206 Principle vs. Preference

Montage Thinking: Significant Truth #3 would have to be relationships with an introduction by way of people and with sub-themes such as thought, feeling, choice, communication . . . and destiny! Just to mention a few—all presented by drawing on and combining with Significant Truth #1: God, #2: Meaning and #4: Mind—Being & Doing (Blog #186,193).

As I just explained in last blog, with Montage Thinking (potent, powerful thinking, whether heroic or villainous) available in the life experience, I think it can easily be seen that being and doing can get complicated really fast— for good or for evil.

I say that, Gentle Reader, because what a person first chooses (whether to submit to “good”—the Principles of God as described by the Holy Trinity or to rebel in favor of one’s own Preferences) will forever predispose that person to making that same choice again the next time challenge comes around, only now the person’s choice will come with an automated quality, and if then repeated often enough even becomes a mindless routine.

And, well note, Gentle Reader; this acquiring of automatic doing is one of the great powers to which such thought processes give rise—the eventual emergence of automatic rather than conscious thought and behavioral process. In such a way, one becomes a force for good or evil.

A sobering thought, is it not?

To be continued . . .

205 People & Thinking

Montage Thinking: Significant Truth #3 would have to be relationships with an introduction by way of people and with sub-themes such as thought, feeling, choice, communication . . . and destiny! Just to mention a few—all presented by drawing on and combining with Significant Truth #1: God, #2: Meaning and #4: Mind—Being & Doing (Blog #186,193).

But now, let’s imagine how people equipped with Montage Thinking, especially people presented with a challenge, deal with a wide range of choices. First of all, please note that Montage Thinking in itself does not guarantee right thinking. That depends on what values control the development of the montage.

Generally speaking, all people can react, respond or initiate, mentally and physically in response to a challenge. If the challenge includes emotional content such as fear or anxiety, they can choose a mental solution, after first replacing fear with confidence and anxiety with peace; or the mind can be overcome by the challenge, resulting in panic and disorderly thinking (Whew! What a choice this one is! Yet many make it!). Then again, they can choose a physical solution (or a little of each—thinking, feeling and physical combined) in the classic responses of fight or flight—actions as a result of hormonal surge by adrenaline or epinephrine, resulting in courage or cowardice.

All these things people do spontaneously. It’s only when thinking is built into an art form, Gentle Reader, that it becomes Montage Thinking. And always remember, villains are as capable of highly developed thinking as heroes. For, example, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (who stands for superior thinking, if not in all cases doing—alas, he is a drug addict) is paired in many stories with his arch-villain and nemesis, Moriarty, also a brilliant thinker though sadly lacking any socially redeeming virtues.

As you can see, the process of Montage Thinking is brimming with possibilities, permutations and combinations. And therefore, it is necessary (if one chooses, of course) to strive to trim one’s aspirations to the shape of Right Montage Thinking.

As you all know by now, to me the only right thinking whether montage or not is God’s thinking. Rest assured, God’s thinking is so much higher than mine (or ours) that I (or we) cannot possibly ever understand its full measure; but I trust God and that says it all.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

To be continued . . .

204 Let Me Elaborate

Montage Thinking: Significant Truth #3 would have to be relationships with an introduction by way of people and with sub-themes such as thought, feeling, choice, communication . . . and destiny! Just to mention a few—all presented by drawing on and combining with Significant Truth #1: God, #2: Meaning and #4: Mind—Being & Doing (Blog #186,193).

Let me elaborate a little more on Montage Thinking, Gentle Reader. With God as the model for being and doing (The first 100 or so of my blogs discussed God’s being and doing), I will now suggest a sketch of how people think.

Imagine a group of people existing in relationship with others. They have freedom of choice, are able to communicate and experience a sense of destiny. They are capable of considering the existence or non-existence of God, using their mind to form conscious thought and to operate their body for various tasks of doing. Their thoughts and emotions affect the direction of their lives. These powers are all God-given powers (according to Scripture), powers modeled after the conscious powers of evaluation, selection, retention, elimination, decision and action which God demonstrates, powers which He commits solely to the purpose of good.

