blank blank fullness

6th century BC.
Lao Tzu.
A sage and the legendary father of Taoism.
5,000 characters.
Bits from his piece, the Tao Te Ching, began to break into my 'mosphere in '05, at least to a degree where I was actually aware of it.
Very gradually, it came.
Here and there verses would drop as quotes held close to the chest by friends, others.
Only recently did I take the initiative to go to the source; get the low-down straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

The version of this ancient Chinese text that made its way to me is one of many, many translations. Enjoyably, there is a paragraph or two of commentary after each verse; a sort-of sieve for the present-day pupil that nicely unpacks and re-stacks the souvenirs left after the trip of reading.

... ... ...


Verse 2

Relativity

We know beauty because there is ugly.
We know good because there is evil.
Being and not being,
having and not having,
create each other.

Difficult and easy,
long and short,
high and low,
define each other,
just as before and after follow each other.

The dialectic of sound
gives voice to music,
always transforming "is" from "was"
as the ancestors of "to be".

The wise teach without telling,
allow without commanding,
have without possessing,
care without claiming.

In this way we harvest eternal importance
because we never announce it.

Verse 2 Commentary

"This verse celebrates the relativity of reality, thereby aligning itself with modern science, especially Einstein's theory of relativity. The corollary is a rejection of fundamentalism and absolutism. Verse 2 is a poetic reminder that one of our 21st century requisites is to transcend all superstitions. To believe that our world today is just as God created it and has never ever changed, nor will ever change, shuts the door to transformation. Such a premise locks us into the inequalities of the past that were predicated on a condition of scarcity and a division between a minority who can fulfill their needs and a majority who cannot. 21st century technology makes have and have-not inequities, as well as their rationales, anachronistic.

Lao Tzu’s theory of relativity suggests new paradigms of consciousness. He implies that when there will be no gluttony, there will be no starvation, when there will be no rich, there will be no poor. That is self-evident. However, what does it mean to say that when there will be no ugly, there will be no beauty, and that when there will be no evil, there will be no good?

It means that beauty and good will no longer be expressed as compensatory for the ugly and the evil in our life experience. It means that we will not any longer have to express beauty separated from life as art, nor good separated from life as a spiritual expression. It is possible that 21st century life will rediscover the harmony between our environment and us, and the harmony among each other, and within us.

It is this harmony that will be good and beautiful only as seen from our current perspective. But from a future perspective, good and beautiful as alienated compensations will not exist because evil and ugly will not exist. What we today call good and beautiful will simply permeate the character of life.

If beauty will no longer be separable from life, then we may expect that, eventually, there will no longer be concert halls and museums, since the music and art of life will be inherent in all the sounds, movements and patterns of ordinary life, and will be expressed by every one of us, not just a specialist who creates beauty for us such as the professional musician and artist. We can imagine that some day every mode of communication might be spontaneously musical and poetic, every movement might be a dance, every object we create – a visual delight, all expressing the integral and actualizing character of life.

Similarly, in the distant future, we may not have need for churches, temples and mosques since life itself may become spiritual in all its forms, activities and expressions.

In such a world of the future, the teacher and the student might be so in tune with each other that they will be able to teach without telling. Each of us may become so in tune with every other person that we may spontaneously allow without commanding. To the extent that out lives issue from material and spiritual abundance, we will be free to have without possessing and care without claiming, and because in this new condition, we can expect to give and receive love freely, our egos will no longer be starved. In this way we [will] harvest eternal importance because we [will] never [need to] announce it."


Verse 40

All Is Paradox

The movement of the Great Integrity
is infinite,
yet its character is passive.
Being defines every form of life,
yet all originate in,
and return to, non-being.


Verse 41

Observing and Nourishing Paradox

When most people
hear about the Great Integrity,
they waiver between belief and disbelief.
When wise people
hear about the Great Integrity,
they diligently follow its path.
When ignorant people hear about it,
they laugh out loud!
By this very laughter,
we know its authenticity.

It is said that -
enlightenment appears dark,
the progressive way appears retrograde,
the smooth way appears jagged,
the highest peak of revelation
appears empty like a valley,
the cleanest appears to be soiled,
the greatest abundance
appears insufficient,
the most enduring inner strength
appears like weakness,
and creativity appears imitative.

Great talents mature slowly.
Great sounds are silent.
Great forms look shapeless.
Transcendent squareness has no corners.

The Great Integrity hides behind all forms,
stubbornly nourishing the paradoxes
that can enlighten us.

Verse 41 Commentary

"One of the important differentiations between the thought structures of Lao Tzu and of conventional science is the metaphoric-paradoxic character of the former and the objective and logical character of the latter. To Lao Tzu, contradictions often reveal a deep truth. To modern science, contradiction indicate an error. This verse is saturated with the paradoxes that surface when one experiences life through the Great Integrity, that is through our intuitive holistic consciousness.

It is the left cerebral hemisphere that formulates logical alienated thinking, which requires the modern conventional scientist to seperate himself from that which he is investigating.

In contrast, the Great Integrity is a holistic consciousness, which predominantly activated the right cerebral hemisphere and is both phylogenetically and ontogenetically an earler mode of perception. Right-brain dominance was characteristic of the first few million years that hominids wandered through our planet. It is also the only form of perception of every one of us during our infancy and the dominant from during our prelogical early childhood years.

