Music - Sweet Music - A Revelation

Music - sweet music.

An astonishing complexity of movement, at many different levels.

If we examine any particular instrument, a drum - a violin - the human voice - the first level of movement we would have to consider is at the atomic level.

Whatever is going on at that level, we know that it is not static - whether we think in terms of waves or particles - or both - it is the consistency, the stability of movement - this devoted obedience on the atomic level, which creates the instrument's materiality that we see and touch.

The substance of any instrument is already singing a song - but at a frequency far too high for us to detect.

Bring on the performers - setting the instrument in further motion.

Be it the strings of a violin, the membrane of a drum, or the vocal folds of the human voice - they are set in motion by the performer.

An illusion is created from cycles of frequency, which we do not detect individually - but the consistent unfolding and combination of frequencies we recognise as pitch and timbre.

We have already fallen for another illusion - by presuming that we are hearing the instrument.

No - the instrument produces no sound whatever - it simply sets the air in motion - a motion which is detected by little hairs inside the ear, translated into neurological signals and processed by the brain.

The sound only manifests as the consequence of this interpretation to our awareness.

Sound is not a physical property - it is a psycholgical one.

Another illusion is yet to come.

Shall we choose a slow, pensive or soothing adagio - or a vibrant and scintillating allegro vivace?

What are the effects of these two?

They make time itself appear to travel at different speeds - captivating the attention, and transporting it within the nature of its own apparent unfolding.

The movement of the metre - fast or slow - and the counterpoint of the rhythm.

Then comes the movement of the human soul, the imprint of heart and mind - in creative play and communication.


Threading a journey - of contrast - of sound and silence - tranquility and the chaotic - of soaring and sinking - of major and minor - a language of emotion, joy and sorrow - sweet harmony and harrowing discordance - all of life is there.

Revealing the journey itself as the focus - certainly not the destination of the final note (courtesy of Alan Watts) - that would be ludicrous.

Image courtesy dhiaksavisualizer

When we listen to a piece of music, we allow it to escort us on a short journey - it becomes the sound-track for that portion of time. Importantly, we allow our attention a front-row seat - sharing the music as it unfolds.

Where music differs from visual art, is that it depends on time for its existence - or at least that is the illusion contained in music - it certainly depends upon an unfolding.

It is this unfolding nature, coupled with our aural captivation by harmony, melody, texture, rhythm, timbre - and even picturesque lyrics - which casts a tremendously potent spell for our attention.

With our attention sitting comfortably in the front-row, the leading edge of this sonic spell metamorphisizes from a mysteriously silent beginning, through to a mysteriously silent end.

The piece of music, the specific work of art, has a beginning and an end - yet its unfolding nature is imparting a subliminal message.

For as we listen, as we are escorted through this period of time in the company of music - although our attention may be fixed by its seductive influence - it is not only the music which is unfolding.

We have allowed the music to give us a front-row seat from where we can observe the universe unfolding - with its silent song. Of course - this includes our own unfolding.

With our attention alert, poised and focused by the act of listening - gently succumbing to the sweet spell being cast - we experience a certain stillness of mind - its normal chatter and distraction - voluntarily put aside - to absorb, in their place, the magical power of the music.

We experience our own, unique response to the beguiling, elemental nature and visceral power of music and song. Within that stillness of mind, the response is painted from our own palette of experience - the visions from our own reservoir of imagination - the mood conducively supplied from within ourselves.

We are invited to dwell for a duration in our pre-conceptual state - the experience of ourself, reacting in its own natural manner - to a completely abstract influence - speaking to our being in its own primal language of vibration - simply because we voluntarily allow our attention in that direction.

Rather similar, in many ways - to meditation?

Home Sweet Home

How easy it is to be seduced by the sense of familiarity, within four comforting walls, surrounded by our own nostalgic trophies, the nurturing security and warmth of that place we call home.

