Saturday, February 03, 2007

Freedom From the Known

I try to post the advance schedule of my video Understanding Conditioning when I’m aware of them at http://olelo.org/programming/ProgramGuidebyTitle.htm -- but sometimes there are last minute changes -- to the plus or minus, but are fairly reliable. When the program is broadcast without my knowing about them (by popular request), frequently somebody calls me in an excited voice asking if I have a video or book out -- so used to the informercials they’ve become. It is kind of nice that somebody calls me out of the blue, when I least expect it, and we have this profound discussion on exercise, conditioning, and understanding that is life.

The video they have just seen, is the seminal taping of the presentations I used to give to live audiences at whatever venues afforded to me -- from 1st graders to retirement centers, from world-class athletes to paraplegics, but notably, from people who are the creative pioneers in their own fields -- recognizing the process of discovery and simple awareness of what is.

Much of what is taught as knowledge, is not the simple understanding that gives it power -- but the confusion of those who have been educated to believe that knowledge is an accumulation, rather than the liberation from the known -- into the unknown. That is the thrill and excitement of inquiry that only an unfortunate few presently will be exposed to. Most will only know the tedium of endless boredom -- as learning what life is and must be for them.

That was what was propagated as the “conventional wisdom,” and more institutionally, as the "academic tradition," by which one believes something to be true, because those who “know better,” say so, and we adoringly, are privileged to be called their disciples. That whole disparity of equality is probably most familiar as the experience we have as “physical education,” which is this sanctioned threat and intimidation to do what the authoritarian figure demands we do under threat of their unlimited right to abuse.

Partly for this reason, physical education classes have lost popularity as a core curriculum in the public schools -- to other more faddish concerns of the present political correctness. Unfortunately, that seems now to be that one should not discriminate against those who adopt bad health practices in their youth -- handicapping them for life. Much of present education is a similar handicap -- demanding that we believe to be true on some self-designated authority’s say so.

Hence the importance of “other people’s opinions,” or testimonials to override one’s own judgment and senses. The Understanding Conditioning presentation has none of that -- but is a direct appeal to the rationality of the other -- that for whatever reason, brought them to that message in the receptive mind that makes it that which they have been looking for as the missing link that integrates their understanding.

It is that moment of clarity, that changes their understanding of everything.

4 Comments:

At February 05, 2007 8:32 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

One really doesn't need to tell people what to think, what to do -- when the mind is clear rather than dulled by all the words, explanations, and emotional triggers that clouds one's mind from clarity.

That's true for everything one does -- that the good and true is not a remembered (conditioned) response, but can arise directly from the awareness of what is -- which is reality itself.

The unfortunate learning of contemporary education is the thinking that only teaching the "correct," makes it true -- and not that it can be verified by anyone, anytime -- which is the real meaning of the scientific method -- rather than the cult and culture of orthodoxy.

Many of the current ideas offered about exercise is a 2-3,000 year old understanding of the human body and its processes -- which words like chi, prana, or the vital life force are later described as the circulatory and respiratory processes of only a couple of hundred years ago.

Yet many people believe that the older understanding has more validity than the newer -- or that the current "state-of-the-art" in understanding, is not what is most commonly believed because it is only recently been "discovered" or realized.

In "democracies," people often have a superficial belief that what most people believe to be true, makes it "true," rather than these beliefs can actually be tested for "truth." The former notion of "truth," is particularly promoted by the mass media -- which of course has a vested interested in what most people believe, regardless of whether it is true or not, as long as they are the ones in charge of determining that -- obviously for monetary concerns, but also more fundamentally, for the power to influence or coerce the behavior of others.

That is why the model of previous conditioning strategies are so expedient. One person does the thinking for everyone -- and tells the others what to do -- unthinkingly and unquestioningly.

 
At February 05, 2007 8:45 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

So this new approach of actually understanding the conditioning process -- in the cultural context -- allows one to develop more control over one's own life and destiny, which is a very important effect of a "conditioning" program, rather than just being able to do what another compels one to.

That is particularly so in the emerging culture of greater choices -- which the future obviously portends. The human evolution is to become more free, with more choices -- while there are those obviously, who want to maintain or return the old social order of the control of a few over the many.