According to Lao Tzu and to many of us who are exploring a more appropriate consciousness for the twenty-first century, a new Great Integrity will transcend out present objective consciousness. My view of evolutionary transformation proposes that this new Great Integrity will not be a return to right hemispheric dominance, but to a new left-right hemispheric merger in which both our thoughts and feelings, our objective apperceptions and subjective perceptions, will function as a higher level of integral human exchange. Such a development assumes a new mode of communication that will be objective and scientific (like language) as well as subjective and feelingful (like music), but without the duality that now characterizes their relationship. The new music-language might also permit the communication of simultaneous multiplicities, especially involving the processes of transformation. Until now, the limitations inherent in the linearity of our thinking and of our languages have required us to communicate the complexities of our experiences by analyzing and presenting them in sequential fragments like the frame-by-frame photographs in a cinema."


Verse 42

The Principles of Transformation

The Great Integrity expresses one.
One manifests as two.
Two is transformed into three.
And three generates all the myriad entities of the universe.

Every entity always returns to yin
after engaging yang.
The fusion of these two opposites
births the Vital Energy
that sustains the harmony of life.

But for most people,
this harmony is decimated
by inheriting a condition
of, misery and victimization.

Politicians cleverly pretend
that they too originate
from the toxic soil of this misery,
even while designing the very laws
that legitimate victimization.

But watch out -
those who hoard oversufficiency
will be diminished!
And those who are diminished
will become bountiful!

These commonly known truths
that common people
teach each other,
are also my truths.

As you sow,
so shall you reap.
Such is the heart of my teaching
in a world forced to live heartlessly.


Verse 64

Timing

It is easy to hold what is still stable.
It is easy to mold what is not yet formed.
It is easy to shatter what is still fragile.
It is easy to scatter
what is yet light and small.
Therefore, act now rather than wait.
Get things done before it's too late.

A huge tree
that you can't get your arms around
grows from a tiny seedling birth.
A tower of nine stories high
rises from a small heap of earth.

A thousand mile journey
begins with one step.
This is an ancient tale.
Those who procrastinate,
or act prematurely, fail.

Those who interfere in processes
disrupt them.
Those who hold tightly to possessions
lose everything.
Wise people succeed
because they never force an outcome.
They never suffer a loss
because they are not attached to anything.

Some succeed in gathering assets.
But when the stakes begin to sail,
and greed crashes
through all cautionary boundaries,
failures unmercifully prevail.

Wise people don't accumulate possessions,
or teach anyone to amass things.
They devote themselves
to the natural rhythms
that the Great Integrity brings.


Verse 78

Appearance and Reality

Nothing in the world
is softer and weaker than water.
Yet there is nothing better
for subduing all that is harder and stronger.

Everyone observes
how weak overcomes strong,
how gentleness overcomes rigidity.
Yet, this principle is seldom
put into conscious practice.

Though some may say it is useless
to accept responsibility
for the calamities and toxicities
of the world,
taking such responsiblity
might put us on the road
to the Great Integrity.

Just remember that truth
often masquerades as falsity,
and falsity as truth.


Verse 19

The Paradoxes of Returning to the Great Integrity

Banish the intellectual!
Discard knowledge!
We will all benefit a hundredfold!

Eliminate all institutions
of charity and justice!
We can then return
to our natural love for each other.

Let everyone be released
from our addictions
to shrewdness and profit!
Then, thievery will disappear!

These three negate the Great Integrity.
But to negate these negations
is insufficient.
Three affirmations are also necessary.

The first is to embrace
simplicity and integrity.
The second is to consume
only the needs of our body and soul.
The third is to allow our love and concern
for others to define our essentiality.

Sight
Sound
a pair of eyes and ears pick up their legs and s t r e t c h

the internet, Self-created universe within a universe. took inspiration from, imitated, unknowingly, some few very-much-knowingly, saw and seemed to know we could, would parallel those parallaxed galaxies and far reaching darkness of gases spewing hot air like a factory eliminates elements chopped and mixed creating heat for our heat in the cold that's just like outer space inner-human space run warm by heart and cells, boxes taken from far up onto the screens that now share in eyes, divide us in our reality of a race to fill that time and bring back the formulas from the minds of a few, a whole book of many, geniuses of one mind, no matter their subject they touched it, felt it, created, engaged with the space and had to take it, reshape, manifest and share it down to earth where as above so below slowly making progress a raging drive to one day find their ride was up, coming back to complete the tale they, you, me, she, he, us, them, we, or give me an article i'll clothe the infinity of possibility you guessed it the grammer is my little way of structuring, sentencing, see-can-you-hear-read-speak-what-i'm-imagining kinda tale, the same one one never knew he had started, needed finishing, never-knowing reborn a million eons worth uncountable lives and bones and explosions of re-wind, re-do, continues faster and faster spinning slower than after the same way those places run from us, those places but to where hit-they 'borders'? it is, is it what i just heard? as i typed the words they played in the speaker of 'Shinjiro' by DJ Krush that sings of flight same timing makes it more than right senses whizzing, breath buzzing, fingers tapping, head is bobbing, everything moving in unity to the music the breath plays out what words i want to choose as they get spewed a written moment is sick what an ugly word to describe something this beautiful, no, scratch sick, as blank blank FUCKING full as is infinite imagination. like the black moved towards the speed of light that sits outside our exosphere's door, past the last planet the scope could possibly catch in its man-created eye of glass. Google records our little earth-bound world, which, waking up to the forces of elements and sun-burning motions, into itself it may just one day crash, crush, sucked in to explode out like a self-destructing volcano of compressed heat reaching maximum peak gravity, push and pull of the space around it, a comet crosses the path, sends water up and over - move aside for the crater, canyon greater than itself by more than half, ripples past the seabed of earth, what one day may be, i'll let deep impact take care of that for me, breaking all those pages of information flowing faster than red-eye shift. songs playing move in waves out from a click of an artists imagination onto a page sequenced, corresponding, cooperating into movement of the eyes over fingers on keys, drums, strings, buttons, made to step to the bodies on the dance floor in the ears of the many surrounded by one room, walls, outside are those night stars looking from beyond the unfulfillable mind's gap and it screams to carry it just that much farther

