Under the Ice

Friday, September 13

For today, a quote (and clip) from Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World:

I noticed that the divers in their routine were not speaking at all. To me, they were like priests preparing for mass.

Under the ice, the divers find themselves in a separate reality where space and time acquire a strange, new dimension.

Those few who have experienced the world under the frozen sky often speak of it as going down into the cathedral.

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You’ll have to forgive me for leaning into the blog’s new identity, but there’s a common theme between yesterday’s post — Herzog’s description of a night under the stars in his childhood — and today’s post, his depiction of scuba divers in Antarctica.

The problem is, I don’t quite have the words for it. But here’s my best try: non-verbal, non-symbolic attention.

Throughout most of our lives, our connection to the external world is mediated through symbols, concepts, language, etc.

When we’re deep in conversation, or hard at work, or relaxing with a crossword puzzle, or reading a good book, we’re certainly paying attention — indeed, we may be fully present — but we’re also deep in the realm of symbols. We’re traversing a web of adjectives and nouns and memories and ideas and hypotheticals, and only staying attentive to our sensory experience insofar as necessary.

In contrast, in those moments when our experience isn’t mediated through language or symbols or concepts, we’re often just not paying attention at all. Maybe we’re mindlessly eating a meal, or jogging on the treadmill, or relaxing in bed. These moments do offer us a break from symbolic experience, but the flip side is that it feels like checking out, running on autopilot.

However, there’s a third class of experiences: those in which we are both fully attentive to the present moment, and yet not experiencing the world through symbols. This is what I am referring to as non-verbal, non-symbolic attention.

This might sound familiar. I think it’s approximately what meditation is trying to teach — but it can be hard to access, especially if you (like me) attempt to meditate by mentally talking yourself through whatever meditation instructions you’ve been given.

The best way that I’ve found to access this state is rock climbing. To do it well, I have to be fully present in my body, fully attentive to the wall — but I’m not thinking in language, nor abstract concepts, nor mere symbols. I’m paying attention to exactly where I am, exactly what I’m doing, exactly what’s in front of me. Not the concept of where I am, or what I’m doing, or what’s in front of me — but the real thing. Direct experience. Total attention to it.

I think this may be what it’s like for Herzog’s divers, deep under the Antarctic ice sheet.