I have Meniere’ s Disease or MD ( wanted to be a doctor when I left HS).
Ménière’s disease (MD) is a disorder of the inner ear that is characterized by episodes of feeling like the world is spinning (vertigo), ringing in the ears (tinnitus), hearing loss, and a fullness in the ear.[3][4] Typically only one ear is affected, at least initially; however, over time both ears may become involved.[3] Episodes generally last from 20 minutes to a few hours.[5] The time between episodes varies.[3] The hearing loss and ringing in the ears may become constant over time.[4] There is no known cure.[
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Well, this was a rip roaring talk because it feels so good to be back on my feet after yesterdays sea sickness when I was not at sea. And as usually, what happens in my everyday mind and world is food for my writing and talks, metaphorical food, that is. When I write and talk to you, I restore my center. The Still Point of balance is restored, and through that black hole my writing and talk pours.
Today, the severe attack of yesterday is gone and only a normal background ear ringing and slight dizziness remains, which is normal for me. However, I got a great metaphor for my talk today, so I am thankful for my Happy Fault. Anything that gives me insight is worth keeping.
In this talk I point to the underlying nausea, and existential collective nausea and vertigo that is happening in our society today, in western civilization, to speak with a wider view. We don’t know where our center is: is it in Trump? Is it in Liberalism? Is it in religion? Is it in science? is there no center? Is it is yoga, Jung, philosophy, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism,…where it is? Whatever we grab hold of today, is subject to vertigo and the nausea creeps up through the floor of our mind like the rising ocean on a sinking ship. All fo the foundations of our collective mind are being torn from our clutching hand, even time itself….even God. Everyone is trying to take our Center away…..THERE IS NO CURE.
Meniere’s Disease (metaphor alert) can strike at anytime. In an argument with your spouse or boss, ro when things go wrong, and you feel the threat of vertigo where what you depended upon is no longer certain. We try to restore balance by removing the threat to our balance, or denying it, or dismissing it. When those strategies fail, we get violent. The last card to play is death itself. Death restores center.
And this is metaphorically true because our true center is still and what is without movement is empty. Death is also empty and without movement. Center and Death are the same from the view point of movement and our clinging to false centers that are also moving in time. Stillness, Death, and our heart Center are deathless and timeless because it is not moving. It is a Black Hole in space.
There is no cure to the Society’s Meniere’s Disease because only the restoration of Center can restore balance, but if we look for this saving center in form, in the world, it will not cure the imbalance because that is like clinging to a chair on a ship at sea. Every from is moving. In an earth quake there is nothing you can cling to. So there is no cure to the vertigo created by an earth quake. There is no cure or center with everything is society is losing its center.
This is a spiritual crisis in which all our crutch centers are being kicked from under us, forcing us to make the leap to the discover of the Still Center within our own hearts. I would like to say that Still Center is the Christ, but I can’t because that, it today’s confusion, which just mean that one should find your center in Christianity and the Church, which is also moving and crumbling before our eyes. There is no form within and without where you can find and cling to any center that will cure the vertigo. Christ is the lost center only when Christ is empty of being Christ.