Poet, physicist, philosopher. Le voila: Gaston Bachelard. How these disciplines are not mutually dependent and intertwined is a mystery to me....

"And, irrespective of what one might assume, in the life of a science, problems do not arise by themselves. It is precisely this that marks out a problem as being of the true scientific spirit: all knowledge is in response to a question. If there were no question, there would be no scientific knowledge. Nothing proceeds from itself. Nothing is given. All is constructed."

Michel Foucault said Bachelard "plays against his own culture with his own culture."

Checkmate

During the breaking of the wall with that hammer of a proposition, who is the audience and who is on stage? Is Gaston, representing the scientist and seeker, speaking out to his fellow dignitaries to shed light upon their constructs? Does he realize that it is perhaps the question which proceeds from itself? I do believe something, just ONE thing had to have proceeded from itself for everything else that is to have been able to unfold. You know, the universe et al...
Is that ONE thing the audience? Listening amusedly as that which he (or she, or it) created denies him of his own non-constructed existence?

Perhaps it is in the 'knowing' of his fact (?!) that the consciousness of our construction can lead us to an opening; to a given firmament, to a finally tangible non-reality.

"For consciousness rejuvenates everything, giving the quality of beginning to the most everyday actions.

Elevators do away with the heroism of stair climbing so that there is no longer any virtue in living up near the sky.

All values must remain vulnerable, and those that do not are dead.

It is striking that the most favourable field for receiving the consciousness of freedom is none other than reverie.

The reveries of two solitary souls prepare the sweetness of loving. A realist of passion will see nothing there but evanescent formulas. But just the same it is no less true that great passions are prepared by great reveries. The reality of love is mutilated when it is detached from all its unrealness.

It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

If a poet looks through a microscope or a telescope, he always sees the same thing."

inspiration can come from anywhere:

a good friend's refrigerator hence produces mine.....

That she dear she might take some pleasure of my pain,

Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,

Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain;

I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,

Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:

Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow

Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burned brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay,

Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,

And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.

Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite--

"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."

Inspired by the invisible energy running through our world (that of atoms, quarks, molecules, cells, etc.) I got to thinking...
And last night, after debating the differences (perceived and refuted) between math and art and science the seed continued to sprout.
While trying to hash out the web of relations (people-to-people relations) that human life spins, I came to a visual analogy where molecular structure serves as the frame, the pre-existing, 'invisible' evidence of the relational quality of base to pinnacle (human, incarnate, life and its physical manifestations being the pinnacle. A pinnacle which is not necessarily superior to the base).


Now, I know jack about the subject of molecules et al as a scientist or studied chemist. But that didn't stop me from connecting the image of molecular bonds and structures that I could recall from my 10th grade chemistry notes to a topic, theme, that has been floating around for some time.
What is it about childhood friends (and family, of course) that ensures a sort-of timeless confidence in ourselves, the 'true you', and the ability of that trueness to shine forth unimpeded within that relationship? Is it more than just the temporal quality of that relationship that, my best buddy so-and-so who I've known since _____ (I could walk, the playground in 4th grade, summer camp, etc.) knows the real me and I know the real them? It's got to be more than time and innocence that does it, right? What sort of factors provide the bonding agents between people? Because as perfect and timeless as childhood bonds may be, there's still evidence to the fact that you can have those sort of bonds with someone you met only a few years ago, months ago. Or do those people, who you so easily connect to, spark a recognition of your own being in their behavior, silhouette, essence, that resonates in a timeless manner, that recognizes connection thanks to (a) shared 'atom(s)' that once existed as a singular entity and had been split and dispersed into other beings. Picking up the pieces of yourself, found in others, is that what bonds the bond? And makes life so rich with potential?

311 wrote a great song for this.



That home feeling. That love feeling of safety and comfort to let loose with another person within the boundary-less no-uncertain terms that resemble what you relate to most in life. What are those electron bonds that provide for the covalent connection? And how many do we get in life? What does one's personal molecularelationship bubble structure look like throughout life, with some bonds fading out and others replacing them...
And how do they overlap?
Ever make a 'hook-up' web in high school? Having attended a small-closely knit (ahem sometimes incestuous) high school and college, it was always a hoot to see who's been with who through who.
It's alllmufukinconnected. 6-degrees and all...

Thank you, Wikipedia...

A covalent bond is a form of chemical bonding that is characterized by the sharing of pairs of electrons between atoms, or between atoms and other covalent bonds. In short, attraction-to-repulsion stability that forms between atoms when they share electrons is known as covalent bonding.

