Paradigm Shifts

To truly deepen understanding, one must experience the arrival at a new point. There is no logical trail from one state of mind to another. This could be called a leap of faith. One must let go and trust the world, including the individual's place in it. I think most people experience this with aging because our minds grow stronger as we age. Yet I am finding, through Ki training, that I can strengthen my mind and my concentration through an engagement with discipline. You won't understand my experience, but if I can give you an idea...

Let's say you like cars. Cars are hot to you; they symbolize freedom and power and sex. Well the paradigm shift, the growth in understanding occurs when you can see cars as strange little machines humming along with little people inside of them. They start to look like plastic toys.

Now apply this to people. Maybe certain types of people are intimidating to you because of money or influence or intelligence. Well as you grow in understanding you see that every person is a tiny cog in the larger machinery of the social and workday order.

That's the sort of thing I am talking about, but these can be reached logically because I can easily explain them to you through my blog. Perhaps the truest examples are those experiences you can only feel through immediate perception. Once you taste these, you cannot remain the same.

The more often you can jump, the faster your wisdom, concentration, and power can grow...