Taking Liberties

Image courtesy bbc.

Is not a window
But a see-through wall?
There's more we shall know
By not looking at all.

It's just occurred to me that the unknown is identical to the known.

Let me try and explain.

I would equate "knowing" with understanding - the bedrock of our being.

We may not know the entirety of our being, subjectively, but it is there - and we are still "being" it nevertheless.

A different kind of "knowledge" is the term we use for collecting empirical "facts" or "theories" - which by definition - require us to adopt a certain perspective with which to contain their reference - because a "fact" or "theory" without a frame of reference cannot exist.
This is the term we use for objective knowledge - looking through a narrowly defined window of perspective - of which there are an infinite potential variety - this kind of knowledge exists only in our conceptual mind.

Our conceptual mind overlays reality with a veil - usurping the being of that reality with the conceit of pretended knowledge - it is deceitful - stealthily substituting the truth of that being with a token (not a fair exchange) - a word, a label or a theory - based on only its selective, relative and dualistic perspective - dividing and defining an unknown whole - and replacing it with a sum of parts derived from its own imagination.

That is why I say that the unknown is identical to the known.

It is identical if we refer subjectively - and also if we refer objectively.
Subjectively we can be no more or no less than 100% of our being - so whether known or unknown - it changes nothing.
Objectively - we are merely dealing with tokens - the known or the unknown are simply more tokens - more deceit.

OK - let's ease up a while - objectiveness, our relative perspective is not the villain I make it out to be - or is it?
It is our innate perspective - the one we are educated to see by our senses - by our individualised nature.
Like the crest of a rolling wave - formed and yet formless - at the threshold between subject and object.
A moving point of awareness - but it is not concrete - it is as free and undefined as we care to allow it to be.


In some ways - it is the classroom.
Where and how we learn - in our relationship to our environment and fellow beings.
Where we associate with pain of differing types - emotional and physical.
Where that pain becomes the biggest educator of them all.
Where we start to question.
Where we start to explore.

We start to search.

Secretly - I believe that all of us, deep down, are aware that our sense of "I" ness is mysterious, is magical, is miraculous.
Our being is a most precious gift.
Either from gratitude - or in supplication through suffering - or just from an awesome sense of wonder at it all - we turn our minds to questions of origin.

Now we're in trouble - especially if we are determined for an answer.

You see - our conceptual minds work entirely with a dualistic perspective - a perspective that operates almost identically to our rules of language.
Subject, adjective, noun, verb, object, cause and effect etc.
We are already dealing only with the tokens issued by that mind to substitute reality.
They are not connected to that reality in any relevant way - other than for defining and labelling it within the constricts of a relative state.
With the limited perspective available to it - the conceptual mind (aware that it did not create itself) is at the mercy of the following restricted supposition.

I (subject) exist (verb) and I (subject) did not create (verb) myself (effect/object) - therefore I must have a creator (cause/object.)

Of course this dialectic is supported, at least superficially, by most major religions - and with their added authority - do we really need to look any further?

How much further dare we look?

Let's be extremely courageous - and dedicate our purpose to sincerely discovering the truth - then we can expect to be welcomed back to our creator and to be forgiven if that's where we are led.

A quick recapitulation at this point - we have already discussed that we cannot be more or less than 100% of our true being - whether known or unknown - we are that very being right now.

Our understanding of the conceptual mind has lead us to see that we might have invented the concept of a creator as being separate from the creation.

Yet we still have the sense of mystery, of awe, of the miraculous.
Why?
Because inescapably, existence, our being feels like that - at times.

Our being.

If we could accept our being, totally - right now - stop asking questions - stop cheating ourselves with deceitful answers - allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by that mystery, that awe - the miracle - could that make a difference?

Would it matter then - if we could find that unconditional acceptance - which if we are honest - we spend every waking moment chasing for.

Do you disagree?