Covalent bonding includes many kinds of interaction, including σ-bonding, π-bonding, metal-metal bonding, agostic interactions, and three-center two-electron bonds.^[1][2] The term covalent bond dates from 1939.^[3] The prefix co- means jointly, associated in action, partnered to a lesser degree, etc.; thus a "co-valent bond", essentially, means that the atoms share "valence", such as is discussed in valence bond theory. In the molecule H₂, the hydrogen atoms share the two electrons via covalent bonding. Covalency is greatest between atoms of similar electronegativities. Thus, covalent bonding does not necessarily require the two atoms be of the same elements, only that they be of comparable electronegativity. Because covalent bonding entails sharing of electrons, it is necessarily delocalized. Furthermore, in contrast to electrostatic interactions ("ionic bonds") the strength of covalent bond depends on the angular relation between atoms in polyatomic molecules.

A chemical bond is the physical process responsible for the attractive interactions between atoms and molecules, and that which confers stability to diatomic and polyatomic chemical compounds. The explanation of the attractive forces is a complex area that is described by the laws of quantum electrodynamics. In practice, however, chemists usually rely on quantum theory or qualitative descriptions that are less rigorous but more easily explained to describe chemical bonding. In general, strong chemical bonding is associated with the sharing or transfer of electrons between the participating atoms. Molecules, crystals, and diatomic gases—indeed most of the physical environment around us—are held together by chemical bonds, which dictate the structure of matter.

Bonds vary widely in their strength. Generally covalent and ionic bonds are often described as "strong", whereas hydrogen bonds and van der Waals bonds are generally considered to be "weak". Care should be taken because the strongest of the "weak" bonds can be stronger than the weakest of the "strong" bonds.

Got caught up in a B&N last night and it seems that books are my sort-of polar opposite.

Magnets.
I manage to, be it in the library or bookstore, amidst piles and piles and stacks and rows of shelves, wander over to that shelf, pick up the exact book that addresses the exact theme(s) with which I'm preoccupied at that given time. Not just once. Not just twice. No, not just thrice. Mais toujours! Polar opposite, then?
Am I judging a book by its cover? Do the frames inherently necessitate the image that will be projected? And then encompassed, then reflected?
It would only follow, though, that as one creates more and more 'themes' or 'folders' in the hard-drive their corresponding examples in the world then 'surface', having a place from which recognition may stem, filing may follow.
A good exercise: never stop creating and updating 'folders'. It is a process that is entirely beneficial for many reasons known and yet unknown. Best of all, it makes you feel ALIVE!!!
Thinking about how many aspects there can be to one life, how many layers, people places things customs----infinity^ever expanded. That's the real meat.

"A magnet (from Greek μαγνήτης λίθος, "Magnesian stone") is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible and causes the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on nearby magnetic materials, or attracts or repels other magnets.

A "hard" or "permanent" magnet is one that stays magnetized, such as a magnet used to hold notes on a refrigerator door. Permanent magnets occur naturally in some rocks, particularly lodestone, but are now more commonly manufactured. A "soft" or "impermanent" magnet is one that loses its memory of previous magnetizations. "Soft" magnetic materials are often used in electromagnets to enhance (often hundreds or thousands of times) the magnetic field of a wire that carries an electric current and is wrapped around the magnet; the field of the "soft" magnet increases with the current.

Two measures of a material's magnetic properties are its magnetic moment and its magnetization. A material without a permanent magnetic moment can, in the presence of magnetic fields, be attracted (paramagnetic), or repelled (diamagnetic). Liquid oxygen is paramagnetic; graphite is diamagnetic. Paramagnets tend to intensify the magnetic field in their vicinity, whereas diamagnets tend to weaken it. "Soft" magnets, which are strongly attracted to magnetic fields, can be thought of as strongly paramagnetic; superconductors, which are strongly repelled by magnetic fields, can be thought of as strongly diamagnetic."

(Systems of systems-esque)
Do my book-magnet instances qualify as paramagnetic, then? Liquid oxygen. Hmmm. Quicksilver's lighter, looser, little sister?

So anywho, Coelho published a new one. Brida. I can only hope and aspire to so artfully weave. I really wonder about authors such as he. What sort of influences did he grow up with? Where does his brilliance come from? The sort of simple brilliance that doesn't take more than 200 or so pages and leaves seemingly nondescript sentences tucked away in plain sight that later smack you in the face with layers of meaning and relevance. Again. And again. A sort of nugget-like weaving that is detachable from the original context yet makes just as much sense when it resurfaces over there. The smack stings with perfection.

"Anticipate the past. Remember the future."
(from a disparate source)
Let that one sink in.
wwwwwowwwww

From Brida...
"An anonymous text from the Tradition says that, in life, each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant. The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day, they finish what they're doing. Then they find they're hemmed in by their own walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.
Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener's constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure.
Gardeners always recognize one another, because they know that in the history of each plant lies the growth of the whole World."

_____________________________


"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
- Marcel Proust


like the Butter to my bread in life....

This is a mental experiment of sorts:

Wipe the slate clean. Totally.
Efface your possessions, your agendas, obligations, your job, your hobbies, what society deems as important, what the news feels is 'newsworthy', politics, the supreme un-equalizer: money. Picture 'your life' and all that surrounds it as a chalk board on your lap with those little plastic magnet letters, shapes, symbols arranged accordingly.
Now sweep your hand across it and scatter it all. Break it down.
Or, if this helps, imagine you are about to retire.

