Re: Walls, Perception, and Henry Miller

“Instead of bucking your head against a stone wall (why do we get headaches so often?), sit quietly with hands folded and wait for the wall to crumble. If you’re willing to wait an eternity, it may happen in the twinkling of an eye. For walls often give way quicker than the proud spirit which rules us. Don’t sit and pray that it will happen! Just sit and watch it happen. Sit thus, indifferent to everything that has been said and taught about walls. From dwelling on the headache which you will notice has departed, dwell on the emptiness between things, and finally on the emptiness of things. When this vast emptiness is filled with nothing but emptiness you will awaken to the fact that what you regarded as a wall is not a wall at all, but a bridge possibly, or a ladder of fire. The wall will still be there, of course, and if you had only ordinary vision it would be much like any other wall, but now you’ve lost that kind of vision and with it the difficulty that a bricklayer has in understanding what a scientist means when he explains what the elements of a wall really are. You have an edge over the scientist because you feel no need to explain anything. What is, is (Page 165).”
...

“I speak with inner conviction because I have been through the struggle. What I am trying to emphasize is that, whatever the nature of the problem, it can only be tackled creatively. There is no book of “openings,” as in chess lore, to be studied. To find an opening one has to make a breach in the wall – and the wall is almost always in one’s own mind. If you have the vision and the urge to undertake great tasks, then you will discover in yourself the virtues and the capabilities required for their accomplishment. When everything fails, pray! Perhaps only when you have come to the end of your resources will the light dawn. It is only when we admit our limitations that we find there are no limitations (Page 397).”


The two passages above are from Henry Miller's Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. Ever since my stay in Moratinos with Rebekah and Paddy I have poured over this wonderful book. Paddy suggested it to me, and I quickly connected with the text. I think above all else my outward laughter at certain points while reading pleased him immensely.

Since leaving Spain I had to go out and purchase my own copy of Big Sur. To this day I have still not finished the book in it's entirety, but continue to dip into it time and again to take away bits of Miller's insight and perspective. I see much of the person I hope that I am, or the person that I would like to become at some point within his writing.

Coming back to the point at hand though. I found the two passages within the text, much unconnected in proximity. However the individual ideals that each represent really struck me as intriguing. The first is clear in suggesting that obstacles are not always such, and that if we make the effort we can see them for what they really are. The second passage, on a somewhat similar note, remarks that often obstacles we come up against are for the most part within ourselves, and thus under our control should we choose to take that control. Nothing is impossible.

I know that lately there's been a lot of hype surrounding another book, The Secret, and the general consensus is different depending on who you talk to. Some regard it as a theory of positive thinking leading to positive outcomes. Others will tell you that no matter how hard you think about a pile of money it's not going to make a dime appear. When it's all boiled down it comes down to a difference between optimists and pessemists, or "idealists" and "realists" as they like to refer to one another. I would be lying if I said that I'd ever considered myself part of anything but the former camp. While yes, I'll agree that "magical thinking" does not necessarily exist as a phenomenon - despite what some people, including Augusten Burroughs will have you believe - that there is a certain truth to the ideal of positive thinking. Whenever I've faced a challenge in life or approached a difficult situation I've always found that finding the good, or more often than not the humour, in the subject helps it to not be such a challenge.

I think this idea relates well back to the statements that Miller made regarding walls and how we have the power to transcend them and revise our obstacles into something better - opportunity. Control is an amazing thing. The concept of the Locus of Control is a very important concept that I took from several of my classes in college. You either have an internal locus or an external locus - things are within your control or they are not. Studies have shown that the former perception leads to people living happier lives and being free of abundant mental stress. Likewise, just the opposite for those who rely heavily on an external locus. This is really what Miller is talking about, and to some extent what I'd be lead to believe The Secret (I've not read it for myself, so can't claim any authority over it's content) hinges it's philosophy on. It's not something mystical. It's just the power of human perception.