The Magellan's Log Mind Diet Pyramid is a riff on the government's food groups pyramid. Instead of food groups, we are concerned here with types of mental intake, mind nutrition, if you will.

We are so ignorant of our own wider needs that we have no base-line here, no knowledge of what the minimum daily requirement is, how much mind-silence is best for us. You will find, as you undertake the Magellan's Log Mind Diet, that your mind will eventually seek its own level of peace and quiet.

But you will need patience. In the first few days, it's common to feel a rush, a certain euphoria. This is temporary and short-lived. The old, static-filled momentum of long-established mind-habits will re-appear, and after a week you may find yourself thinking: "This is a waste of time."

Remember: Perseverance furthers, and gentle perseverance furthers best. Even after a month, you'll not notice much change. After six months? Yes, probably. After a year? Definitely.

But "change" here is subtle, lapping softly at the base of your fortress-ego, like a slowly rising tide.

As with the food groups pyramid, you start at the bottom and move up. The lowest level is the most important, the foundation for everything else. In our mind pyramid, we call that level "M".

M = Meditation.
Knee-jerk rejection? Just a sign of how much you've bought into the old "you are what you eat" materialism. Even materialist medicine, using its clever machines, is coming to realize that the various forms of meditation have wide-ranging, positive effects, on both mind and body.

The practicing meditator sooner or later confirms those effects for him/herself, and then some. The effects turn out to be 1) slow in coming, 2) cumulative, and 3) beneficial in ways beyond anything dreamt of in Feuerbach's food filosophy.

Joining a long, old line of speakers, we can say that those effects are the foundation for, literally, everything else. But we also hasten to add: don't believe us. Something like this, you don't take on faith and start bowing and chanting and tithing and moaning, "Oh yes, I believe, I really do; save me, save me." No. Not that. Don't believe it. Do it. Test it yourself. Maybe meditation is a pile of New Age crap. Or maybe not.

Y = Yoga.
One measurable negative effect of all those "mindless" hours of mental activity that showed up in our little test is a permanent, deep level of tension, both mental and physical. Meditation is how you begin relaxing the mind. Yoga is how you begin relaxing the body.

Again: don't believe this. Test it yourself. And again: The effects are 1) slow in coming, 2) cumulative, and 3) beneficial in surprising, sometimes mysterious ways.

B = Breathing.
The old yoga books call the energy we get from breathing "prana." The old Chinese books call it "qi" (pronounced "chee"). Whatever you call it, it is the first and essential "food", encompassing quite a bit more that oxygen. Again: Don't believe us. Get books, get a teacher, and start patiently paying attention to your breath.

That's it really. Those three element, M-Y-B, are the Magellan's Log Mind Diet. They are the foundation on which a richer, more productive, more rewarding life can be built. Put another way: They are the soil in which a better life can and will take root and grow and blossom.

P = Philanthropy.
C = Creativity.
Giving well is the best revenge.

With a relaxed mind, a relaxed body, and with both well-ventilated, you will find two natural movements occurring in your actions, on outward, one inward.

The outward movement, we can call "philanthropy," a desire to help others. The inward movement, we can call "creativity," a desire to help yourself buy letting your own abilities grow and develop.

END

Send this page to a friend.

Back to Magellan's Log 12

Magellan's Log front page