The Trawler

The Far View

If a Taoist sage were to stand on the temple steps and gaze through the stages of antiquity right up to our present day he would notice changes. 

Though the fish in the sea are still the same, Man would appear to have evolved. Certainly Man’s outer world is evidence of this evolutionary change and development. In all of this change, our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it has certainly evolved through the distillation of learned knowledge. There are things we know now without having to consider whether, why, or if.

Yet, in the midst of all this evidence, the sage would also notice Man’s inner world – and the sheer volume of turmoil taking place within the infinite confines of our minds. And the degree to which we are able to cope with this volume is THE key factor in the quality of our lives.

Angling at metaphors

Many of us - in terms of our mental processes - certainly don’t go rod and line fishing, let alone tickling trout. We have a tendency to match and be led by the pace of modern life and so our fishing is more of an industrial process, whereby we might go out in our trawlers with nets at the ready, targeting shoals of thoughts.

Yet fishing, in our daily lives, was not always like this. When we take steps back along the timeline of history, life back then was simpler; not necessarily easier, but certainly simpler. And that applied to everyone, from princes to paupers, from Machiavelli to Saint Joan. Part of that simplicity is down to the perceptive and imperceptive mental processes that we label up as thinking, or the power of thought.

Out there in the mental seas there are millions of fish. They are there all day and all night. When we are awake we have an awareness that they are there and, though we may not see them when we are asleep, they are still there then as well.

Of course, if we run our lives on the basis of “seeing is believing” then we’ll believe they are NOT there when we sleep, even though they are. This is the point when we believe our perceptions, which tell us that the fish are ONLY real when we see them, and that in that reality they become OUR fish and not just fish.

The Catch

In his far view, the Taoist sage will notice that more traditional methods of fishing have changed with modern times. Modern Man in his man-made modern world has chosen quantity above quality in – arguably – almost every area of life.

From greed and the accumulation of wealth through exploitation and manipulation, right down to the minutiae of life, we garner, we hoard, we fill our lives with clutter, we overeat, we overdrink, we overdo, we consume more and more. We are driven by must and need, want and get.

And all of this lemming-like buy-in on the outside runs parallel with what is going on for us on the inside. More thought processing is required – we need it to cope with the world we have created, don’t we? So we abandon the rod and line, or the subtle nuances of ‘tickling’, and set out in vessels more fit for purpose. And those of us that lead lives at the upper end of the stress scale will naturally opt for the ultimate fishing tool – those vacuums of the high seas that are the factory ships.

Now, for the majority of us who trawl, all seems to be well and good when our sea is calm and grounded, for we can land our catch on deck, process it and freeze it, and return to harbour when fully laden – eagerly setting to, harvesting our catch and taking it to market. When the sea of wellbeing accompanies light breezes and small waves, then all is well with our world – and it is all about a calm sea leading to a prosperous voyage.

Brainstorm

However, the sea is not always calm and the breezes are not always light. Life is never like that. The winds get up, we get tossed and turned, and life throws stuff at us.

Yet beneath the foaming and turbulent surface the fish are still there.

This year has started badly for our Westcountry fishermen. Violent storm after violent storm came across the Atlantic and forced them all to stay in port for weeks which put a strain on each of their livelihoods. Balanced against that strain was the understanding that to go to sea in such weather would risk lives. Against a matter of life and death, the strain on their livelihoods was an acceptable trade-off.

As mental fishermen however, the majority of us ignore the risks – because society drives us to keep setting sail. The risks are still a matter of life and death, but through varying degrees of bravado, helplessness and ignorance we fire up our engines, leave harbour, cross the bar and set course for those mighty canyons and crashing, foamy peaks – with our loved ones watching us in trepidation as we drop out of sight beyond the horizon.

A very dear client spoke to me about waking in the middle of the night and being unable to get back to sleep. She was beset by vast torrent of thoughts, each clamouring and demanding her attention. Each one was amplified by the fact that – as we all know only too well – the middle of the night is THE most fertile time for our thoughts to invade our inner world, because our outer world has slowed right down. Real as we have made our thoughts anyway, at that time of night they become super-real, are HD in sensual terms.
I gave her the means to understand what was happening and how she was doing her fishing, and she proceeded to then have the most refreshing and renewing sleep she had experienced for a while.

When she spoke to me she was tied up at the jetty, knowing that later she would be all at sea once more. She chose to trade bravado knowing that help was near at hand, and discovered her own sustainable solution.

Change perceptions and move on

So how are you doing your fishing?

Once we know it is the surface that is always susceptible to change, then we can return to catching smaller quantities of fish below the surface.

Once we know it is fine to just catch what we need to sustain just ourselves, or what we can cope with bringing to shore in a meaningful and purposeful way, then we can get back to going for quality over quantity.

When we trawl we’ll always catch a whole load of small, trivial and meaningless stuff along with some real quality fish.
Oh – and wider mesh nets are not really the answer either, when we look to switch over to fishing for “positive” fish. We are still trawling, and trawling will only ever yield bringing a quantity back to the surface.

The understanding comes when we know that it is not necessary for us to trawl.

Imagery

Have you noticed the imagery associated with self-development, personal change, life coaching, hypnotherapy, etc? There is a theme, more like a leitmotif, running through the conveying metaphors and anchors. It may appear to be positivity, growth and freedom – however, look again.

Openness and space, calm and grounded, clarity of vision and atmosphere.

And these are all a very far cry from inner turmoil, torrents of thoughts and cluttered decks.

Another client recently said that “Once I feel I’m free of these physical shortcomings then it will be a load off my mind.”
To which I replied, “So clear evidence of being physically ‘all clear’ will then give you the mental ‘all clear’ as well?” He looked at me a little sideways, realising that I was not so much holding up a vocal mirror, but rather I was waving a red flag.
 

Verbal imagery is often covert, especially in the language we use with ourselves. For my client to hasten his physical wellbeing, he needs to have the mental ‘all clear’ first, and part of his mental ‘all clear’ involves how he does his fishing.

Tail Fin

The way we fish serves us best when oriented towards quality and not quantity. We should only catch what is necessary for ourselves, and not for others, and certainly not in the way that society demands.