Some of these people (like myself) will develop Montage Thinking. Some will not. Think of it this way, some will concentrate on building thinking powers while others will studiously avoid such a pursuit—to put matters simply. Over my lifetime, I have worked to develop my thinking by a combination of research and periodic sort-outs like this one—both meant to simultaneously build and streamline my thinking. My development of Montage Thinking, where distinguished pivotal concepts appear, where thinking rises to the level of an art form, is only lately evidencing in me (such is the plight of an airhead debutante)—but evidencing it is!

For example, just last night I realized that Montage Thinking is a lot like the operations of an iPhone—scrolling apps! You know, Gentle Reader, one turns on one’s iPhone and icons appear. Then one scrolls to and taps an icon and one is off and running in a well-developed little program that admirably serves one’s needs.

Take the iPhone image one step further and we have the large screen montage where one can shift icons or other types of data feed around by hand, slinging them here and there, enlarging one for a look-see, then shrinking it back to proceed to another, and so on.

How do I apply that image to thinking? Well, when one improves one’s thinking to the point where one can mentally perform such acts as skillfully manipulating data within one’s own mind or in writing, that’s what I call Montage Thinking—the mental manipulation of succinct, distinct, and excellently crafted ideas sorted-out for those of real and lasting beauty and value.

Yes, this takes work!

I guess that is at least one reason why some people will do it and some will never even try.

To be continued . . .

203 Montage Thinking

I used the word montage in last blog. For the sake of clarity, I will share a definition of the word:

Encarta Dictionary:

Montage: Artwork created from small pieces, a picture or other work of art composed by assembling, overlaying, and overlapping many different materials or pieces collected from different sources, e.g. photographs, magazines and other pictures.

For the further sake of clarity, I also present this encapsulation of where goes our imminent journey of discovery and title it Montage Thinking:

Montage Thinking: Significant Truth #3 would have to be relationships with an introduction by way of people and with sub-themes such as thought, feeling, choice, communication . . . and destiny! Just to mention a couple! All presented by drawing on and combining with Significant Truth #1: God, #2: Meaning and #4: Mind—Being & Doing (Blog #186,193).

To be continued . . .

202 A Journey of Understanding

There are a number of additional aspects to relationship yet to be covered; and we will, later on; but it is relevant at this juncture, Gentle Reader, to recall to your attention my original purpose in writing this blog—it was to be a sort-out; an expression of the far flung odyssey or spiritual path that prominently emerged over the course of my life and continues even now, due to my predisposition to quest for the significant in life and, principally, God’s mercy on a wayward soul.

In order to sort out what was or was not significant in my life, I began this quest by looking through the poorly organized relics of my past; collected, as I so delicately indicated early in my writing, in the attic of my head. There I selected single-mindedly for the significant, preserving such things in good order and letting go of the rest. My hope was and is that by discarding the irrelevant, I make way in my life for expansion of the relevant—in other times, this little sort-out of mine would have been called leading a self-examined life.

Oddly, I have found that something unsuspected must regularly continue in any sort-out of thinking or pursuit of the significant—one must continue to take in an ample supply of ongoing superior thinking, allow it to mature in the mind, merge with previous thinking and prove or disprove itself jointly with any incumbent history. (In other words, I can’t stay frozen in the past on any subject.) Only then may I elect to either preserve or reject either the new or old. This means therefore that the work of the quest must routinely involve not only what has already been accumulated over the years but the steady stream of additional material I keep adding. It’s a big process!

As a result, I have crafted conscious solutions to handling big undertakings. Primary among those solutions is coping by way of self-discipline and the practice of presenting an orderly array of what I discover in writing. Such solutions make my odyssey fruitful to me and to any who travel with me whether briefly or for a longer duration on my journey of understanding.

If you recall, my sort-out early took on the orderly routine of selecting a few categories that resonated with me, evaluating their significance then placing them in order of importance to me—that led to Significant Truths #1-4: God, Meaning, Relationship, and Mind: Being and Doing. Then the shared components of being and doing in each category began to prompt me to link them together, looking at relationship by way of exploring the subject of people and how they are modeled on and experience the Significant Truths of God, Meaning, Relationship, and Being and Doing. Such exploration began to suggest sub-themes, two of which are communication and even destiny, but there are more. ( Blog #186)

The upshot? I discovered that I would have to discuss them all in sort of a montage approach.

To be continued . . .