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Sling Shot Catapult |
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In order to fire a catapult, you draw back first
before releasing. There's no velocity in simply
releasing without drawing back first, even though releasing without
or with drawing back first are identical acts of releasing. It's
only on drawing back when the possibility of velocity
shows up.
That's actually a lot closer to the truth than it sounds.
It's an analogy, and all analogies are effective up to a point.
After that, if they continue to substitute for direct
experience, they become counterproductive, if not outright
misleading. What that might look like is going into a
Denny's restaurant and eating the menu because printed
on it is a photograph of the steak.
The catapult analogy is effective because it creates a sense of
potential, a sense of possibility, a sense of something
is about to happen - indeed, a sense of something is
impelled to happen. The drawing back in the catapult
analogy doesn't refer to with-drawing, and nor does it refer
to darkening of the light (as the I Ching
may have said). It neither refers to taking a rest, taking a
break, or retreating to gather strength before advancing. It
doesn't refer to the practice of
meditation
- at least, this catapult analogy doesn't refer to the
practice of
meditation,
even though similar analogies have been built around and for the
practice of
meditation.
Instead, the drawing back I have in mind here refers to making
contact with, or re-making contact with, or (better yet)
re-familiarizing yourself with the sense of joy with
simply being with what's there (as
Werner Erhard may have
said).
In term of simply being happy, in terms of coming from
happiness, simply being with what's there is a causal state.
In fact, arguably it's the causal state. But
for now, to-call it a causal state is
good enough for
jazz.
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