Mind-Body Thinkers and Doers
There are lots of half-forgotten thinkers and practitioners with useful concepts and methods for a western mind-body practice.
1.
There are lots of half-forgotten thinkers and practitioners with useful concepts and methods for a Western mind-body practice. It turns out late 19th to early 20th century is where the meat is—for both theory and practice. What is it they say about only reading books that are 100 years old?
2.
I’m amazed at how clearly these “out of date” thinkers saw the problems we’re facing today and suggested practical solutions long before it was obvious (introductions coming soon!) So I really think you should be reading those guys – or at least extended quotes and sections from their books – and not wasting time on my mediocre essays and other contemporary rubbish.
3.
But at the same time, I am trying to say something new here and pull it all together into a conceptual framework which makes sense for modern westerners AND translates into practical techniques. So I have to write something(!) but without becoming a curator site, or one of the ‘old books guys,’ which are fine, but we have a task here no one else is working on and we can’t read our way out of this one.
4.
So the question is: how to point you to these old thinkers and practitioners who have already said it all better than I can, while at the same time synthesising their ideas and methods into a framework we can use to develop a mind-body practice suitable for modern westerners? Basically I need a new format, and while video would technically be the most appropriate because i can mix the media, the problem there is you need these things to be scannable, organised properly with links etc without having to listen to hours of my weird accent (which AI still can’t subtitle correctly, my ‘voice-to-text’ notes are hilarious.)
5.
Here is the plan for now. I will write some ‘essays’ that quote at length from these old thinkers, then add a short commentary of why and how this is useful for our task, followed by some examples and experiments for how those ideas can be converted into practical procedures. Rather than keep waiting until this is all clear in my head first (i.e. never) I’ll just publish my thinking as i go here in an informal way. So subscribe and follow along if this is your thing. And whenever you’re ready you can get practical with private lessons.
6.
While writing this I was reminded of Buckminster Fuller’s letter to a 10 year old boy, I quote in full:
“Dear Michael,
Thank you very much for your recent letter concerning “thinkers and doers.”
The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done — that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.
Try making experiments of anything you conceive and are intensely interested in. Don’t be disappointed if something doesn’t work. That is what you want to know—the truth about everything—and then the truth about combinations of things. Some combinations have such logic and integrity that they can work coherently despite non-working elements embraced by their system.
Whenever you come to a word with which you are not familiar, find it in the dictionary and write a sentence which uses that new word. Words are tools—and once you have learned how to use a tool you will never forget it. Just looking for the meaning of the word is not enough. If your vocabulary is comprehensive, you can comprehend both fine and large patterns of experience.
You have what is most important in life — initiative. Because of it, you wrote to me. I am answering to the best of my capability. You will find the world responding to your earnest initiative.
Sincerely yours,
Buckminster Fuller
7.
So– what are the things that need doing, that no one else seems to see need doing? – for me right now it’s the development of a truly western mind-body practice. I’ll write more later about why this matters, and how it helps solve many problems normally seen as practical OR spiritual but ‘never the twain shall meet.’ I’m already making experiments and teaching people how to do their own experiments.
8.
If you’d like to try a private lesson, get in touch for the details:
Reply directly to this newsletter
or DM me on Twitter/X
Cheers,
Kevin