Wednesday, July 27, 2011

When tomorrow comes, it's the NOW again.



A Tolle lecture on the 'transcendental NOW' in which he points out that careful observation will reveal that audio-visual quality of memory --- whether it is from 10 minutes back or 10 years back or 20 years back - it's the same.

The 5 minute old memory is as fragmented, as disjointed as the 5 year old memory. Or the 10 year old memory. Or the 20 year old memory.

Your transcendental self has been, and is, peacefully watching all moments of your life manifesting simultaneously. These moments contain archetypes, i.e., models of you, not the real you.

The future does not exist, except as a thought, a moment on the above mentioned transcendental fabric. It is also unfolding in the NOW, along with the past.

And here is Carl Jung, talking about the relationship between the past and the present moment.

It appears that Jung is in perfect tune with Tolle.




If indeed the 'transcendental NOW' is all there is, one just might prefer to say -- memory or "movement of archetypes" from 10 minutes below, or 10 years "below", or 20 years "below". -- to use Jung's representation.

One dynamic moment, evolving 'vertically'. Outside of time, which can be looked upon as flowing horizontally.

"One dynamic moment evolving vertically" is also a sensibility that physicist Fritjof Capra ponders in 'The Tao of Physics', when he comments on the experiences reported by eastern mystics who claimed to have transcended, and the odd behaviour of phenomena seen at the sub atomic level, phenomena that do not flow chronologically, and appear to move in complex ways that can be summed up as "distortion of time."


An interesting statement pointed out by Eckhart Tolle that points to temporal distortion in human life:

"Before Abraham was, I am."


Some more examples of temporal distortion:

  • You are reading this for the first time, all over again.

  • You have been watching this statement forever.

  • You are visiting this blog for the first time, but you think you have been here before.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Word maps versus the Territory

When it comes to building maps of reality using words, I try to avoid building maps that are elaborate.

Word maps of reality should move like poetry.

There is no need to try to be 'exact' -- there is no such thing as 'exact'. It is an imaginary thing.

Whatever reality is, it's beyond word-maps, and can be comprehended only through the DIRECT EXPERIENCE.

Reality is totally different from the maps we build.

For example, consider the statement:

"We apply a certain force to a mass, and the mass moves through a distance as predicted by the laws of motion".

This statement is ok, as far as engineering is concerned.

But it is NOT OK, as far as the real flow of reality is concerned.

So what would be the REAL flow of reality in the above mentioned situation?

Answer: IN-DETERMINISTIC. Cannot be defined, cannot be expressed in words. It is a dance of quality that involves all of infinity. That's the only thing that can be said.

Robert M. Pirsig has the following to say, Chapter 5, Lila:

"The fundamental nature of reality is outside language. Language splits things up into parts while the true nature of reality is undivided." [While talking about the POV of mystics.]

He also says..."Quality does not have to be defined. You understand it without definition, ahead of definition. Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions."

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Magical Mystery Tour

"There is some principle of magic in everything, some living quality.

Something living, something real, is taking place in everything."


- Chogyam Trungpa



Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Nuclear Weapons, Insanity, Cowardice

"More than a decade and a half after the Cold War ended, the world's combined stockpile of nuclear warheads remain at a very high level: more than 22,000. Of these, nearly 4,500 warheads are considered operational, of which nearly 2,000 U.S. and Russian warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.

The exact number of nuclear weapons in each country's possession is a closely held national secret."
-Federation of American Scientists.

In the words of U.S. president Jimmy Carter, 1979:

Just one of our relatively invulnerable Poseidon submarines - less than two percent of our total nuclear force of submarines, aircraft, and land based missiles - carries enough warheads to destroy every large and medium-sized city in the Soviet Union. Our deterrent is overwhelming.'


The depths of human insanity, cowardice are bottomless.


The Dogs of War are creatures of fear and hatred. Not in their nature to be peaceful.

And they are everywhere. In every country, every town. Not necessarily only in the armed forces.

The following song by Roger Waters is an interesting comment on oil politics, nuclear weapons, and the severely catatonic state of mind of our politicians...people who take policy decisions that influence billions of lives.

Roger Waters is far from crazy and paranoid.