The Mind Is Just A Reflex Organ : Kinky Solutions : A Student's Perspective by Ben Nadel

Recent Entries Complete Entry List May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 AJAX (13) Ask Ben (92) Books (12) ColdFusion (832) Exercise List (17) Flash (3) Health / Fitness (31) HTML / CSS (28) Javascript / DHTML (85) Life (62) Movies (20) Project HUGE (28) Relationships (6) Search Engine Optimization (14) Skin Spider (30) SQL (82) Work (101) XStandard WYSIWYG (21) RSS 2.0 Custom RSS 2.0

Posted February 4, 2008 at 6:44 PM

Tags: Life

A couple of weeks ago, I re-rented the movie, the Peaceful Warrior with Nick Nolte. It's one of those movies that just makes you want to be better, appreciate more, and be happier and I had a craving for that kind of a feeling. Anyway, this time, one of the lines really struck a chord in me; the lead actor had just finished describing that he felt bad that his first thought after having witnessed a friend being hurt was how could this help out his own career. To this, Socrates (Nick Nolte) stated:

The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. None of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose.

The first time I watched this movie, I didn't really give this any thought; but, the fact is, if you accept it, this philosophy is an extremely freeing outlook on life. Think about how much guilt people can carry around about the things they think. But why? What do your thoughts have to do with anything? It is our actions and our practices that define who we are. Like Soc. says, so many of our thoughts are just reflex reactions to things we see and hear every day - they are not who we are. How freeing!

Anyway, just thought I would share this sweet piece of philosophy.

Comments (3)  |  Post Comment  |  Ask Ben  |  Permalink  |  Print Page

• Add To Del.icio.us
• Add To Digg
• Add to Spurl.net
• Add to Wists
• Add to Simpy
• Add to Newsvine
• Add to BlinkList
• Add to Furl
• Add to reddit
• Add to FARK
• Add to BlogMarks
• Add to Yahoo! My Web
• Add to smarking
• Add to Ma.gnolia
• Add to Segnalo

Reader Comments

The Way of the Peaceful Warrior was my favorite book as a kid. Everything Socrates says made so much sense to me then and I continue to think about these things 15 years later. It's tough to quiet the mind. It takes a ton of practice, but it's well worth it.

Posted by koen on Feb 4, 2008 at 8:06 PM

@koen,

After having seen the movie, I happened to come across the book at a used book sale. It's on my list of books to read, but I haven't gotten to it. Now, I am really looking forward to it.

Posted by Ben Nadel on Feb 4, 2008 at 8:53 PM

Nice one. Thanks for sharing

Posted by Daniel on Feb 5, 2008 at 10:54 AM

Post Comment  |  Ask Ben