Free To Be Still
By Michael Erlewine
This article on what I call the invariable plane of our mind is long my friends, and a bit of a stretch, yet it is exercise that I feel is worthwhile because it empowers us as to what we already know yet are not aware of how to use.
I have long been aware that relaxing by watching TV or a streaming video is not as simplistic as what it seems. I see this relaxation also as a form of meditation, in fact perhaps the most common form of meditation in the world.
I too watch TV and always have, since it first began. I can remember when there was no television, only radio. And we listened to that. After practicing meditation for something like 60 years, I find that watching TV or streaming video is a lot like certain forms of meditation. Please hear me out.
The problem I am having, like many folks, is that I don’t know what to do unless I am constantly busy or entertained. Left to my own devices with nothing to do I am very uncomfortable unless I busy myself with doing something.
However, if I am constantly entertained like watching a video series being streamed online, I can watch hour after hour of the series and be quite content. How does this work?
About the only constructive thing I can say about this behavior is that it is like those old-time photographers when they would tell their subjects to “Watch the Birdie” as a distraction while they took the photo.
In my case the very busyness of being entertained engages the mind which allows my busy mind to be distracted while deeper within a certain peace and understanding comes through to me. I’m doing nothing (which is clarifying) while my monkey-mind is busy doing something.
It’s not because the movies or series I watch are that good. For me, that’s not the point although I founded one of the two largest movie and film databases in the world, the AllMovie.com. Watching images flicker on the silver screen is the being occupied and busy for me that takes the cake. Not being at loose ends is what loosens the ends and brings about a certain inner peace apparently I require.
In other words, my predilection for busy ‘interest’ is tied down, wrapped up, and entertained. My busy mind is being held still by engagement while right in the midst of its pure busyness.
And that fixed behavior is so fulfilling, meaning full-feeling, that in that constraint I somehow achieve the full complement of Shamata, Tranquility Meditation, at least in rudimentary form. And with my loose ends held so still I achieve an inner clarity not otherwise possible. Of course, whether I am aware of it or not, that’s why I do it.
To repeat, I have always said, and I maintain, that watching video is the most common form of meditation in America. Where else do we fix our gaze on such a small area of space for an extended period of time? What are the similarities of that for a yogi resting their mind on a pebble or a twig?
It’s our leisure time, for sure, but what is leisure? That would be my question. And what is relaxing? What’s the product? In the process of relaxing, of letting go, what is the result? What is it that is freed to be still?
In watching the streaming of a series, I am watching the changing scene in the video, frame by frame, fixed on that as a constant. Yet, in that fixation, what is the true product of being constantly fixed?
That constant does not move but remains fixed like a gyroscope hanging off a point. In all that busyness, there is a silence, what I call an invariable plane
Watching a streaming video is like the water that flows past us in a river, the water is ever changing, but the river is always there. When we watch a movie, in the midst of constant change, there is that which is at peace, unchanging, something I need.
Like the old flicker books we had as a kid, the faster you flipped the pages, the more constant the image. Watching streaming video is like that, meaning something else is going on in the midst of constant change, something unchanging and constant and it brings me peace or is peaceful.
Again, watching video is the most popular form of approximating meditation in this modern world. While few of us know how to formerly meditate, we all know the meditation of watching a good movie. It is a habit we have acquired and can use elsewhere, which is why I write this.
And before you ignore this thought, I suggest you might want to think it through. What is meditation? I believe that we each have accomplished skills in this practice we ignore. And I will add:
What are we to do each day while living our life?
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Of course, there are the things we have to do like breathe, eat food, go to the bathroom, wash and keep clean, things like that.
And beyond that, most of us have to work or somehow make a living, which makes up most of what we do in a day. And beyond that?
Well, we can do whatever interests us. All together the above make up the busyness of life.
As to what we do with any free time, well that’s up to us. And then there is the Venn Diagram where free time and boredom overlap or interface. We run out of things we HAVE to do and wander into things we WANT to do or think we want to do, what interests us, until we tire of being busy.
And if we want to do a lot, if a lot interests us, then we keep ourselves busy most of the time. On the other hand, if we don’t care to do much, we can try doing nothing at all. It pays great dividends.
And as mentioned, if we find ourselves busy, back-to-back, 24 hours a day, with no windows of opportunity for respite or relief, then we have something of a closed system. We may need help.
And while there are many forms of relaxation, it seems that the majority of us take to some form of video entertainment, like watching a movie or whatever. And if we want a more technical explanation:
An invariable plane is that plane that is perpendicular to the angular momentum vector of the entire system, the combined result of the angular momentum of all parts in the system.
In simple terms, it is the plane of the cycle that does not change or shift over time due to gravitational interactions with other parts in the system. As mentioned, this plane is defined as the plane containing the angular momentum vector of the system, which remains constant because the angular momentum of any system is conserved in the absence of external torques.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
