I teach a art history class at a local high school, and twice during the semester, we go for a walk outside.
And these young ladies are all 16, mostly 16 years old, and they’re truly shocked by the bugs, the bees, the ants, the architecture, if you will, all sorts of things that are outside their field of studying.
They’re also shocked, I think, by people, by the poor. They don’t know how to react with an individual that is not in their social station in life, if you will.
And it always stuns me, because at 16 years old, you think you would have observed a lot of life. And in some societies, of course, 16, you were already a soldier marching off to war.
I think during the First World War, you had to be 19 to enlist, but many people in the British Empire, certainly after the war began in the following year, there’s such devastating losses in 1914, early 15, that they began to take people that looked
19. In some cases, as many as a third of the young soldiers were under that age, you know, so, gosh, you really think to yourself the power of observation, and why is it necessary?
Well, I think the major reason observation itself is necessary is because of critical thinking.
Unless we observe, it’s very difficult to believe that we can truly think, think through a problem, or think through a situation, find a way forward in this piece of life that I possess. Gosh, gotta learn to observe.
But you know, once again, it is a trained phenomenon.
And I said this before, when I went to a yoga conference in India about five years ago, the gurus there said that in his life, he wasn’t any more special than another human being in this estimation.
The only thing he did differently was that he observed. He closely followed the way of natural life, and he closely followed people. He truly listened to people.
So how do I develop these powers of observation?
Well, I think I learned to focus. Many people say, find a way that you slow down, because we live such busy lives. So how does one do that?
Well, I think one way for sure is in the morning, do not look at your phone for the first hour or two hours of the day. Don’t forget it, and nothing important is going to happen in the first hour anyhow.
And if it does, hey, it would have happened the following day as well. A crisis is always waiting to happen in life, isn’t it? And then what begins to happen is that you slowly but surely say to yourself, I’m going to practice silent observation.
I’m just going to look at every situation without comment. Keep it to myself. Analyze it, right?
So the other day when I went to the gym I go to, you know, I really made a point of studying the people beside me, around me, the actions. And I noticed one thing that kind of startled me.
The mirrors that are present in a gym are really looked at by a lot of people, a lot of people really study their bodies. And I think, of course, Leon, this is a gym.
People want to improve their bodies, but gosh, I never thought to this extent that the body was so important to so many people, because obviously the body will eventually leave me, won’t it? I will transcend some place somewhere without this body.
Keep it healthy, this is true, it’s 69 years old. Keep it healthy, keep it active, respect it, but realize the body is not the self, ultimately, it’s not.
And now, it’s certainly the ego, I think, when the body is dead, the ego is dissipated, for sure, but the self continues, whatever that means. And I’m not quite sure what I’m saying, but for sure, this is a Jungian philosophy, to a large extent.
I must learn to engage all my senses, mustn’t I? Really, all my powers, my powers of listening and hearing and tasting, touching, right? Whatever it is, in the sixth sense I possess as well, that magical sixth sense that protects me.
You know, and I always ask myself in every situation, am I or could I be missing something? And this certainly can be in the conversation with people because people say such strange things to you, don’t they?
A woman the other day who’s about my age told me that she’s losing her memory because she’s getting old. Now, why is that true? Because she’s heard it from other people all the time.
My body is slowly breaking down, so my life is not ascendant, it’s descendant. This is just an observation that she has, which is untrue, ridiculous. I think we have to also be quiet.
We have to learn to listen far more than we talk. I mean, we meet all sorts of people that just will not be quiet. And in a sense, some of them are quite amusing because fools are great, because they like to spin a story.
But in that sense, they don’t contribute anything to a conversation. You know, and then I think, ultimately get out in nature.
This last summer, David and I, of course, walked the Camino 900 kilometers, and on day six, we did a podcast on observation, observing things. And it was, I remember the day, it was extremely hot.
And I, for one, had begun to believe that I was actually going to pull this walk off, because on day six, you’ve only walked about 150 kilometers, not very far, and you’ve got 750 to go.
Very, very long way yet, but you start to get an inkling that you can actually do it. And then I think, you know, reflect on what you observe. Reflect on it.
That notebook’s so important. And I think then, finally, in the end, be grateful for what you’re allowed to observe in this magical world.
The other morning, I was awake at three o’clock, and I went into the kitchen, and there was an enormous cockroach just beside the sink. And my first inclination was, of course, to strike her and kill her.
And then I thought, why, why, why should I do such a thing? Well, how is she harming me? And we kind of stood there looking at each other.
And then I got, of course, the classical question. From Kafka’s Metamorphoses, why am I a man and you’re a cockroach when you’re a man and I should be the cockroach? Right?
A very curious feeling, for sure. Very curious. So, in the end, hone your powers of observation.
I think you will find them extremely useful as you develop your gift of observing critical thinking and, of course, time. Your time. And you know what they say.
You know what they say. Critical thinking is everything, especially if you’re going to hone your powers of observation and critical thinking is great. Truly great.
You take care. God bless. Bye bye.