Technology as well as society no longer supports that concept of being. At first it is intimidating for people to realize that their lives are largely what they can make of it -- rather than the life imposed upon them by others, and even other people's opinions, thoughts, values and tastes.

This is the brave new world a few are rising to the challenge of living -- in their actual lives. There is no need for the separation of the fantasy from the actualization of it. One does not need to read or write fiction, but should conceive and actualize the non-fiction as a productive way of life.

This is the new world we now live in -- but the old minds cannot let go of the past and insist we cannot embrace the new -- because they can't, or won't.

 
At February 05, 2007 8:58 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

Some of the landmark choices people make -- is learning to operate a computer, and a cell phone over a wired one.

Those decisions transform one's life -- by making one more free, just as being able to determine one's own physical fitness levels also liberates one.

It is extremely important to be self-determining in this -- rather than just being told what to do, as the fundamental premise of one's whole existence. Most of the people I talk to, have this level of realization -- if not previous achievement. If they haven't achieved that fullest possibility yet, than the concepts reviewed in Understanding Conditioning is the missing link many see as the key to completing the integration of their mind and body into the unified force of their existence and functioning.

Rather than being a deep, esoteric mystery, it is the simplicity of understanding -- that makes everything else easier. That is the new conditioning paradigm that makes more sense -- to make movement and performance easier -- rather than harder and more difficult, and eventually impossible.

 
At February 07, 2007 4:21 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

Here I go again:

Understanding Conditioning (repeat) Channel 52 (OAHU) 2/8/2007 1:00:00 PM A revolutionary new way of looking at exercise. Environmental/Health

Not only is it simple, but it is more effective; in fact, I've never encountered a person who hasn't benefited from these simple observations about the (physical) conditioning process.

The problem was that in the '70s, two groups were fighting over the jurisdiction to mine this emerging lucrative field of activity. One was the traditional (physical) education people and the other was the health care profession -- both obsessed with bureaucratic control and hierarchies that disable and disempower people -- before a powerful new paradigm of increasing empowerment and individual control over one's existence made possible by the information revolution of the World Wide Web becomes evermore clearly the ultimate winner.

The important thing is the information -- and not who controls it. In the Age of the Internet, nobody has a right to control information exclusively for their own benefit and advantage. Previously, the control hierarchies existed for the propagation of information -- which was slow and tedious; now it becomes instantaneous -- because people are better communicators and transmitters than ever before.

A superior can teach in one day what poor teachers may take a year, and some can not teach at all no matter how much time they have. People vary in abilities -- and not just by seniority. Yet in the bureaucratic system, that is the only thing that is important -- while ability is not even a consideration.

But it makes a difference, in human performance and achievement -- that time alone is not a meaningful factor, or effort. Understanding and insight is the critical factor. That's the difference between the 21st century contemporary standard and the old 20th century assembly-line mentality of one-size fits all, and that's all there is.

The fact is, most of us have the same basics of life, but vary widely dependent on the individual customization of its use. One person will use a computer to play video games while another could run an entire industry from a website; then there are countless still who have declared never to have anything to do with one.

A person effectively using a computer can process the information one sworn not to use such an advantage will not be able to access in their entire lifetime! And many of these people are living side-by-side, in ostensibly the same world -- but in a world of difference.

The only institutions and mentality are still operating with the notion that it is this one world of their administration and coercion that is the only world possible and have no intention of learning any other.

The greatest part of reality is the unknown -- and not the known. the known is no longer the key to understanding -- but the limits of it, because the knowledge, the thoughts, the ideas -- are more important than the actuality, and it is the actuality that makes a difference, and not the image, or idea of what is happening.

So to understand the actual and real (the truth) requires an attentive mind that sees without the prejudice of thought -- which is the old conditioning. Seeing without this conditioned mind, is self-evident truth. Very few people have had that exposure in their entire lives -- and that is why Understanding Conditioning, is a breakthrough exposure in seeing everything with a fresh mind.

The truth is everywhere -- but one is conditioned not to see it.

 

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