I was working at my part-time job this morning when it occurred to me that striving is not necessary. Of course I already know, intellectually, that striving is not necessary. My mental plans and cognitive churning has netted me zilch over my lifetime. I'm also aware that my conscious thinking process is a natural event, just like anything else, and I might as well just notice it.
As I was packaging payrolls, as I've done for 14 hrs a week for the past 6 years, I wondered if I could speed up my packaging at will. If I could consciously control the speed of this now fairly automatic process by descrete increments.
I should also add that it has been my practice, when I think of it, to meditate during periods of mindless toil. During these times my tendency is to observe. Observe is, however, too active a verb. "My senses operate," as a node in the flux of the non-seperateness would be a more accurate description, but would possibly make less sense to those who have not experienced it.
When these thoughts all came together as I was slipping bundled checks into FedEx envelopes at a high rate of speed, I had the experience of completely observing the actions that I would normally consider voluntary, as involuntary, natural occurances. As if I was watching my pulse, or my eyes blink in a mirror.