What imaginary cloak do we discard as we enter through that door, as we slip into casual, is it not tempting to pass over a psychological threshold, and forget that we may be relaxing into that wall to wall softness, a bespoke world wrapped in cottonwool, crammed with artifacts of obsession & distraction, the luxury of flick-of-a-switch immediacy - at the expense of remembering where we really are - forgetting that the very fabric of this home is not really courtesy of the mortgage or our industry, but a part of existence itself.

Is it not the same when we slip into the unconsidered ease of conceptualisation, we relax into a world of make believe, the consensus world - where things are things without question.

A world which begins and ends with form.

A world of obedience and loyalty to appearance, to labels, to the ultimate veracity of language - an entirely superficial psychological world, built from the necessity of communication.

However, it is a world that is totally misleading - seducing us to believe in a permanence, in an unchanging solidity - forcing our focus, if we are not careful, into a stubborn and unyielding illusion of concreteness - always at the expense of losing touch with the constantly fluid unfolding of ourselves and our consistently refreshed perception of our environment.

It is the same artifice that would have us believe in a historical separation, billions of years past, when God wound up His clockwork, mechanical universe, and set it loose.

No - it is not so - there is no separation whatsoever.

Creation is now - always now.

We are constantly and consistently refreshed, supported, unfolding - with new potential flooding into our being - all completely beyond our control, whether we are conscious or unconscious - entirely unconditionally we receive the present moment.

This can all be appreciated simply and instinctively as a relationship with the creator, but unfortunately, anything further than this basic simplicity creates too much headroom for conceptual error and distortion.

There is ample space in the vacuum of mystery for it to be filled with manipulation and fear.

Our inquisitive questions will only cease, once we have penetrated the veils of our own ignorance - with a sufficient depth to become transformative.

This penetration however, requires that we become aware of the causes and reasons for our own ignorance - and can result in a rather deconstructed picture of our own being - when we separately identify body, mind and spirit.

We may start to acquire purely intellectual affectations, which are only relevant to this deconstructed image.

Reintegration is necessary - to become whole again - a psychological integration - with a deep understanding that the human being is greater than a sum of parts - and fundamentally a creational idea - a wonder, which has never been other than free.

A being which naturally resonates with peace and love.

Holistic and wholeness can become no more than representational concepts - abandoned, now for their own reality.

Likewise - all language, labels, communicational constructs - may now dissolve - into the stillness & silence of being.

Miraculous is synonymous with understanding.
Appreciation is synonymous with awareness.
Peace is synonymous with the void.
Joy is synonymous with abundance & fulfillment.
Gratitude is synonymous with glory & praise.

The Unutterable Name

Just as this human being commences life attached to its earthly mother via the umbilical cord, so is it also completely "in line" - spiritually - with its source energy.

Let us imagine this state of being for a moment - in no terms other than experience.

It is a state of pure being - experienced only as pure feeling - the full current of this energy flow, with no resistance - all energy gates in this flow are wide open.

Here is an artistic impression - looking from the outside - a representation of this - which does very little to help us experience what this state must actually feel like.

Just like the unborn, the only reality we can ever know is contained entirely in a world of feeling - a feeling received into, registering upon and known by consciousness - instantaneoulsy.

All the while that this full current of energy is being experienced - this little human being will be feeling a total and radiant joy - its spiritual heart is wide open, consumed with utter bliss - the upper gates will be wide open saturating the mind with the light of its own consciousness - and the being is absolutely "in line" - in the stream of this energy - experiencing it with no resistance whatsoever.

It will be experiencing pure, unadulterated consciousness - pure and utter bliss - but, of course - it will not be able to relish the experience.

Isn't that rather curious?

Indeed - you see, what is entirely lacking from this little human being - is an objective sense of its own existence - at present, its existence is purely subjective - it is pure experience.

This little being has not yet opened up its eyes - it is not yet aware of the world of form - its existence up till now is entirely internal - experiential - a state which will not actually change, but will merely become rather confused.