What is really left? What is necessary, important? What will/has actually sustained you??
We spend about 1/3 of our lives sleeping. Seems that dreaming/restoration is important. Waking life, bridging the dichotom-ic chasm-like quality between thought and action spins that web, the plastic magnets. So does family, friends, human connection.
But what are our true 'obligations'? To ourselves, to each other? It has been said: to love and serve, seems simple enough...Yet within that, we humans just can't sit still. We've constructed this world from nothingggg. Well, thought is something (the source of everything, essentially), but can't be held, touched, so in that way, it's nothing. What's with the need, the incessant NEED to create objects, empires, dynasties? To validate existence with something tangible, when we know (hopefully) that what is really important is not at all tangible?
Maybe we can't have one without the other?

We are here today because of a tiny little drive to life (creation) that has dually expanded and compounded upon itself, becoming denser and denser and bigger and 'better' as the generations progress...(Sidenote: it really is a tricky thing to assign value in this sort of place, hence the ' ') Passing on the detritus of sorts of physical constructions, economies of scale, culture, language- all the things, visible and invisible, complete and incomplete, that make human life as we know it today so incredibly complex and unique. It's kind of ironic because the fossil fuel we've been using of late (when did that actually start? Industrial revolution?) to propel our 'progress' is, essentially, compounded materia of eons past. Ahhhhh energy cycles!!!

So yea,
This exercise had me undone. Just a little. Totally emptied the 'purpose' of life (uhhh, scary?).

"Philosophy is a walk on the slippery rocks." Watch yourself. That moss, mixed with dawn's early dew, and some rain now too, it will have you trippin and flippin over your mis-stepped perceptions of depth, magic-eye crossed to pop back a twisted image of what's 'there' mixed with what you've got in 'here'- wait, where? When will the image come un-blurred, for sure, for certain death and taxes are the burden, both created and debated by the hand that dealt the first card, where I'm goin with this, that's hard to say, to see, in this together you me the world we's a team against itself goal keeper of the nets of constructed truth can't let all the balls slip through but perfect your kick, perform a hattrick times three, ooooohhhh then let it beeee ...
--random rhyme break--

I don't really recommend this if you're not in a healthy state of mind, on a psychedelic drug trip, or if you can't break out of the sweat of exercise. That wheel can spin really fast, depending on the angle of the hill you push it down...
The need to break everything down into nothing has been around before. The flip-side: death is there, chillin. But maybe it's not what we think? Death has caught some tough breaks...maybe he's really hearty and happy and sweet, the real fuel to life's fire. After death, no- through death- one is given the chance to come out 'harder better faster stronger'. Like the Mexicans who celebrate death, I can't help but be fascinated and curious as to what that other side contains...so annnnyywayyy. . .
Last late-summer it (the need to break everything down into nothing to get back to something) was launched by a 'manuscript' that, for me, really harmonized all the problems and potential solutions of humanity and life on this planet. I couldn't share it with people beyond a certain limit and being self-contained within the borderless, boundless structures (can you tell I love contradictory opposites when sidled up together? It makes things MAKE SENSE. Yin/Yang?!) of the profound meanings and messages revealed to me was overwhelming to say the least.
Where do you turn, what the hell do you do when you think you have something to help others (the world) but can't find the proper outlet? To start, you better step out of your own way, that's what. Ok ok ok, this is getting a bit sloppy. Changing the world- bahhaha!
Back to the exercise. It requires, first and foremost, a sense of purpose, important to note- NOT something born by imposed expectations exterior to yourself. Then, control. Oh control, you bastion of human will.

Hmm maybe using an example external to myself will help crystallize...
To preface this guy's hard-working brilliance, I must say that the need for humans to exert control over nature (don't fcuk with nature, fool) is what got us here to begin with. Loop, de loop.
"Once you have a mission, you can't go back to having a job." That awesome, quote-worthy sentence was spoken by Shai Agassi, the man who is working on 'an audacious plan to put electric cars on the road'. Ha, better: when asked if he's worried about a competitor stealing his idea, he stares at the reporter like he's an idiot. "The mission is to end oil," he says, "not create a company."

So think about that. The idea of a Mission. Once you've emptied the vessel of your life as you know it, can you manage to come back around and find what's left? The driver of a mission that, instead of adding to the misery of this world, helps clear it; one bigger in its solitude than all the combined bullshit that humanity has created around the essentials of life...That bullshit is comforting though. Maybe it has something to do with natural selection. We can't all have missions. There have to be executers too. Smaller branches growing out of the will of the larger ones, if you will. Everything will work itself out anyway, has for how many centuries??

Brings me now to Abraham Maslow who in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation extracted what marketing and psych students study as the 'Hierarchy of Needs':



_____________________________

"It's not so much where my motivation comes from, but rather how it manages to survive."
- Louise Bourgeois
This woman is 96 years old and has been creating art for much of her time. The Gügg's retrospective on her life and works was humbling and inspiring. Fantastic.