Why do we turn to alchohol, or drugs, or relationships, or seeking more?
Or seek oblivion by obsession?
Do we accept ourselves - or are we trying to prove something to win approval to our own set of conditions - inherited or invented?
Why do we invent tomorrow, if not from fear or desire?
Tomorrow we will approve ourselves - but not today - tomorrow - over the fence, where the grass is emerald green - and actually belongs to our neighbour - which is why it matters not that we throw all our rubbish there - from today.

The ability to accept - now - this miracle.
If we do all those things in the cause of finding happiness - we are really denying that it exists.
If we search for it - we are denying that it exists - here.
Denying that happiness and ourselves can co-exist - now.

Accepting our own being unconditionally, automatically takes us beyond conceptual thought, to a state where we accept the whole - beyond division, beyond separation.
That includes everything within our awareness - and beyond.

If we were to find that ability - would it make any difference?
Would it make a difference to what we called - being?
Would it matter what origins that being had?
Scientific - natural - spiritual - only labels.

Being - contentment - acceptance - of ourselves - unconditionally - can lead to joy.
Honest, unattached joy can lead to gratitude.
Gratitude can lead to action.

Anything else is a condition that is being met - and not liberty.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

Another extraordinarily delightful website on this topic - Yoism

A Journey, Love & Abuse.

What started my mind whirring in the direction that resulted in this post being written?


Photograph courtesy JJLeeming abd.org.uk

Quite simply - a journey.

Driving home after a Saturday morning doing some work - it's a lovely sunny day.
Faced with the contrast of the motor cars on the road, the tarmac roads themselves - set against a backdrop of natural surroundings - fields, trees, grazing cows - all very pleasant and acceptable.
But somehow there seems a subconscious division between the natural and the man-made.


Photograph courtesy treehugger.com

Then the mind kicks in - it intercepts this perception, interrogates it as to its validity.

This vision of the world transforms into a historical perspective - what I see now is merely a glimpse, a snapshot of mankind's evolution.
Life and matter.
Mankind enjoying it's recreative ability - the way it can transform and manipulate matter to make human life more amenable.
But somewhere in this equation is a motivating force - an energy.
We could call it the life force.
Such a powerful force that has the will, the irrepressable urge to recreate & procreate, survive & thrive.


Photograph courtesy earthecho.com

I want to examine the word "love."
I feel at times it is grossly overused and abused.
What do we mean when we say "I love" something or somebody?

Let me offer this definition.
We mean that some deep part of us is moved to - identify with, attach itself to, desire the experience of, intimately associate with - the object of this love.
It can be used at a very casual level or a very profound level.
We use the same word for french fries, a TV programme or a significant partner in our lives.
We may even use it when describing a relationship with the Divine.
As such it is used as a verb.

How about as a noun - as in "making love?" Two (or more?) individuals accommodating their expression of a mutually shared - identification with, attachment to, desire for the experience of, intimate association with - each other.
How about as in the phrase "an act of selfless love?"
Implying an inner motivating force, the love, which compells one to perform a selfless act.

The common denominator in all the above is that "love" is always referring to something that seems to be universally understood, recognised and appreciated, valued and treasured - no matter how the word is applied, it is always in the context of the positive, an ideal, a pleasant experience or harmonious co-existence.
You may agree or disagree with my definitions, but I am certain you will not deny that love exists.

Back to the car journey.

I realise that although I am seeing the world in all its colour and glory - maybe I am blind.
Just as this very computer can only deal with binary information - my eyes can only deal with a certain spectrum of visible light.
That's what they were designed to do - and function extraordinarily well - but nevertheless, it is a highly selective form of "vision."
I cannot see television broadcasts without a TV set, I cannot see x-rays, the ultra or infra.
I have a paper bag over my head - I think my vision is all encompassing - but it isn't.
The same can be said for all my other senses.
I am perceiving a highly selective band of "reality" through my variety of receiving apparatus.
I am living in a world of experience, defined and limited by a human body.


