Buzzzzzzzzzzzz

There's a lot of talk in education about using 'alternative' forms of education to reach students. Today we tried such an activity.

In my Indigenous Education class, we went on an introspective nature walk, where we were asked to walk silently (something very difficult for my cohort to do) for about 5 minutes, while we reached one of the more wild and unvisited parts of campus. We were encouraged, as we walked, to find 'centeredness' - to become closer to nature.

Something I observed while walking with my peers is that many of them, as observed by their body language and later comments, weren't able to get the most out of the experience. The common theme: most people weren't able to shut off, for just five minutes, the jibber-jabber and the little social games going on in their heads.

There were comments about feeling awkward walking across campus, in a group, completely silently (feeling self-conscious about being seen by others walking silently in a class-sized group), people were bobbing around like they wanted to talk, but were having to actively restrain themselves, and some were playing games of shuffling themselves in the walking group in order that they were near the people in the group they wanted to be near.

It must be said: most people think, if you ask them, that they are in control of their mind and emotions. If you can't turn those, which are really just the mind, off for five minutes, even or especially in a provocative social setting, is it you who is in control of your mind, or is it your mind that is in control of you? If your mind is just a tool, and isn't you, and therefore all that buzzzzzzzz of ultimately useless mental thought that goes on inside our heads every second of the day isn't us, but is a product of the incessant mind, than what does 'I' really mean? If 'I' have a mind, and 'it' thinks, than perhaps there are two 'me's': the jabbering mind (which often thinks that it is me), and the owner of that mind.