Arch of Hysteria, 1993


"Stemming from her interest in the physical, emotional, and psychological aspects of pain and fear, Bourgeois was drawn to the arch of hysteria as theorized and represented by the nineteenth-century neurologist Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893). While working at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, Charcot sought to represent hysteria by documenting the performances of his female patients. The physical tension of the hysterical arch - an intense muscular contraction, resulting in immobility and paralysis of the limbs - is emblematic of an equally extreme emotional state. Bourgeois makes this highly vulnerable position even more so by suspending her male figure from the ceiling. In choosing to represent him in an attitude traditionally associated with the female, the artist transgresses the social and sexual roles assigned to women, challenging the misconception of hysteria as a female malady."

In yoga, this pose:

"Ustrasana ("camel pose") is a very deep backward bend performed in a kneeling position. As a stretch it opens the whole of the front of the body, including the hip flexors and pectoral muscles. Traditionally it is seen as opening the "heart center". Many people find backbends difficult or challenging, because bending backwards is not an activity with which most are familiar. Practicing Ustrasana can make many beginners new to yoga feel distinctly ill, with lightheadedness or nausea being quite common after-effects. However, this does usually improve with practice. The posture improves core strength, spinal, hip and shoulder flexibility and stamina."

Funny how closely hysteria and the heart center can be related when comparing Bourgeois' sculpture and one of my personal favorite postures. It's all about the context, I guess. But to reverse your view on the world by turning it upside down for a good 30 seconds, twice, effectively helps to re-focus and re-equilibrate. Maybe that's unconsciously what the bodies of those poor hysterical women in 1800 France were trying to do for them.

Louise got it out like this :

...but you gotta be a little off-your-rocker to really create, right?

It is familiar to all men, both young and old; is found in the country, in the village, in the town, in all things created by God; yet it is despised by all. Rich and poor handle it every day. It is cast into the street by servant maids. Children play with it. Yet no one prizes it, though, next to the human soul, it is the most beautiful and the most precious thing upon earth and has the power to pull down kings and princes. Nevertheless, it is esteemed the vilest and meanest of earthly things.

"Shatter your ideals on the rock of Truth."

"There is nothing valuable except what we value in life."

"In a small affair or in a big affair, first consult yourself and find out if there is any conflict in your own being about anything you want to do. And when you find no conflict there, then feel sure that a path is already made for you. You have but to open your eyes and take a step forward, and the other step will be led by God."

"The difference between the divine and the human will is like the difference between the trunk of a tree and its branches. As from the boughs other twigs and branches spring, so the will of one powerful individual has branches going through the will of other individuals. So there are the powerful beings, the masters of humanity. Their will is God's will, their word is God's word, and yet they are branches, because the trunk is the will of the Almighty. Whether the branch be large or small, every branch has the same origin and the same root as the stem."

"The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion,
the more one will see that it is all music."

"Reason is the illusion of reality."

.Explosions.

words and their meanings rule this world.

this = my = the
world = mental = emotional = spirit-you-all
rule = inspire = rock

It's never that simple, though.

Or is it? Snicker.

*lover = LOVAAAHH
(who remembers that SNL sketch?)