The experiential state of unrecognised joy will continue for a short while, even after birth into the world of external light and autonomy - its existence commences as an individual form when the umbilical cord is cut.

Gradually, the consciousness is entranced by the appearance through the senses of an apparently "other" world - a process of seduction that usually causes complication and confusion.

A world of different sensations - that is seen, heard, tasted and grasped. 

Still one singular experience for a while, reacting directly and instinctively to the needs of the body - displaying contentment or distress - demonstratively - to alert those whose nurturing care it depends upon.

Reactions that are hard-wired into its brain - crying - gurgling - smiling - suckling - defecating.

All this time - every second - the brain (unconsciously experienced by the mind) - is programming itself - data is streaming in constantly, the fresh and raw material that the mind will produce some sort of reality map from.

The brain, completely unguided and unaided, tunes in to this new environment - deducing the constants, the variables - adapting it all into a framework of balance, an intrinsic understanding of the environment it perceives.

Stage one - stage two builds upon this - with increasing feedback, an unconscious understanding of its host.

On top of the already pre-programmed instinctive level of the brain, which is experienced as a cue for reaction at some level of awareness, there now comes the level of specific programming - unique to this little being and the relationship of itself in its environment. 

Increasingly - awareness is being attracted from the core, as attention is occupied more and more with the process of understanding the busy and absorbing stream of data entering from the senses.

Experience is still basically bi-polar - comfort or distress - but the cues for reaction originate now largely from the body.

However - and importantly - this comfort and distress is now entering the feedback loop in the understanding of the host - comfort and distress, being recognised and vaguely registering as a polarity of sensation.

The awareness of the experience of the host is inevitably re-absorbed and contributes to the growing second layer of mind - in a bi-polar fashion.

This is not to imply that separate areas of the brain are involved - but that the formation of balanced understanding, relating to the host and its environment is being accumulated, unconsciously, as positive and negative sensations - positive and negative reactions - in some essential way.

In the embryonic psyche of this new being, two distinctly opposing collections of impressions are forming their independent images - and critically, they are both in reference to the whole being.

Considering the nascent state of bliss experienced by this being, the "comfort body" being formed within the psyche aligns naturally.

As such, its received impressions are not as starkly pronounced, merging imperceptibly within the background of comfort experienced since conception.

However, in contrast, the "distress body" readily aligns with all the latent, hard-wired & instinctive reactions, of fight and flight, of fear and inner constriction - and activates these in association.

Being the less consciously pronounced experience of the two - the "comfort body" really gets no encouragement in its formation - where conversely, the "distress body" soon overtakes and pushes the other more and more to the background - becoming, even unconsciously, the main body of association within the growing psyche.

Stage three - is the conscious acknowledgement by the individual of itself.

The balancing in the environment, the understanding of itself, language association with objects - have advanced sufficiently for there to become a crystalisation of clear understanding - placing the individual being, together with a name, in a new area of conceptualisation as "me."

From this point onwards, this "me" will lay claim to all experiences - usurping ownership from awareness - and associating them from the central perspective of this conceptualised identity, which in turn is attributed as being synonymous with the form and sensation of its physical body - already growing to have an unconscious reflexive, cognitive bias towards the impression of restriction and negativity.

A most ironic stage in our lives - for although awareness is still the only real experience that this being is having - in common with many other misapprehensions which occur - the power of subtlety is hidden to our understanding.

We are readily attracted to the busy, to the noisy, to the garish, to the outspoken - we isolate and ignore background and give validity to foreground - we become blind to consistency and constancy.

And so it is within our understanding of ourselves - a curious phrase - a conundrum, a paradox in itself - which illustrates our human predicament.

Our minds become exactly like prisms - refracting one singular experience of awareness - into a multiplicity.

This is how our minds work.

The differential of all data received through the senses becomes segregated into distinctly separate, conceptualised identities.

