Psychonav 2

I wanted to know more. I got Gene Ammarell’s Bugis Navigation out of the library. I’m always surprised when books like these are so readily available. I checked and within ten minutes had the book in my hand. It’s a kind of magic. As is navigation.




Navigation requires macinnongati or an 'undeviating heart'

The navigator’s meditation = ‘arrival ensured, then depart’

prior to departure one surrenders one’s material and spiritual self to a higher power (the Bugis are Muslim)

the process of the meditation is samananita ‘making it as if it has already been seen’ or visualizing the entire journey:

things and people you expect to meet
places you know which you imagine might be similar

If the trip cannot be visualized, if no mental image appears, it is postponed (usually only for a few hours but can be for one or two days).

Danger can be anticipated with mata ati (‘the liver’s eye’ or what we’d call ‘the mind’s eye’)

Self-empowerment in the face of the unknown and feared.

I’m trying to think about how much I do this already, if at all. I know that I have a very hard time letting someone know when I will arrive and that I am often late arriving because I feel guilty and pressured and say a time that then turns out to be completely ridiculous.