Photograph courtesy boingboing.net

I am also living behind the filter of conceptualisation.
For example, as above I outlined various conceptualisations of the word "love" - do I choose to ignore the reality that love is a powerful motivating force in my life - it must have an origin - do I allow myself to get tangled up in the complicated, highly subjective issues of morality, of ethics - concerned more with the interpretation, definition and expression of this "love" in human conceptual terms - rather than explore its actuality?


Photograph courtesy enchantedmind.com

Love - as a force, an energy, a power?
A force that moves us so deeply, that is common to all life, recognised universally?
What if we had eyes of a slightly different design, that allowed us to see love?
What would it look like?

Would everything sparkle - be covered in a fiery incadescence - a fluid shimmering energy - full of eddies and swirls - dancing between, around, all amongst us - would we see it obedient to our will - would it transform as we interacted with each other?


Photograph courtesy dreamingheart.com

Quantum Physics is right now toying with the notions that perhaps gravity and mass, such primordial essences, are the attributes of certain specific sub-atomic particles. These theories have yet to be proven as science is stretching itself to design and build the experimental equipment required, such as the LHC at CERN (see other post 10, 09, 08 . . .)
Whereas science requires demonstrable, quantifiable proof
- most of us are content with personal experience to teach us - and we do not really need further acknowledgement to prove that love exists.
But maybe "love" is another sub atomic particle - existing in the Quantum world - at a level of infinite smallness.

It doesn't really require an emormous stretch of the imagination to formulate an equation, beyond any conceptualisation, dealing with the actuality of love as a power, a force, an energy - suffused with pure potential, pure will, pure consciousness.
Adequate will to manifest itself from a pure state into the creation of a universe.

God=Love or Love=God

Love also supplies the reason for creation - if one were needed.
Creative activities & indulgencies sometimes bring a breath of that force, that power, that love - a stirring in the heart of absolute joy and wonder.
A love so vast, so powerful that we cannot imagine - implying such a recreational liberty that our conceptual world cannot contain its understanding.
Love provides an adventure for itself - a journey - an evolution.
Why?
For no reason other than because it can - and for the joy of the experience.
What other reason can such an infinite power have?


Now remember, we are discussing a real power here - a real force - not the result of a human thought process, but the very cause of it - and the potential for everything else.
It is beyond obligation, beyond honour, beyond guilt, beyond aspirations, beyond hope or dreams - it is our very nature.

We could call such a power God - referring to Him, Her or It - would it matter?
We could even dispense with the upper case letters.
Would it matter?

Such a God, with such an infinite power - would not be at all perturbed by what we thought, by what we did - after all - we all have a contract with the laws of the universe - and there is no escape clause.
Such a God certainly would not be concerned with how we portrayed Him - because such an infinite power can be portrayed in an infinite amount of ways - all equally suited.
Would such a God require us to worship him?
No.

Any such discussion is really nonsense.
Any discussion or perception of god, because of the confines of language and because of the way we think - automatically creates a subject/object division - a separation - which cannot be true.
It is simply a convenient way of approaching the subject for our everyday awareness.
But often it becomes a convenient excuse - if we fail to realise that Divine intervention is in our own hands.

Atheist or believer - they are only labels and do nothing to alter the reality.


Photograph courtesy fp.enter.net

Religions of a devotional nature are admirably suited to acheiving enlightenment in a way that is so comfortably human - dealing as they do with the primal force of love as it manifests in human relationships - or a relationship with a deity.

Humility is the recognition of something so totally beyond our comprehension, our logical capability to understand - beyond the familiar spheres in which we operate as human beings.
Nevertheless - this Divinity is something in which we have an intimate share.

Humility levels the ground - it doesn't detract or weaken.
In fact - with its recognition of the truth - humility restores, amplifies and provides enormous strength - and allows for a space in our hearts and lives to become filled with even more of that infinite love.
A space created automatically when all the junk collected by the ego is thrown out of the attic.
It permits true understanding - which is, after all, standing-under.