Differences of form - differences of light - differences of sound, taste and sensation - and - critically - because of feedback from the "host" - even the host has become conceptually distinct from its environment - and now, increasingly, the different feelings experienced within this host also become compartmentalised - basically pleasure and pain - extending upon the two polarised foundations of comfort and distress.

Quite a long journey already, from that state of innate bliss - being totally "in-line" - with no resistance - to a state where the being is now relating through a prism into a hall of mirrors - that one singular beam of white light being reflected, refracted - intercepted by intimate phantoms inhabiting the landscape of the mind - token representations, placebo interpretations, superficially acquired idealisations - ephemeral and abstract in substance, but permanent and concrete in influence - directly and inescapably modulating the one experience of awareness - into a distortion - but a distortion that is elevated to the "real" by the connivence of belief - the direct consequence of the "me" in its constant quest for balance, stability, happiness and security.

Qualities which are naturally resident within the true core of this being, a being that has forgotten that it is essentially just a feeling - allowing that feeling to suffer all manner of disruption from its own, honest state.

A state that can now only be expressed through bewilderment or compromise. 

Bewilderment or compromise - that unfortunately can deteriorate considerably on encountering and exchanging with other states of bewilderment and compromise.

When bewilderment and compromise go forth and multiply - they can only coexist in a relationship with each other built upon the most unstable foundations.

In order to protect and secure their own pleasure, however - pleasure tenuously connected to the (by now subliminally innate) bliss that is now buried deep within - force, intimidation, threat, coercion - all manner of external manipulation are extended - openly and covertly - extrovertly and introvertly - to prevent social chaos and to pretend stability and progress.

Life becomes suspended in the aspic of conceptualisation, and is lived from the perspective of an inert card-carrying and card-shuffling token, haunted by a now unfamiliar ghost of real sensation.

All this is accepted and endorsed by blind consensus - supported and historically excused as being normal. 

True value has long been deserted, along with our true and transparently honest understanding - that we are no more than a feeling.

An indigenous joy that is conspired upon to be supressed, by consensus and by our own inevitable journey into form.

However, looked upon in this way, it is obvious that we are all quite blameless - and despite the intrusive modulations that insinuate themselves on our core - that essential core is resilient and still as pure, with an honesty that can be returned to.

Also apparent, is the absolute liberty inherent in our being at this very moment.

A total freedom from the inverted burdens of conceptual morality, a space for our own heartfelt conclusions - based not upon consensus, or upon our own intimidation of ourselves - but upon a sensitivity to our own discovered essence, and an appreciation of this human birthright.

To intimately connect with that sublime source of life within ourselves - that sensuous, vibrant, intelligent, abundance of living energy - to connect our attention in a gentle focussing upon the extravagantly simple sensation of being - a feeling which totally contradicts any analytical complexity we may care to imagine - for we are born as whole creatures.

A feeling which will automatically connect us with a heart full of longings for peace, tranquility and perhaps a distant memory of the utter bliss that was our first ever experience.

Longings which are themselves the very seat of their own fullfillment.

Yet now - it will be different - we will be able to relish the feeling, and savour the thoughts that this feeling inspires.

We will be able to consciously suspend ourselves in the stream of life - creating a different kind of feedback for ourselves - of gratitude, eternal and unanswerable wonder and glory - beyond any of the tokens, unaffected by the bland taste of placebos - in a realm as far different from conceptualisation as it is possible to get - the realm of nameless reality - the foundation of our being - the same foundation as all being.

The unutterable name - that undividable feeling.

The supreme mystery - the miracle of existence.

Some call it GOD - some call it Self - some, just experience it as a peace beyond understanding.

When even these names themselves already impose between our attention and the actuality of the experience - surely anything further away from even these choices - is a complication too far, an intellectual & perhaps unnecessary conceit of our own invention?

Peace and love to all - and true liberty. 

Perspectives on Time & Space

I relish the opportunity to share in black & white - it helps with my own clarity - so here is my current understanding of Time & Space.