If you don't tell lies, at least you don't have to remember what you have said.
Do me a favor, and don't do me anymore favors
Pity the worms!
Up ahead! It's a DONUT HUT!!
It's not you, it's me. I don't like you.
Shaloha
Early bird gets the worm. But what about the early worm?
Sorry that meeting sucked so bad
take this pen and remember to turn on your windshield wipers
Revoking your creative license
Smells like a wet dog.
Quote me as saying I was misquoted.
We have assumed control, we have assumed control, we have assumed control.
Don't tempt me to unleash the one-legged space chickens!
If the cubicle's a-rockin', don't bother knockin'
Cheaper to fly to Old Zealand than New Zealand
i've arranged a list of exciting things we can do for the next thirty years
My brain is not large enough to destroy the entire world when unfolded.
Seeking a contextually relevant trap page
My dog has no nose
Vacation? I'm leaning towards Pisa
Allow myself to introduce...myself
Dropping science like Galileo dropped the orange
MAKE MONEY FAST
Sender wishes to recall message
Please put your hands together for the lovely Shasta!
We've got a chicken with your name on it.
never finish a burrito
Unique and secret method in the history of preparing a treat for those who love spicy dishes.
Waterbeds for Quadrupeds
Astonishing feats of MENTALISM!
Is my webcam on?
Great mind thinks alike.
You're that crazy shark, aren't you? I'm just a dolphin, maam.
I served in the military under General Apathy
Who is Marcello?
Got change for a $6 bill?
I Brake for Unicorns
circulate darling, circulate!
My hobby is collecting dust
Das Boot spoof set in subshop
For self-starters only
it's new improved crazy christmas
Have you tried the HotPockets? They're breathtaking!
Wanna try the Good Cop/Bad Cop routine?
Menos samba y mas trabajar
Age-defying quinines
Hark! A Lark! Flying through the Park!
Scratch golfer finds ball in poison oak
Everything today is about the entire enterprise! Front and back lines - inside and out.
There's a great juggler on the radio tonight!
I believe those were mouse droppings
holy schadenfreude batgirl
Mind over don't matter.
ASAP's Fables
I don't know quite how to say this
Your earrings would make a great fishing lure!
Charleston Chewy is Chewy, Louie. But not too chewy.
RE: four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
Afternoon matinee at the drive-in theater?
The sushi boats are in the harbor for the night
Are these edible?
GOOD MEETING!
the dangerous combination of beard and bread
Muscle Shoals has got the swampers
Dang it! Evil triumphs again!
Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadu
BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!
Go hang a salami! I'm a lasagna hog!
I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.
puking rainbows
I'd like 600 mirrors please
the royal afflecks
When Lawyers Attack
Is it safe?
Help watering the plastic flowers
Couples welcome
Cannibals are what they eat
Tonight on a very special "Blossom"...
we have located your pants
Rack of Spam recipe
Do watch dogs know they're working?
Get your tongue out of my mouth, cuz I'm kissing you goodbye!
My motivational speaking tour
Jeremy! What have I told you about the correct way to butter crumpets?
Asking for your daughter's paw in marriage
Geometry and Theology
quote from DOG SOLDIERS, the best werewolf movie ever
glossed over funeral arrangements
Save the whales! Collect the whole set!
have you ever played wounded soldier?
Do Not Read
Large spreadsheet problem
Some Powdered Muffin with your Starfish, Dr Arbuckle?
There are eels in my hovercraft
Sensitive boyfriend sweater
Free James Brown (not valid with any other offer)
I am disrespectful to dirt!
Ma has a ham!
this brain has been polished professor
Long live the People's Mesh!
Shall we play a game?
About last night...
Sorry I missed you. Stand still next time.
Nutrageous!
Facts: 1) Ninjas are mammals. 2) Ninjas fight ALL the time. 3) The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.
Workin' like a one-armed paper-hanger with an itch...
Pass the timbits!
Time-off for good behavior
I am not edible.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
superfluous super flues
Re: Are you alone?
Fwd: Re: FW[2]: RE: re: [FWD] joke\
You are brave young dragon. But mine is the stronger gung-fu.
I am not a chew toy
Hold me closer, Tony Danza
Impressive rutabaga!
Todd! Are you not aware that I get farty and bloated with a foamy latte!?
Stop baby sea turtles from being crushed!
Why does Chinese food always taste better in front of a computer?
Cooking pork chops in the toaster
hooded hoods trying to hoodwink car hoods
What we have here is a failure to communicate
A hip-hop MC performs with improvised rhyme and the spoken word, typically over a thumping beat.
Catch-23
Clever things to say after inhaling from a helium balloon
What's new, Pikachu?
Welcome to SPACE X
Shortcut for next week's marathon
The black crow flies over the sleeping dog at midnight
CONCERN BROWN BAG TIX STILL AVAILABLE!
Easy Money: Snail Herd at Home!
What's the corkage fee at McDonald's?
Tired of having sand kicked in your face?
Hydrate or DIE!!!
the development of a nuclear powered egg
National Bring Your Hamster To Work Day
I love animals cause they're made of meat.
I know kung fu!
These aren't the droids we're looking for
Pandora didn't think outside the box
memory is the greatest trick we play on ourselves, after reality
Free Shakespeare (limit two Shakespeare per customer)
The CARDBOARD PROTOTYPE
LipSmack heartAttack girlie girl in a pink sleep sack
O Mighty Isis!
I'd love to, but I'm building a pig from a kit.
There was a young man from Verdun,
You mush read this!
I think we need to talk
Now three, act like wherever you are, that's the place to be.
I changed her oil, she changed my life
I've never seen a man eat so many chicken wings
Alarming drop-out rate of sky diving classes
I'm a stereotype. I'm not wrong. I'm cuddly.
dodging serendipities
You can't teach an old dog to live in glass houses
My favorite color is Vanna White
Shake it, don't break it, took your mama 9 months to make it.
Be Your Own Boss!!8098
My train of thought has derailed
Re: mummification?
Thank God and Greyhound she's gone
Pressing business at the dry cleaners
I am the kid next door's imaginary friend
Damn these scruples!
you're not as objectionable as you seem to be, are you?
Save some funk for Sunday
Who drank my Crystal Pepsi?
I've decided to start smoking
I hate eating breakfast on an empty stomach
Do you suffer from uncontrollable falling down?
Oh no! Not another learning experience!
The puppet show has been cancelled. Ciao.
I eat tofu and I vote.
Happy New Now!
Space heaters make great house-warming gifts
important: do not eat the fish
We sell solutions, not software
If I hop in the shower, am I turning into a rabbit?
This is the first email of your new life
Wake me up when it's time to go to sleep
How was tomorrow? I think you know what I mean.

The Gift is a book of poems by The Great Sufi Master, Hafiz, that made its way into my hands last night. I woke up this morning (iTunes happens to be on B.B. King singing Woke Up This Mornin' right now hah) and the first thing I did was reach for the book. Great words to wake up to... All this after having met a Persian who recounted a story by Rumi the night prior to last.

Life reveals its mystery and secret

Everyday.

A little bit more

Than the first.

(^Hafiz' influence upon me already apparent.)

"Hafiz, whose given name was Shams-ud-din Muhammad is the most beloved poet of Persia. (c. 1320-1389). Born in Shiraz, he lived at about the same time as Chaucer in England and about one hundred years after Rumi. When he died he was thought to have written an estimated 5,000 poems, for which 500 to 700 have survived. His Divan is a classic in the literature of Sufism. The work of Hafiz became known to the West largely through the efforts of Goethe, whose enthusiasm rubbed off on Ralph Waldo Emerson, who translated Hafiz in the 19th century...In 1923, Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Indian teacher often credited with bringing Sufism to the West, proclaimed that "the words of Hafiz have won every heart that listens."

The Sun Never Says

Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe
Me."

Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.

