By Tricia Lunt, English Faculty
The practice of mindfulness began with the oldest philosophies, yet in a world inundated with distractions and desires it is more necessary than ever.
Everything can be done in a state of mindful focus and intentionality. I am reminded of the “Zen art of sweeping the parking lot” as expressed by a teenage employee who was gently mocking the advice of his boss, the owner of the small convenience store at the end of my road who believed that a well-maintained parking lot is a beautiful thing, achieved with the utmost care and purposefulness. When engaged in what I consider the best things in life: walking, dancing, baking, cleaning, cooking, swimming, I am filled with the joy of the activity, living fully and happily in the moment.
A recent study attempts to measure the impact of mindfulness on happiness, applying technology in an ingenious way while gleaning an astounding amount of insight thanks to the possibility of enormous research participation through an application feeding the findings to the TrackYourHappiness.org project. A discussion of the discoveries can be found in the TedTalk by Matt Killingsworth.
The results yield fascinating insights, particularly the significant correlation between mindfulness and happiness, determined through feelings of well-being experienced when people are truly present and engaged in the current moment and activity, whatever that may be.
Another extremely encouraging result is that among all the activities human engage in, the one activity that engages us the most, commanding 90% presence in the moment, is having sex. I find this data incredibly reassuring since it provides positive proof of the powerful impact acts of love wield on our imagination, in case the plethora of novels, paintings, songs, and poems weren’t proof enough.
I recall a related definition of happiness from the movie Shadowlands
Jack: Now I don’t want to be somewhere else anymore. Not waiting for anything new to happen. Not looking around the next corner, not the next hill. Here now. That’s enough.
Joy: That’s your kind of happy, isn’t it?
Jack: Yes. Yes it is.
Intentional, intense, and sustained attention can be built also a reliable life skill. Often challenged by the many diversions of modern life, concentration must be established and maintained to accomplishing anything. Thus, the practice of mindfulness and development of focus becomes more crucial; I remain firm in my position that smart phone dependency undermines daily productivity and happiness, among other things. No matter what we are in the midst of, more contentment emerges through finding meaning in each moment.
Recently, my friend Kris created a mindfulness project for his art students, inviting a yoga instructor to expand his students’ understanding and inform their work. He’s the kind of art teacher who ensures learners go on to lead meaningful, creative lives.
As for engaging in moments that are less wonderful, it seems that accepting the difficult days as they are might be the best strategy, too. We must find the strength to live through things. Here, again, Kris offers wise counsel, including accepting the aches which accompany life, “pain now or pain later,” is his sage advice.
Whenever possible, we must seek to live fully and deeply in each moment. Indeed, being fully present is an extraordinary act of choice, one upon which our happiness may even depend.
created a tale that fit Joseph Campbell’s meta-myth structure, or that he gave life to characters similar to those in the samurai films of Kurasawa, or that he sometimes blatantly copied old Flash Gordon television serials.
shots, crane shots and sweeping cameras were co-opted by many after her. When I first saw ‘Triumph’ as a sophomore in college, I realized Lucas was one such director. Riefenstahl made the 1934 Nazi rally look massively popular and powerful by setting a camera high above the whole parade grounds, recording thousands upon thousands of Nazi party members lined in rows. In such shots, the Nazi hordes are a man-made sea, being parted by the all- powerful leader, Adolf Hitler. In the same film, Riefenstahl records Hitler high above the masses, standing upon a giant concrete viewing station and watching stoically as his SA and SS march by on the parade ground. When viewing such scenes, it is impossible not to see Darth Vader 
and the Emperor marching through masses of Imperial Stormtroopers. Lucas made such scenes even more powerful by using John Williams’ ‘Imperial March’. In this, he was no different than Riefenstahl, who used music in much the same way. Of course, the music she chose for her celebratory film made the Nazi Stormtroopers seem heroic, whereas Williams’ march makes Vader’s Stormtroopers dreadful. For Lucas, the Empire and its’ leaders become the personification of political evil by being the reincarnation of Riefenstahl’s Nazis. The empire is fascism revived.
leader and the symbology that surrounds the movement illustrates that Abrams continued the fascistic look of evil from Lucas’ galaxy. Like Lucas, Abrams used Riefenstahl as the ‘First Order’s’ reference point. Just look at the apocalyptic speech by General Hux, as he prepares his troops for the destruction of the Republic. Wearing military haute couture, Hux stands on a massive concrete platform with red ‘First Order’ banners hanging behind him. He speaks to thousands of ‘First Order’ troops lined in formation. When he is finished, the troops raise their left hands in salute. Hmm, that definitely looks familiar, doesn’t it?
before when I was 21 years old. Back then, during the Spring Semester of my Junior undergrad year, I signed up for a course titled ‘Great Books’, or something like that. We had to read Homer’s Iliad, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain and Tolstoy’s aforementioned monster. That is A LOT of reading for a 15 week course.
based upon reputation and heresy more than reality. Many will sit down and read all the Game of Thrones books, and each of those are only a bit shorter than Tolstoy’s work. Plus, there really aren’t that many main characters; ten or so protagonists make up roughly 80% of the book. Granted, the historical aspects of the book can confuse, but all you need are some end-notes to clear things up.
book, I felt spiritually charged. Only the greatest pieces of art have this ability. I believe a good analogy would be walking into Chartres Cathedral for the first time. The size, the colors, the sounds, the epic nature of the environment must take one aback. Even if you don’t believe in what the church represents, the grandeur of the product still moves you. This is much like Tolstoy’s creation. At times, Tolstoy’s esoteric mystical Christianity shines through in certain characters’ beliefs, words and actions. While I in no way buy into Tolstoy’s religion, it is difficult not to be moved by his descriptions of the sacred. War and Peace is Chartres, Rouen, Notre Dame in written form. The nice thing is, you don’t need to travel thousands of miles across an ocean to experience Tolstoy.
The Flâneur's Turtle 