Firstly - I imagine everything as One process - constantly unfolding & evolving, on all scales, within & without - micro & macroscopic - simultaneously, imminently, entirely unified - and this One process is self-existent, in & of itself.

Any details we care to imagine of how or why are irrelevant for the time being.

Secondly - contained within this One process - is the potential for, and the actuality of, perception (awareness.)

Thirdly - implicit to perception is perspective.

What is perspective but a view into the One process, but it is a pin-hole view which is conditional to the nature of the specific perspective itself.

Perspective is synonymous with sovereignty, allowing the One process unique & diverse degrees of autonomy - the apparency of individuality - the apparency of separate identities - & is achieved through form.

However, recalling earlier in the third point - perspective within form is conditioned (restricted) - to relativity.

It is limited to its own uniqueness - and is imposed upon by the perception of itself in relation to "other."

Despite the abstract reality of unity - our understanding is conditioned by our relative perception - & the innate & fundamental paradigm of ourselves in our environment is naturally & instinctively firmly anchored in relativity.

Our understanding has constructed a conceptual world to match the apparency of form - hence our linear logic & reason operates with subject & object - cause & effect etc.

This is how it is - these are the natural operations of our perception, natural operations which residually create fundamental assumptions - upon which the remaining structures of our paradigm are built.

Conditions such as Time & Space - are inherently basic building blocks within our paradigm.

However - upon closer examination - what do we find?

We find that they are inextricably linked to each other - but in fact they are conceptual structures - both leaning upon the other for mutual support - time uses space to excuse itself & visa versa.

Let's follow through from the beginning.

We have One process.

We have perception.

We have perspective.

Process is perceived by perspective - and instantly becomes memory.

Time is no more than a metaphor - for the apparent continuity of process - perceived as process, & memory of process.

Hence we invent the concept of linear time - that's how we come to terms with what our instinctive perception is informing us.

Perception includes the perception of memory.

We have constructed a "time line" - conceptually - where "now" is sandwiched somewhere between "past" & "future."

But what is really happening?

Now (the process) is absorbed into subtle memory - constantly, imperceptibly - and this memory itself creates for us the perception of continuity. 

By assuming a past - we can then project this assumption forward along our imagined "time line" - and imagine a "future."

It is hard to imagine an alternative, because perspective is implicit, even in the act of imagination.

Perspective is identical to our usual perception, and includes memory - even in our imagination - but it is possible (just) to take memory out of the equation - to perceive that there is only process.

Perception, perspective & memory are responsible for our relative interpretation of process - into time - but time is only a conceptual construct.

To simplify - the substantial is the process - the conceptual is our interpretation.

Now - on to space.

Still holding firmly points 1, 2 & 3 from the above - we understand that space is also a condition of perspective.

It is our conceptual construct for the field in which form arises, remembering that form is only an apparency of the One process.

We assume this field to be as recognised by our perception, accompanied by the mutual support of "time."

That is - to travel (space is already presumed here in the verb "travel") from point A (another presumption of space) to point B (& another) - will take "time" (yes - another presumption - all conceptual.)

We know that from our subjective experience, to be at either point A or point B - could both be defined as "here" - demonstrating purely the relative, conceptual distinction between "here" & "there."

So therefore, points A & B - exist, simultaneously & constantly - from their own unique perspectives - as "here." 

In that thought experiment - we simply transposed our unique, individual perspective between two conceptually constructed points - further to that, we can also imagine that at no stage between those two points - (ie. at any, & every infinitesimal degree along that imaginary line) - would we find any point that was not also "here."

So - "here" & "there" are conceptual constructs derived from our relative perspective, viewpoints of perception, conditioned by their own nature.

Again - this is hard to imagine - but the distinction between our perspective of this field in which the apparency of the One process arises - is therefore distinctly different from what this field actually is - because this field exists - as all possible perspectives - simultaneously - or indeed with no perspective whatsoever - it just "is" - but it cannot be "seen" or imagined - because both acts imply a single perspective. We cannot "see" or imagine this field - nor can it be seen or imagined - it can only "be" itself.

