Pesky memories

I spent a long time reading about zen before getting anywhere close to actually trying it. One of the things I read was a quote from someone who commented on the universal experience of meditators who, tyring to quiet their minds, are vexed by thoughts and memories that keep arising. This writer -- I've forgotten who, and where I read this -- said something like he wished he had stopped listening to the radio a long time ago because every lousy Top 40 song, commercial jingle and other scrap of audio from the last 30 years were now replaying in his mind during meditation.

I had read other accounts of unwanted memories and thoughts plaguing the meditator, but this was the only one which made it sound like your life was passing before your eyes, sort of like the first scene of the movie "Contact." In that film, the camera pulls back from earth and out into deep space, and as it gets farther and farther away from earth, the audience hears the whole history of broadcast television and radio, in reverse. Somewhere around Jupiter you hear Nixon resign. Farther out, "a day that will live in infamy." Even farther, "Watson, come here, I need you." And finally, the dots and dashes of Morse code -- presumably "What hath God wrought."

I was reminded of this when I read this article about autistic savants, with this intruging passage:

Compulsive practice might enhance these skills over time, but Snyder
contends that practice alone cannot explain the phenomenon. As evidence, he cites rare cases of sudden-onset savantism. Orlando Serrell, for example, was hit on the head by a baseball at the age of 10. A few months later, he began recalling an endless barrage of license-plate numbers, song lyrics, and weather reports.

More at http://www.discover.com/feb_02/featsavant.html -- a terrific article about savants and the potential for ordinary people to unlock the brain's functioning. I'm usually not interested in futuristic science articles, but this one is great.

Of course, my mind is a veritable riot of thoughts, memories and fantasies during meditation. It rarely calms down during the 40-minute session. I have to sit for a couple of hours before I really start calming down. That's why I wish I could go to tomorrow's monthly one day sit, which goes from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. But Cris and I have tickets to the ballgame, another opportunity to meditate.