Mysterious and Wonderful

    We're indoctrinated with the dogma that if science can't prove something then it doesn't & can't possibly exist, and you should run the other way! This is NOT real science BUT a belief system called scientism - the secular pseudo-religion that holds that if science can't understand & control everything yet, very soon it will, and that outside of science, nothing exists except wishful thinking & delusion. 

    Iain McGilchrist MD - retired Oxford professor of literature, psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher & author - in an excellent interview says:
     “First of all I’m a process philosopher ... so I believe that everything is in process. So there is no one truth that is ‘the Truth’ sitting there waiting for us to find it. There is only a pathway towards what is truer. ... I suggest that there are 4 important paths that we should be thinking of towards truth. And ... for all but one of them (science), the right hemisphere is the better one to rely on. But what are those four paths? 
    I think that they’re the paths of science, of reason, of intuition and of imagination. And we live in a world in which intuition & imagination have been systematically attacked & devalued. And I’d almost say there’s a sort of war of those who, in my view, are rather narrowly hypnotized by the undoubted importance & success of science & reason, into believing that that is all that will help us.  
    Science in particular cannot do that because science entirely starts out from certain beliefs or positions. Any methodology must do that. And part of its methodology is it will not consider values and it will not consider purpose. And that’s perfectly respectable, and it’s paid certain dividends. The only thing science can’t do at the end of this process is solemnly announce that it has found there are no purposes & there are no values. Of course it can’t say that because it’s left those out of its whole purview. 
    And I love this remark by C.S. Lewis, that it’s rather like a policeman stopping all the traffic in the street, and then solemnly writing in his notebook that 'the silence in this street is very suspicious.' So they can’t talk to us about that. And people used to think that they could.  
    Biologists used to tie themselves in knots to say things like, the turtle comes on shore and lays its eggs, not the turtle comes on shore to lay its eggs. I think they got over that phase now and have decided that it’s perfectly okay to accept that the whole of biology is pregnant with purpose. You only have to do what as a child I did - look at pond water under a microscope, to see that there are all sorts of organisms acting in a very purposeful way. 
    The scientific method takes things apart and tries to find what they’re made of, make them explicit and break them up into pieces. Unfortunately, there are certain things that the value of them is only present when they are a whole, and is only present implicitly. So science is impotent to give us a handle on all the things that really matter ...
    In ancient Greece there were two words for truth. One was logos, which we hear about, but the other was ‘mythos’ or ‘muthos.’ And of logos & muthos, muthos was much the greater. So muthos had the role of being able to convey the really big truths, the important truths about the Cosmos, humanity, life. 
    Logos was a sort of logic chopping thing that was fine as far as it went, but it was the sort of thing that you would find in a court of law where two people were disputing about a sum of money. There it had its use, but it didn’t have the capacity to tell us about the big things. ... unfortunately the message we got from Plato, and possibly even more from Aristotle, is that ‘a thing and its opposite can never be true’ – which is blatantly a lie, and is known to all wisdom traditions. Metaphors are not lies, myths are not lies, and values are not made up by us. I mean individual value judgments may well be, but the existence of goodness, beauty and truth for example, are not something we made up. 
    Even Darwin beautifully in his work is constantly asking, ‘Okay, beauty can be used for natural selection, but what is beauty? Where does it come from? Why do birds find certain things beautiful in the first place, in order for that to be useful, to tag onto something?’ 
    I wish people had that breadth that the great scientists of the past used to have – an understanding of the importance of philosophy and of the imagination. I’m absolutely happy with saying there are certain realms, and above all there are those of whatever you like to call it – the Divine, the Spiritual, which most people, 95% of people say exists beyond what science and reason can tell us. Only about 10% of people in this country belong to a religion, but 90% of people, if asked, ‘Do you think there’s more to existence than is summed up by science and reason?’ - they say yes. I think it’s a very deep sense we have, and that has to be something that mythology, poetry, the great stories, indeed music for me, tells me, and there’s nothing that’s negative or diminished about that. Indeed those are the royal roads to truth.” Iain McGilchrist MD
    The Sacred Power of Story - Marc Gafni & Iain McGilchrist moderated by Zak Stein. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf1jhsL3dvc

