The High Cost of Learning

Learning is not free, there is always some type of expense involve with learning. My college degree left me with a debt the equivalent value of a very nice full sized car. Some of the more important lessons I have learned were at the expense of losing or breaking something that was important at the time. Even as a child, I attended a public school which was funded by the property taxes from the county the schools was in. In the age of information, it would seem that the cost of learning would be on the decline. Even though it may appear to be free, they highest cost of learning is the lose of innocence. As I write this, I am cognitive of my attempts to get you to surrender some of your innocence and hope that you feel the exchange was worthy of the cost.

Supposedly one of the attributes of my personality that is the source of a mild charm according to those who have been fond of me for many years is my ability to cast doubt about the sincerity vs. sarcasm of anything I say. While I delight in being surrounded by the self-conflicted, my true motive is persuade my companions to not be stuck painting a fence whilst others are off fishing. I will admit that it is very difficult to get me to vocalize much in my communications but I do feel that when I do write I make up for a lifetime of silence. If my writing was a conversation at the pub I'm sure I would be the lonely guy babbling about things that require too much for most to wrap there minds around. On the occasion that I find myself with a captive audience, I do typically get thanks for having distilled a complexity into the simplicity that is easily digested.

This is the part where I begin to make a play to convince you to release your grip on your innocence. I find myself writing about M-Theory quite frequently and I realize that not everyone understands what it is. M-Theory, originally called string theory, suggest that when the universe is defined in terms of how the most minute particles interact with each other that it has the characteristics of a string when converted into an equation. It has since been described as more of a membrane than a string hence M is for membrane. I will spare you the details from a mathematics stand point and try instead to make an illustration of what this theory translates into. Although I could really enjoy spending a couple of months digging into the math because of the mental vigor that would result but I digress.

What does this membrane have to do with anything? Well the membrane is an invisible force that connects everything together from the tiniest sub-particle level. Yes, the universe can be looked at as a single item that is made up of an inter-connected collection of pieces that are used to form everything that exist. That means that you, I, and everyone else are connected with one another in the cosmic sense. I'm going to go a little further and let you know that we are also connected to everything else whether living beings, rocks, water, and a long list of things that we cannot even see. When you look at how connected everything is from this stand point, there are a lot of implications that everyone should take to heart.

Our connection to each other and everything would make a thinking person consider their actions and how they impact everything else. Projecting kindness and consideration would be how you hope that all of these other things we are connected with would be toward us so probably in the best interest of all to project kindness and consideration to all others. Yes I am saying don't throw a rock at a tree out of anger. When we consider that membrane that connects all of everything together in terms of Karma, if I act in anger or with malice toward something, throwing a rock at a tree, then it would be a fair return for me to get stung by a hornet to restore the balance within the membrane. The concept of the membrane really re-enforces the morals of the stories that we all heard as children.

I will be the first to admit that the number of books I have read in my life would total to a number less than my age. I have however gotten a great deal of mileage out of the books that I have read due to the intense philosophy associated with the books. Several years ago I was asked to perform some brief bits of music between sessions at a conference at which I met the author of a book which presented scientific evidence that prayer does have an effect on the outcomes. The author was a doctor who kept records on several hundred patients and how they fared and if their family would gather an pray or not. Along about the same time I read this book I was also grazing through many volumes of Carlos Casteneda's tales of shamanism he learned from an ancient tradition of Mayan origin. The membrane allows my mind to combine the information from both books into a related subject that is also congruent with the bible as well as the original telling through the story of Gilgamesh.

All the lessons point to how our interaction with each other and our environment, our universe, we could be very mindful of not only our actions but our thoughts as well. I have reviewed a fair amount of science related to metaphysical topics and have to say that the membrane concept helps explain psychic abilities in a much less scary way. The membrane theory seems to provide a level of comfort to me that I have never been able get through religion. I say this because it provides an explanation of how the collection of sub-particles that connect us all make it possible for me to see that we can exist for an eternity even though there will be some transformation of form at some point. Does this concept make me turn my head from religion? Not in the least because if someone has the capacity to be open minded enough to look for the relation you find that the best guides to being a contributer to the universe is taught through religions.

I did read most of a book by the Dalai Lama and I found his message and his attitude to be one of the most progressive of any I have encountered. It says rather directly that he is not sharing the teachings in an effort to recruit or convert people. He is sharing the ancient teachings in hopes that others can find a way to integrate the best parts into their own religion and spirituality. His philosophy is one of the best to show how it is possible to let everything freely flow together and we can still maintain peace. It also shows how not just the actions but the thoughts of hate and anger not only effect us as individuals but it has an impact on all of everything due to the way the membrane connects the universe. To me this gives me a major incentive to try really hard to banish the feelings of anger and hatred that seem to crop up every few minutes.

This is the point that I will ask you to take a deep breath and rest your eyes for a second then review some of the disclaimers I have posted around my blog, especially the frequently asked questions. Go ahead, I'll wait. OK, now that you are back lets see if we can wrap this up. What I have illustrated here is that in questioning everything you can see more than negatives in the answers. People assume that to question something will lead to negation. I propose that questing the information that is presented to you can also illuminate some extremely positive ideas as well. Yes I am a daydreamer and I have little concern for reality when I don't have to. I enjoy swimming in the ocean of my imagination and becoming immersed the potential for things considered impossible. Later I am able to synthesize some of these thoughts into usable tidbits within reality even though they sometimes seem a little outside of the realm of normal.

This is the point that I reward you for having chosen to surrender a little of the innocence you might have given up. While there is no way to prove of disprove a lot of what I have suggested and I am in no way suggesting that anyone believe what I have said in the preceding paragraphs. In my assuming the role of the teacher my motive was to provide you the pupil with an abstraction that will allow you to take away a much deeper message than what was presented on the surface. Take some time and let your mind sort through some of the possibilities that exist within your own mind. Take my conclusion for this piece as you are in control of your thoughts and actions, approach them as if everything you do and everything you think has an impact on the entire universe and you will find the importance to make the effort to do a little better each day. You can relax now.