Comment on Proper posture for mental arts

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 17:41:11 GMT

Yep! I find stuff like this helpful.

…and yet when I pump it through the analogical mapping I'm using here between mind and body, mental movements like this feel a bit like practicing grabbing things as I fall as a way of dealing with being pushed or knocked into. That seems like a useful skill, but like a second-order tweak after figuring out how to not get knocked totally off-balance when someone bumps into me. Sort of like trying to learn how to do parkour before learning how to brace one's spine.

And appropriately enough, doing that with parkour actually endangers your spine. Mapping that back through the analogy to the mind again, I think I see a close correlate: I don't know when I can trust my fictional "what-if" thinking to kick online when I need it, or if my attempt to do "what-if" thinking will still be dutiful rather than based on a sincere desire to know the truth.

…although I do think the technique you're suggesting is useful, and I'm totally going to play with it.

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