Aw, Saiyuki, vessel for all that is philosophical....

[darkelf105]

I have been reading Wandering God by Morris Berman. I am only about sixty or so odd pages into the work so I cannot say for sure, but Berman seems to be talking about maybe flow.

The thesis of the book is that humanity, through civilization (and a whole host of anthropological and societal reasons that I really don’t feel like rehashing), has lost the cognitive ability to just be. Humans can no longer live just in the present and thus spend most of their time in the future. Technically, one can never live in the future, because by its very definition the future cannot exist in the time stream we inhabit. We are creatures that MUST live in the present by our understanding of time, but because of civilization, because of the accumulation of things, because of the very brains that make us human, we live in an imaginary time for most of our waking hours.  

Now Berman is not proposing some goopy, New Agey return to hunter gatherer societies or radically altering civilization or any of the host of ridiculous other solutions to the problem of modernity that I have seen. Berman simply suggests that human beings relearn to exist in the present—if I understand his theory about civilization and the psychic problems that it seems to cause. The book was written awhile ago, I think, although Sirsi has the copyright at 2001, but I think this is merely a new edition, so I am wondering if maybe Berman is talking about the concept of flow, a complete awareness of the present and a balance of the brain to just go with the moment without conscious thought or effort. Flow usually happens accidentally, when we are so fully involved with what we are doing, we have so mastered out task that we literally become the moment that we are in, the task we are doing.

I think, and as usual when I think I come back to this manga, that the type person that Berman is talking about is Goku. I know that Goku is supposed to be the embodiment of Monkey Mind, the quest to calm the mind, the quest to order chaos, that Goku, traditionally, is not what we should strive for. Kazuya Minkura’s Goku is the archetype of what Berman is writing about.

Goku lives completely in the moment. The other gentlemen of Saiyuki do, to some extent, but Goku is the best example of what living in the moment really means. Goku never does anything in advance. He reacts purely to what is in front of him. His needs are never preceded. By this, I mean that the expectation of a FUTURE need is never met before the actual NEED arises. Goku does not plan what he will eat, or when. He knows, probably, on some level that he will, throughout the day be hungry, but he never consciously plans on procuring food for this future need. He simply gets food when the need arises.  He does this with sleep. I don’t actually think that boys really ever plan anything, unless a pressing need to do so arises. The future is not something they dwell in. Sometimes they wallow in the past, but it isn’t so frequent and it is usually because some PRESENT situation forces them to use their past experiences to deal with the PRESENT situational needs.

I think that the whole of Saiyuki is a giant metaphor for this cognitive state of being. The men of Saiyuki don’t really plan around their world so much as react to it, and it is because of this reaction, this level of constant awareness of the world at present, that they are so successful in what they do—which is live.  I think that they are character embodiments of what psychologists call flow, and I think that’s why I admire them (and Minekura’s stupendous characterization of them) and also why they thought of living as they do intimidates me—it is a mode of being which I am not used to being in, it is a mode of being which most of us are not used to being in. But then again, I don’t know that much about flow and I haven’t finished Berman’s book, so all of this is random internet dribble.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Neat, I wish I knew more about flow though I am pretty sure I know what you are talking about. I think it is interesting that you picked Saiyuki as I remember someone writing something very similar probably during ISW, but I looked around and couldn't find it again.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

I don't know that much about flow, either. But to me that seems to be what the author of "Wandering God" is getting at. Needless to say, I ordered some books about the phenomenon.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Cool. Sounds more fun than cleaning my room.

[owaine.livejournal.com]

Not sure I would have referred to this as drivel, or even dribble. It's pretty darn insightful, actually. I have to say that I haven't read any of the books that you mentioned (I tried to log onto the college and get Berman's book, but it's not responding).

The thing that sticks out in my mind is a passage from scripture. Matthew 6:23-33 seems to be the source for his writing. It's where Jesus tells the disciples not to worry about what they are going to eat, or what they are going to wear. "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."

For some reason man (and I use this in the broadest sense as in all people) seems obsessed with *things*. We are the only species on the planet that is concerned with time and possessions. We are the only species on the planet the goes to bed when they aren't sleepy and gets up when they are. We do those things that we aren't happy doing, and we don't do the things that we are called to do. How many people are in jobs they hate? How few poets and artists do we actually know?

Seems to me we should be more like Jake, my pure-bred stupid, err, Lab. It's said that a contented dog does... nothing. He's not as bad as a cat and sleeps 22 hours a day, but he's getting there. His big concern is getting outside to race up and down the fence line with the neighbors dog.

Well, this is a lot longer than I had planned. All I meant to say was I think you are on to something here.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Do check on Berman. He is an interesting fellow. He is one part philosopher, one part anthropologist, one part psychologist, and one part theorist. "Wandering God" is the third book in his trilogy on human conscienceness. I was thinking about that quote from Matthew, but I am not particularly religious, so I usually go for literary comparisons. Lately, I have been completely obssessed with the vacuity and emptiness that modern life seems to breed in human beings. You should also read "White Noise" by Don Delillo.