When I Want To Kiss God

When
No one is looking

I swallow deserts and clouds
And chew on mountains knowing
They are sweet
Bones!

When no one is looking and I want
To kiss
God

I just lift my own hand
To

My

Mouth.

Why Abstain?

Why
Abstain from love
When like the beautiful snow goose
Someday your soul
Will leave this summer
Camp?

Why
Abstain from happiness
When like a skilled lion
Your heart is
Nearing

And
Will someday see
The divine prey is
Always
Near!

Like A Life-Giving Sun

You could become a great horseman

And help to free yourself and this world

Though only if you and prayer become sweet
Lovers.

It is a naive man who thinks we are not
Engaged in a fierce battle,

For I see and hear brave foot soldiers
All around me going mad,

Falling on the ground in excruciating pain.

You could become a victorious horseman

And carry your heart through this world
Like a life-giving sun

Though only if you and God become sweet
Lovers!

Effacement

Effacement
Is a golden gun.
It was not easy to hold it against my head
And fire!

I needed great faith in my master
To suffocate myself
With his holy bag
Full of truth.

I needed great courage
To go out into the dark
Tracking God into the unknown

And not panic or get lost
In all the startling new scents, sounds,
Sights,

Or lose my temper
Tripping on those scheming
Night and day around me.

Hafiz,
Effacement is the emerald dagger
You need to plunge

Deep into yourself upon
This path to divine
Recovery--

Upon this path
To God.

The Vintage Man

The
Difference
Between a good artist
And a great one

Is:

The novice
Will often lay down his tool
Or brush

Then pick up an invisible club
On the mind's table

And helplessly smash the easels and
Jade.

Whereas the vintage man
No longer hurts himself or anyone

And keeps on
Sculpting

Light.


Imagination Does Not Exist

You should come close to me tonight wayfarer
For I will be celebrating you.

Your beauty still causes me madness,
Keeps the neighbors complaining
When I start shouting in the middle of the night
Because I can't bear all this joy.

I will be giving birth to suns.
I will be holding forests upside down
Gently shaking soft animals from trees and burrows
Into my lap.

What you conceive as imagination
Does not exist for me.

Whatever you can do in a dream
Or on your mind-canvas

My hands can pull-alive-from my coat pocket.

But let's not talk about my divine world.

For what I most want to know
Tonight is:

All about
You.

The Thousand-Stringed Instrument

The heart is
The thousand-stringed instrument.

Our sadness and fear come from being
Out of tune with love.

All day long God coaxes my lips
To speak,

So that your tears will not stain
His green dress.

It is not that the Friend is vain,
It is just your life we care about.

Sometimes the Beloved
Takes my pen in hand,
For Hafiz is just a simple man.

The other day the Old One
Wrote on the Tavern wall:

“The heart is
The thousand-stringed instrument

That can only be tuned with
Love."

Stop Calling Me A Pregnant Woman

My Master once entered a phase
That whenever I would see him
He would say,

"Hafiz,
how did you ever become a pregnant woman?"

And I would reply,

"Dear Attar,
You must be speaking truth,
But all of what you say is a mystery to me."

Many months passed by in his blessed company,
But one day I lost my patience
Upon hearing that odd refrain
And blurted out,

"Stop calling me a pregnant woman!"

And Attar replied,
"Someday, my sweet Hafiz,
All the nonsense in your brain will dry up
Like a stagnant pool of water
Beneath the sun,

Though if you want to know the Truth
I can so clearly see that God has made love with you
And the whole universe is germinating
Inside your belly

And wonderful words,
Such enlightening words
Will take birth from you

And be cradled against thousands
Of hearts."



HAFIZ!!!!!!!!!!

My maman gave me this book to read ages ago. It was probably during a short trip I took back West to the East coast where my body was physically at home but the rest of me was scattered in the air above the Atlantic and/or in another time zone and place-home. So I didn't. Read the book, that is. Chalk it up to that little problem I mentioned earlier, you know, the O.A.R.A. syndrome. No ointment for that one, ya'll. Unless you consider the effects of more reading parallel to the healing wonders of viscous topical solutions. It does soothe sometimes. But who am I kidding, reading has been, sadly, at the bottom of the barrel the past few weeks. Meh, whattaryagonnado?

In Philadelphia the other night, driving around looking for a place to buy a nice bouteille du vin, my new friend Krystal and I stumbled upon an ice cream shoppe with a line out the door, a sweet patio set up, and an irresistible allure that only a hot summer's night (and a waning interest in wine hunting) could help trigger. Apparently, The Franklin Fountain is a well know hot-spot for the ice cream connoisseur. That frozen cow's milk was good, let me tell you.

What really got me was the atmosphere. It was like stepping into 1908 all over again (that sort-of implies that I already have, which makes me giggle because it's probably true, but I digress...). They certainly get a 10/10 for authenticity in my book. The quality of the product is enough to garner those stars but the whole package, which it seems is nothing short of a requirement for anything to truly succeed and 'convince', made my ice-cream-licking experience a total joy.

Most notable (besides the aforementioned attributes), for me, was this notice posted to the wall:

ALSO:

I always had a thing against artificially generated cold air blowing against my love for warm summer breezes. Can't help it - I'm an old-fashioned, new school, ineffable, August-livin, season lovin, real-appreciatin' kinda gal.

Looks like we had it right from the start.

And I'm off to sweat it out.....