It is One, enormous "here" - without a "there."

Nor can we have any real notion of the size of this field - as in & of itself, it is without comparison - and all of our notions of size are from a purely relative perspective - "this" measured against "that."

Without an alternative to measure space alongside - our understanding of "size" is restricted to "smaller than" or "larger than" - where every "than . . ." is merely a conceptual component within the same system - a system that is being compared to itself.

Therefore - "size" is self-referential only, & exists only conceptually - other than that - "size" can have no meaning whatsoever.

However - isn't meaning itself also only pertinent to perspective?

Our interpretation of "space" - linked with our interpretation of "time" - conjours up for us, conceptually - time & space - which are both purely derivatives of perception. 

In other words - perception conjours up relativity - both time & space are only conditions of perception. 

By allowing ourselves - as simply as possible, to just "be" - we gradually withdraw our perception away from these perspectives - which bind us to the limited feelings of perceived relativity and its inherent identities - liberating awareness to enjoy its own being - literally beyond (or before) time & space.

Time & space only exist as and when they are conceived - but because we habitually do this, we are left with a residual impression which has conditioned our awareness.

Withdrawing from these conditions - is to find a true liberty. 

Time & Space is the playground of our infinite nature - our totally liberated and singular consciousness - Time & Space is the "virtual reality" that we take to be the real thing - but consciousness is the real thing, all along.

It creates for itself - a playground - but it does not need to invent or create Time & Space - because they appear, automatically, the moment perception induces relativity - the apparency of form, the apparency of objects in relation.

This is a relative realm, fashioned by perception, from & within the infinite consciousness - hence all of our reason is relative, our logic is relative, our perception is relative, our imagination is relative - but our consciousness (being) is absolute.

However - consciousness may only know itself by reflecting apparent differentiation - form of any degree - including the perception of conceptual thought. 

Pure consciousness - is actually - unconscious.

A Saturday Morning

After an "all-nighter" commenced Friday evening - Saturday dawned, clear and bright -  a need arose to walk amongst the greenery, to share my breathing up close with the trees, the unchanged hedgerows, echoing back to my childhood, to feel the luxuriant grass underfoot, and the clean, fresh morning air.

This was early - not a time I am normally up & about - but I was joined by the intermittent company of several cheery souls, out walking with their best friends.

I walked through a wooded glade - resting with my back against a tall, stout tree - its gnarled, grey bark covered in a delightfully lemon-green lichen - reaching my arms out behind me in a backwards embrace - my gaze and my spirit were escorted skywards - up through the tangle of branches and leaves - motionless in the completely still air - as gravity pulled at my roots, keeping me firmly grounded amongst a bewildering exuberance of growth - brambles, nettles, ivy & grasses all jostling upwards towards the light.

Refreshed - I returned to the open grassland - passing a spot at the edge of the wood, rank with the stench of decay - I noticed down in the grass, the outline of a heart drawn with gravel, inside of which had been placed some bunches of gathered wild flowers.

A shallow grave - no doubt - of someone's best friend - laid to eternal rest in his favourite haunt.

I sat on a bench, conveniently shaded by a low canopy of greenery - to be sniffed out by a greyhound - eyes, wild and alert - I sensed its unbridled life-force - the complete absense of contradiction or restriction in its nature - which obediently sprung off at a pace when called for by its owner.

A strange, secret, superior feeling crept over me - when the next dog to pass nearby - didn't notice me at all.

The distant trees seem to have a mysterious accompanying glow - vaguely contouring their outline - which vanished when I concentrated on it with my eyes.

The sort of morning when "Good morning" - even though a casual and habitual greeting - means much more than usual.

Then I strode out to the very centre of a vast area of kept grassland - a common - rich with mauve clover-flowers and vivid dandelions - low flying and dutifull bees - busy in their industry.