Our only obligation, if we choose, is to our true selves, to realise this in our lives, to see it and live it as the true reality - and what a liberating and joyful prospect that is.
How severe a discipline is it anyway - to become what we already are?
Can we conceive of a discpline that is pure joy?
Can we emerge from the shadows of fear?
Can we reach that true liberty?

None of this can possibly do anything to detract from the awesome nature of the universe, of life - the miraculous reality of existence.
It does nothing to lessen the majestic power of creation.
Nor should it prevent us from feeling blessed with such abundance and giving thanks.

What it does is simply include us as a part of the equation.
In ignorance or enlightenment - whatever, whenever, wherever - it is all a part of that equation - that journey.

It is the journey itself that is the reality - and we are all fellow travellers - right now.

Some religions refer to it as a journey through Maya - or illusion - a journey from darkness and ignorance to enlightenment and understanding - and the final recognition, love re-knowing of itself - shining brightly, undeniably, within its own cunning disguise.
The disguise - is you and me - but so is the essence, the motivating force, the love.
Illusion carries no stigma, as it is an essential part of the plan - necessary rather than negative.
We are the seed, the tree and the fruit - the beginning, the middle and the end of this journey - this evolution.
Love is our inner guide, our constant reminder - our map.

A satellite navigation system to blow your mind.


Photograph courtesy wmich.edu

Infinite Science

Could science itself be an infinite quest?



Constantly, the net of discovery is becoming more and more refined - first of all catching whales, then discovering that whales trap krill to eat - then asking "What does krill eat, and what does that lifeform eat?"
Evolving through chemistry, the tables of the elements, to physics and a point where it considered protons and electrons to be fundamental, universal building blocks, but has now discovered a whole range of smaller particles - Quantum Physics - Quarks, Mesons, Bosons etc.
Sretching to the limit the ability to prove by experimental means what mathematics and theory suggests and predicts.
Although the word atom is derived from the Greek "atamos" - meaning uncuttable, or undivisible - science appears to have found further divisions.

This refinement is taking it into regions of "Atto" measurements - a billionth of a billionth.
Discovering oscillations at speeds that challenge the ability to measure - appearing, perhaps to be superimpositions - or conveying the dual existence of Schrodinger's cat.
Particles with the properties of waves?

It is journeying down the road to the infinitely small - the infinitely fast - which will always remain at least one step ahead - concealing always something around the next bend.
Or perhaps it is coming to the edge of the current paradigm, requiring a radical shift to proceed further.
Beyond the event horizon of this paradigm lies a whole new universe of understanding - which requires that it abandon such notions as time - limitations presumed - such as the speed of light.



Perhaps even the tool of logic may prove too blunt - the light of our intelligence too dim.
Our arms are too short, despite the evolving technology that we equip them with, to reach any final goal - because maybe there isn't one.

Science itself is an infinite journey - a perpetual discovery - with its historic acheivements being simply milestones stretching as far as the eye can see.
At some future date - certainly - the amazing excitement going on at CERN right now - will be just another chapter in the book of human scientific adventure - a few pages further on from electric light and penicillin.

But science is somehow part of our DNA - that curiosity we have - a vacuum that so urgently sucks in knowledge and understanding.

The great caverns hewn out of the ground at CERN, where the vast megalithic experiments are housed, are aptly known as the cathedrals.

For the active worship that takes place there is surely a demonstration of the deepest reverence - an awestruck obsession with the mysteries of creation.

10, 09, 08, . . .

Perhaps the start of a count down?
Well - who knows - but it certainly is the planned date of the first BEAM ON - at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research - or CERN - in Geneva, Switzerland.


A worker inside the LHC tunnel
(Image courtesy of CERN)

For the first time, the giant 27 km circular particle collider (LHC - Large Hadron Collider) will fire up - smashing sub-atomic particles into each other at speeds approaching the speed of light - in an attempt to re-create a mini version of events that happened in the first few billionths, of the very first second of time - a fraction after the Big Bang.

