suppose I could be happy that the barking dog problem is not just in my neighborhood, but somehow I was not so comforted.

On a related note, I recently saw the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore. In the row in front of where I was sitting were a group of people that came in together to see the movie. One of the people, a woman, talked about 50% of the movie. I asked her to please stop and she looked at me like I had no business interrupting her ongoing discussion. At another point, someone behind me just shouted out “shut-up you bitch,” which didn’t faze her a bit–I’m convinced that she didn’t even hear it or if she did, figured it was intended for someone else. Now if the movie is about anything other than entertainment (this was no documentary as it was being touted–at best it was a pseudo-documentary), it was about people who impose their realities upon others, whether the others involved like it or not. This particular, barking-dog-equivalent woman was clearly pro-Moore and anti-Bush, but I think she did not understand that the movie was about people like her, which, in Moore’s pseudo-documentary, made her very Bush-like.

I suppose I could be happy that the particular syndrome which I’ve been describing, which could also include numerous examples of American drivers, Corporate America, academic America, American marriages, etc. are not just happening around my neighborhood, but somehow I am not so comforted.

The syndrome in question has been described as the self-exclusive fallacy, the ego syntonic (“I’m good, the problem lies outside of me”) characteristic of all those with personality disorders, the fundamental attribution error (good things are due to my effort, bad things are due to something else), and God knows what else. The syndrome is not new, it is old–very old.

Do I get to take the moralistic and ethical high ground?

Nope, not a chance.

Does that mean I shouldn’t speak up?

Nope, not a chance.

So I am speaking up–and I’m included in the audience I’m addressing.

What’s the cure (keeping in mind that cures only seem to precede other maladies)?

How about attention? I realize that can be annoying–which is why ignoring is such a popular past-time. And ignoring certainly has its place–some problems can fix themselves. Sometimes, ignoring can equal atrophy–which is good if that is what we need to happen. However, the trouble with ignoring as a general strategy is that it doesn’t make everything being ignored impotent. Many things are usually still there exerting an influence on some level. All that waste building up on the earth, in the atmosphere, in the space around our planet, and building up inside ourselves is going to have its day. All that noise trespass, light trespass, space trespass, etc., is going to have its day. And when it builds up sufficiently, the straw-that-broke-the-camel’s back will be upon us. It isn’t always the equivalent of an asteroid hit that causes catastrophe, even if it is that kind of spectacular event that grabs our attention.

Attention precedes two other important components that are part of the “cure” for this syndrome–intention and meaning. But let’s stick to attention at this point. Focusing upon the chakras, key energy points on our body, can teach us where the blockages are. Focusing upon the Chi around us and within us can show us where nurturing is located. Shifting our attention to these Chakras and to the Chi, will provide us with information about the state and well-being of our beings. And when we find that we are pretty much bumping along like that magical car in the play and movie called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we might discover we are not so pretty and we are not so efficient, but we are magical and we can do things that just don’t seem possible.

So, we have attention and we can play with it, and we can pay attention and have even more attention–a rather nice economy. And then maybe we can work together to not only have a cohesive we, but the Shangri-la we really would like to have every time we expend our energy ignoring all the things that seem to be contaminating our paradise. In other words, those contaminating entities are us, and ongoing ignorance is the contaminating vehicle of our mess. And I think it is attention and not a laundry list of rules that is the basis, along with intention and meaning, that will bring us back to the Garden of Eden, this time with much appreciation for the place, the vehicle, the knowing, and the spirit that provides the joy, happiness, playful mischievousness, and peace that is the gift of our being human.