Dead centre by my reckoning, with the rising sun to my left - I stretched out on the grass, possibly aligned with the earth's magnetism - north-south - and stared at the glorious free expanse of beautiful blue above me.

First noticing the strange paisley swirls, those evasive patterns floating about the eye itself - seen up close and personal - revealing what also must be the start of a cataract growth in my right eye - a blurring raft of some sort, slipping and sliding about - but never disappearing. 

Back to the sky - am I looking up - or am I looking down - let's see if I can feel gravity. 

A tiny whisp of cloud processes past. I notice the receptor cells in the eye firing and sparking randomly - their binary dance in response to the light. I shut my eyes - immediately engulfed by a blood-red warmth - and then patterns appear - a mandala of orange, yellow and red - curiously animated - dividing cell-like and kaleidoscopically.

The ambient noise is slowly penetrated by an approaching aircraft - I hear it to my right - am I hearing an aircraft, or am I hearing just sound?

I hear it pass across the sky - my ears tell me this - and it fades again into the ambience - far on my left.

How did my ears get that information to me?

Concentrating on the sound - just the sound - in that window of attention, focused with quantum precision astride the galloping stallion of now - there is only the sound and the hearing - there is no listener.

Watching the light again - concentrating - there is no watcher - only seeing - only light.

I feel out for gravity - I concentrate - I am already feeling it - I cannot isolate something I have always known. 

I am conscious - I cannot isolate something I have always known. 

I disappear entirely for as long as I can - simply the being - being - hearing - seeing - feeling - the eternally changing truth - the infinitely still, clear silence of peace.

Life - I am the grass, the sky, the dogs, the grave - the others. 

Only recognizable inside this peace. 

More refreshed than before - I return to my car. On the way I play games with my shadow - I could be that shadow - had I not looked in a mirror. 

It is always in direct line with the sun - even if I walk sideways to the sun - my shadow doesn't. 

If I walk directly away from the sun - my shadow is directly in front of me. 

If I face the sun - it disappears completely - entirely. 

I drive into town - after brief exchanges with other dogs and other owners - it was agreed all round - this was a good morning.

The local produce market was being erected along the pedestrian highstreet- various stalls - setting out their offerings. 

Alongside where I was sitting outside of a coffee house - four giant pans waited on equally large gas burners - to dispense burgers and bacon rolls to the anticipated crowd of shoppers. 

Saturday morning was waking, stretching - and slowly coming to life. 

All these habitual early birds, rare company for me, all seemed to have a sense of purpose about them - even if it was no more than making the most of a weekend. People seemed to have their history etched into their visible being - their deportment - their faces - all told a silent story.

The variety of produce, the glory of diversity - accompanied by an equally glorious diversity of purpose. 

Flocks of pigeons - in perfect synchronisation -  launched and soared around the high buildings, the communication antennae, the air conditioning plant - installed up on the rooftops.

Above them, two roaming red kites - gliding, circling - their sharp vision intent on breakfast.

Beyond that - the same blue sky.

There was a sinister undercurrent of tension - a current of an ever increasingly complex broadcast of non-communication. 

Sparking, shorting out - being transmitted but not received - from the poles of diverse imagination - diverse intent - diverse purpose. 

A blanketing static interference - disrupting the clarity of that deep, still, blue sky. 

Peace is all we can hope to have in common - the still, silence of being. 

Surely - all this diversity of imagination - must be balanced by a unity - of peace - or we will not proceed much further, before the interference becomes intollerable. 

On the way, returning back to my car again - I am sucked into an oasis of peace - the church where I was married. 

I sit in the comforting stillness - the calm - generations of love & worship had a presence that was soaked into the walls. 

Our Enlightened Bard.

I am searching for evidence amongst William Shakespeare's glorious writings - as to his state of enlightenment. Prompted by a few of his most quotable gifts.