But did you know that the very first proposal for the World Wide Web (WWW) was made at CERN? Well I certainly didn't until I started browsing their fascinating website.

Enter the extraordinary world of Quarks, Gravitons, Bosons - and the search for the Higgs Particle (or Higgs boson) - already postulated theoretically as a contender for the particle responsible for the attribute of mass - at the moment, being one of the key questions asked by Quantum physicists.

Dark matter, string theory? No problem - just step this way.

There have been scary rumours, completely disproved by recent thorough safety evaluations - that perhaps the first collision might create a real black hole - that possibly the scientists there will unwittingly bring about the destruction of planet earth.
There have been amusing articles written suggesting that perhaps a warp in the fabric of time could permit time travellers from the future to appear.
We'll all find out - on Wednesday (although no actual collisions are scheduled for a while.)

There is a bit of a dilemma at the moment - Albert Einstein's famous theory of General Relativity & the formula E=MC2 seem to be consistent and satisfactory at the Macro level of the universe - but not on the Micro level - the Quantum level.
This is not a pleasing state of affairs - A Theory of Everything - (if there were one - the Holy Grail for science at the moment) would unify the apparant inconsistencies between the Standard Model (being the name given to the current theory on particle interaction) and Einstein's GR theory.


(Click for interview - Robert Aymar - Director General of CERN)

Wednesday 10th September 2008 - sees the start of the most cutting-edge scientific experiments into all these questions - and no doubt, many more.


(Image courtesy CERN)

An auspicious example of international collaboration - Milestones - will give you a detailed impression of the scale of the undertaking & the enormous engineering and scientific challenges presented in the building of the LHC.

I wish them all the very best of inspiration and good fortune over at CERN.
It's massive - it's exciting - it's on the frontier of physics right now.
You can sign up for an account with them - keep in touch.


Entertaining & educational - the "Large Hadron RAP."

A humorous side? Gravitons, Protons, Bosons . . .

It was enlightening for me to learn that forces such as gravity and possibly properties like mass have their origins in sub-atomic particles - various combinations and permutations of Quarks.
It brings many interesting questions to my mind about other fundamental properties, other attributes - such as intelligence, willpower, consciousness - could there actually be sub-atomic particles responsible for these?
Which led me to imagine an alphabet of potential discoveries . . .

A list of new sub-atomic particles discovered at CERN.

The Amazon - the particle responsible for tall people.

The Baron - the particle responsible for blue blood.

The Chameleon - the particle responsible for colour.

The Dependon - the particle responsible for reliability.

The Eggon - the particle responsible for encouragement.

The Futon - the particle responsible for insomnia.

The Geton - the particle responsible for friendship.

The Hangon - the particle responsible for . . . delay.

The Iron - the particle responsible for decrease.

The Jettison - the particle responsible for rubbish.

The Kettleon - the particle responsible for tea.

The Longjon - the particle responsible for heat.

The Marathon - the particle responsible for d i s t a n c e.

The Napoleon - the particle responsible for short people.

The Onandon - the particle responsible for boredom.

The Presson - the particle responsible for determination.

The Question - the particle responsible for curiosity.

The Reason - the particle responsible for everything.

The Strapon - the particle responsible for gratification.

The Tampon - the particle responsible for blockages.

The Upon - the particle responsible for elevation.

The Viagron - the particle responsible for rigidity.

The What'son - the particle responsible for the radio times.

The Xylophon - the particle responsible for fossils.

The You'reon - the particle responsible for stagefright.

The Zion - the particle responsible for the middle east crisis.

(I would love you to comment, with your own suggestions . . .)

A very useful GLOSSARY

Out of the Mouths of Children

For more information on this - Magick River - who was this girl?
An entry in Wikipedia.