I See Your Mind Tangled in Knots

I See Your Mind Tangled in Knots

One of the ways I can recognize where a thought comes from is to observe its speed and monitor the circumstances that initiated its manifestation. For example, think about the difference in thoughts or even conversations which are stimulated when studying at a library or discussing politics at a bar. How are my thoughts affected and where do I put my attention while walking in a forest or on a busy city street? What reflections are roused in response to listening to Air on a G String by Johann Sebastian Bach or Gin and Juice by Snoop Dogg? What speed is needed to ponder metaphysical ideas or to compete on the popular TV game show, Jeopardy?

I see your mind tangled in knots, from thought to thought, and it greatly longs for release. —Dante

I happened to be speaking with a friend at breakfast this morning and we were discussing his change of career. For seven years he was a bartender, and he recently became certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). He is now working the night shift as an EMT for an emergency transport service where he transports patients to and from a hospital. This new job is quite different from his experience as a bartender.

Some nights – such as last night – he told me there were no calls for emergency transport. Instead, he used this down time at the hospital to observe and learn from the nurses and doctors who were working on a patient in the emergency room with critical, life-threatening cardiovascular disease. It will not surprise you that the remarks, cliches and habits of the intellectual center that were the reliable catchphrases for his job as a bartender are no longer appropriate or are much less stimulated in his new medical environment.

The whole meaning of existence is to use the human mind to produce the divine mind. —The Teacher

Remaining calm and present to the various circumstances that arise requires a high level of thinking to synthesize divergent concepts into a unified whole of the patient’s condition and needs. The medical environment is not conducive to thinking with ready-made catchphrases and talking points. This thinking is quite different from the discussions with customers at the bar.

You cannot intellectualize the miraculous. The brain is actually brainless without presence … use it to be in the intellectual parts of centers. —The Teacher

A bartender’s training focuses on multitasking, memorization, and reading a room to ensure customer satisfaction, whereas an EMT knowledge and skill set concentrates on methodical rapid assessment and problem-solving, remaining calm during crisis management, and strictly adhering to medical protocols to stabilize patients in critical conditions. Critical thinking and working in higher parts of centers are paramount for effective work in the medical field. These two contrasting jobs use different parts of the intellectual center.

Using the higher parts of the intellectual center is not as necessary when bartending. Remembering regular customers’ names and drinks, facilitating diplomatic and tactful conversation, cheerfully serving customers with a flair for trivia are attributes of a good bartender. Sleep inducing habits of the intellectual center are frequently on display in the social setting at a bar. These mechanical habits are associative thinking, argumentative and oppositional thinking, formatory thinking, and imagination, that is, uncontrolled mind activity.

Imagination is the cancer of the mind. The lower self is argumentative, and the Higher Self is tranquil and quiet. —The Teacher

I have been a bartender myself and I have no judgment about this choice of profession. Both a bartender and an EMT are equal in relationship to accomplishing their jobs with the possibility of doing so with consciousness. However, because of the nature of their work, an EMT has more possibilities of being in higher parts of centers and is daily acquainted with using death as an advisor, as Marcus Aurelius counsels. Changing mechanical intellectual habits into intentional thinking brings me closer to higher centers, which are beyond thought and above the intellectual center. Using higher parts of the intellectual center can bring me closer to higher states of consciousness.

Many things are mechanical and should remain mechanical. But mechanical thoughts, mechanical feelings—that is what has to be studied and can and should be changed. —P.D. Ouspensky

Join the discussion

Self-Portrait with Dr Arrieta, Francisco Goya