Why! all delights are vain, but that most vain

Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain:

As, painfully to pore upon a book

To seek the light of truth, while truth the while

Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile;

So ere you find where light in darkness lies,

Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. ~ Love's Labours Lost

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory:

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.

Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest thy content

And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee. ~ Sonnet

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved. ~ Sonnet 

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end;

Each changing place with that which goes before,

In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Nativity, once in the main of light,

Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,

Crooked elipses 'gainst his glory fight,

And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth

And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,

Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,

And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:

And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,

Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand. ~ Sonnet 

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool ~ As You Like It

All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts ~ As You Like It

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, rounded with a little sleep ~ The Tempest

This above all: to thine own self be true ~ Hamlet

To be, or not to be: that is the question ~ Hamlet

The devil can cite scripture for his purpose ~ The Merchant Of Venice

What 's gone and what 's past help should be past grief ~ The Winter's Tale

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ~ Romeo & Juliet

 

Relativity & Measurement

It is perhaps foolish to attempt a denial of relativity and its influence within our lives, but useful to observe and examine, to place it within a different perspective, than that in which it normally operates - unchallenged.

What kick-started my thinking on this subject was watching a monumentous programme on Channel 4 - Journey To The Edge Of The Universe - an incredibly awe inspiring CGI rendition - transporting the viewer through the enormity and powerful presences in our own solar system & galaxy - and beyond - way beyond - a journey covering 2 billion lightyears of travel.

Phot courtesy atlasoftheuniverse

A strange thought ocurred to me - that this mind-blowing display of enormity and power could be simply for effect, for no matter what calculations we perform, no matter what conclusions of measurement we arrive at - the relevance of these conclusions is confined entirely within relativity.In other words, our impressions of size, distance weight and time - virtually any measurement you care to define - only have value in comparison - ie, in relation to another measurement.

The stark fact is - that stripped of this relative method of valuation - we have not the slightest grasp of the reality - in fact, there is no implicit reality to those very notions that we take for granted - size, weight, distance and time.

The strong values that we invest in these notions exist and are derived only in the relationship - one with the other - but in no other sense at all.

Size is not real - distance is not real - weight is not real - time is not real - they are purely derivatives of perception.

Strip away the imposed layer of value - for instance, with size - and we are left with a completely vacant state of being - immeasurable in its own right - the notion of size being derived only in comparison.

Yes - we are microscopic in size in relation to the relative vastness of the universe - but that enormity is also only a reflection of our own smallness.Remove the comparison - and we cannot have the slightest idea of either.

We can say therefore, that we are of no size - that the entire universe is of no size.

The same applies to time - 2 billion light years sounds a phenominal amount when compared to the average 70 year lifespan of a human being - but here we are confined to our own perspective.Looked at from the perspective of a butterfly for instance - who may live for two or three days - a human life would be unimaginable.

Remove the comparative perspective, strip away the validation that measurement lends to the notion of time - and we find that time also is really - no time.

Yet are we not buried and saturated in these relative beliefs - for that is what they are - beliefs - conclusions of perception.They are conceptual conclusions that exist in a realm far removed and possibly irrelevant to the actuality that they presume to describe.

That actuality is the substance of reality, beyond the names we allocate to it, beyond the conclusions we deduce about it.Other than its actual existence - and our own innocent experience of that same existence from within it - it cannot be known in any meaningful way. 

Yet for the purposes of administration, communication, organisation - we all tacitly conspire together in the lie of relativity.

For how could we communicate without language, without the pretence of definition?But our convenient definitions carry the danger of arrogance, they can start to imply that we do really understand the terms we use - that these terms actually reflect something that can be known.

But they do not - they are reality held at arms length - held up to the light of reason, by reason - the answers arrived at in that way will always be reasonable, contained, excused, defined - associated with value. 

Whereas the substance of actuality - untouched by reason - is entirely disconnected with value, measurement, judgement of any sort - size, distance, weight or age.

An unfathomable and miraculous mystery.

© Reuters

Photo courtesy dailymail