Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I have been thinking about parallel universes, parallel lives, time being imaginary,  and multiverses today.  It is really interesting to imagine that they exist - but - if they do, where we are right now as we consider them is all that we are capable of "knowing" as an absolute certainty at the current time. 

One experience that I had stands out in my mind as a question that has no answer.  I am unsure which of the above concepts it might be more closely related to (if any).   About seven years ago, when I was working at the college, I attended a conference on autism in the Albany area.  It was close enough to where I live that I drove there.  Several colleagues from the college met me at the conference.  At lunchtime we all went out to eat together at a nearby restaurant.  I made sure to take enough cash that day in case we shared one check (that was back in the days when people actually carried cash).  I checked my wallet before I left home.  When it came time to pay our bill and I opened my wallet, my money was gone.  No one had been near my purse, and so I knew it must be somewhere and I searched for it for some time.  Nothing.  Of course, I borrowed money to pay my share of the check.   When I got back to the conference I searched the bag with my notebook, etc.  Nothing.  I couldn't get it out of my mind for the rest of the afternoon because I knew it had been there.  When I got back in my car to drive home, I looked again.  I opened my wallet, and was not really surprised that there it was - my money.  Where had it gone and how had it returned?  Did the money in my wallet temporarily enter a different time or maybe even a different place?

The following article on parallel lives is interesting:  http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist

Sitting or Lying Down

Whether you are going or staying or sitting or lying down,

the whole world is your own self.
You must find out
whether the mountains, rivers, grass, and forests
exist in your own mind or exist outside it.
Analyze the ten thousand things,
dissect them minutely,
and when you take this to the limit
you will come to the limitless,
when you search into it you come to the end of search,
where thinking goes no further and distinctions vanish.
When you smash the citadel of doubt,
then the Buddha is simply yourself.

~Daikaku

The Sea

art by cds

Depth Psychology posits that the ocean and the sea represent the unconscious.  It is obvious, of course, why this is so.  Most of what is in the ocean is hidden in its depths, just as what is in our unconscious and in the collective unconscious (of which our unconscious is a part) is hidden. 

I'm not sure why I was drawn to paint a swimmer, especially a swimmer doing the backstroke.  In this position, the swimmer is really unaware of what is beneath her.  She is moving forward in a backwards position and the waters are choppy.  Perhaps she needs to turn over and open her eyes.  The unconscious might yield secrets if she is willing to look.

The Red Thread

                                                        ~art by cds

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance.  The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break." ~ Chinese proverb

When I was growing up in the south there was a belief in a silver cord that connected the physical body to the soul.  Upon death, the cord would be severed and the soul would fly away home. Mystics refer to the silver cord as the connection of the physical body to the astral body and claim that the connection is visible when one is having an out of body experience.  My sister had an out of body experience where she was conscious of the silver cord.  As a child, it was comforting to me to think about a shimmery secure silver cord.

Last week one of my former college students posted a Chinese proverb on Facebook concerning an invisible red thread that connects people that are destined to meet.   It is a belief that seems to be prevalent in many Eastern cultures.  I can accept the reality of this concept.  My father met my mother when he had a car accident and was taken to a hospital where she was a nurse.  My husband was my next door neighbor in a large apartment complex in a large city.   Couldn't we all recount chance and circumstance that have resulted in many of the people in our lives?  Some have come for a short time and some have come for a lifetime.  Some are good and some not so good, but perhaps they are all meant to be.  Perhaps we are learning soul lessons.

Now that I am old there are people from early school years that are cycling back into my life.  It is a special experience.  At 68, I have collected many people that I feel I was destined to meet, and I am still meeting such people.  I am grateful.  It is all, I believe, one thread.

Come This Way

                                   
                                                               

                       
                                 "I know you are tired, but come, come this way."  - Rumi

Isn't this what it is like for many of us?  We must keep going, even when the going seems hard and we are tired.  I often think I know what I want, but do I?  Years ago a friend told me that I was always reaching out and grabbing things.  He was right.  50 years later I realize that I never listened to the wisdom that in numerous ways presented itself to me over the course of my life.

I had a serious and life threatening accident four months ago in Florence, Italy. I fell backwards down stone steps in the apartment where I was staying.  I sustained several large hematomas in my brain and two fractures of my skull.  I am still recovering and I am supposed to move about slowly and think about what is happening in the moment.  I haven't been doing that.  I still find myself walking fast while daydreaming.

I came across a new (for me) philosopher and poet today.  Perhaps his words express the only haste I need concern myself with at this point in my journey.

"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind."   ~ Henri-Frederic Amiel

    

Complex Truths Pursue Me

I recently came across a problem analog from 1995 that depicted me fleeing complex truths. Problem analogs are line drawings that make visual an inner conflict or concern and allow the person doing the drawing to see the problem in a new manner.  Last week, still feeling pursued, I did the above painting of my analog (antithetical as it was to do that) and listed what I thought were the truths.  I realize now that what I listed were actually fears and realities that all human beings must cope with.   Listing them as complex truths pursuing only me is but a manifestation of the conflict inherent in fleeing them.

There is something about fleeing that is always in my unconscious and ofttimes makes itself visible in dreams.  For many years, I dreamed repeatedly of fleeing from bulls that were chasing me. I often escaped them by getting on top of white refrigerators. Wishing to be immune from dealing with reality, I imagine that I can escape it, and thereby control it, even if the escape requires distance and a lack of genuineness and warmth (as the ascent to the top of the white refrigerator indicates).   The hardest thing for me to learn is that the only control I can have is control over my own reactions.  I am working on it.

A friend asked me if the figure in the painting is holding a python while running.  Interesting comment.  I thought it was a scarf, but indeed, it looks much more like a python.  I wonder if it relates to the fact that pythons can squeeze the life out of you, or if it points to the transformational symbolism of snakes?  It could be both.  Pythons aren't really purple, but purple is a spiritual color.

Now, if I can just stay focused long enough to face my reality maybe I can step out of the bubble and slow down.  When a person has escaped fears throughout a lifetime, is there a hidden pleasure in the escape?  Consider Emily Dickinson's poem below:

1277

While we were fearing it, it came -
But came with less of fear
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it fair -

There is a Fitting - a Dismay -
A Fitting - a Despair -
'Tis harder knowing it is Due
Than knowing it is Here.

The Trying on the Utmost
The Morning it is new
Is Terribler than wearing it
A whole existence through.


This I know:  I would like to give up fear and have some years of peace. 

Shapeshifting Into Higher Consciousness

I attended a wonderful workshop at Omega in the summer of 2010 - Shapeshifting into Higher Consciousness.  As explained by John Perkins, one of the leaders of the program, the aim of the workshop was to, "use ancient shamanic practices to propel us to higher states of consciousness — and to experience how changing the dream can help us shapeshift not only ourselves, but the world around us."  John, along with Lyn Roberts, presented a dynamic and illuminating program that included meditation and journeying, dancing, drumming, partner and group exercises and a final evening with group presentations, offerings, dance and healing intentions for the planet.  I took a number of photographs in the workshop and orbs were everywhere.  The photo below shows a woman in the workshop kneeling at the altar.  On her back you can see, not only a traditional orb, but also the shape of something to the left of the orb.  The something on her back looks a lot like a dog - perhaps her spirit animal?