 

    David Whyte - well-known, published poet - had this to say in a recent interview:
    “Poetry was always something that I felt was a secret code to life. 
    I don’t know if you remember when you were a child, listening to the adult world? You’d often feel, ‘These people are actually crazy. These people are insane. They’ve lost the primary perspectives of life and their priorities are all upside down. I felt like this all the time as a child.
    So I actually felt that becoming an adult was a form of amnesia, forgetting the primary experience and vision that a child had. Now, I’m not saying a child’s perfect. You need a mature adult body to hold that vision. But when I started to read proper adult poetry - not the kind of poetry given to younger people - I said, ‘Oh my God, here are adults who have kept the visions and acuity of childhood alive into adulthood.’ ” 
    Inside the Mind of a Master Writer — David Whyte https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_ofS9aM24&t=610s 

     From early childhood, I was aware that ordinary thinking was only part of the my approach to understanding this strange, complex, challenging life. I was forced to rely on all of my intelligences when at age 8, we moved from Hungary to Ireland, and neither my parents nor I could speak or understand a single word of English. Two years later, we moved to Quebec city, and again initially, neither my parents nor I could speak or understand a word of French.  
    Young children learn surprisingly quickly when immersed in an entirely new language, probably in large part because all of their intelligences are still open & working. As Iain McGilchrist said, their intuition & imagination (and other intelligences) had not yet been attacked & extinguished.

    Gerald May MD - was a psychiatrist for twenty-five years, primarily treating addictions, then devoted his time to teaching contemplative theology and psychology at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation - wrote this in one of his excellent books:    
    “The dark night of the soul is a profoundly good thing. It is an ongoing spiritual process in which we are liberated from attachments & compulsions and empowered to live & love more freely. Sometimes this letting go of old ways is painful, occasionally even devastating. But this is not why the night is called ‘dark.’ The darkness of the night implies nothing sinister, only that the liberation takes place in hidden ways, beneath our knowledge & understanding. It happens mysteriously, in secret, and beyond our conscious control. For that reason it can be disturbing or even scary, but in the end it always works to our benefit.
    More than anything, I think the dark night of the soul gives meaning to life. It is a meaning given in not knowing, as Dag Hammarskjöld tried to describe in one of his final writings:
    ‘I don’t know Who – or what – put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.’
    The meaning revealed in the dark night is beyond understanding. As with Hammarskjöld, one cannot fully comprehend it. But one is left with an ever deepening certainty that the meaning is there, that life is much more than coping & adjustment. Mysterious as it may be, there is something wonderful at the heart of our existence, and it is about nothing other than love: love of God, love for one another, love for creation, love for life itself.”
    Gerald G. May MD. “The Dark Night of the Soul. A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth.” HarperOne, 2005.


    When Robert Thurman, after 60 years of studying & practicing Tibetan Buddhism was asked what he considered was a fulfilled life, he responded:
    “Living a fulfilled life is living happily, and hopefully, with trust in the good, in the power of the good - at whatever stage you’re able to understand it – but with faith in the power of the good, however you define it. Therefore, not giving in to fear of the bad overwhelming the good. 
    Piers Morgan asked the Dalai Lama in an interview ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to ask you, What is the meaning of life?'
    The Dalai Lama said, 'The meaning of life is happiness, joyfulness. Yes. To reason, the future is a mystery – how it’s going to be. So in the present, you have hope that there will be something better. 
    And that hope, in the present, makes you happy. And then you carry on. 
    If you admit despair, then it’s all terrible. So that’s the meaning of life.' 
    So you trust that someone - you, or Buddha, or Jesus - can make things better in the future. Buddha and Jesus tell you that you have to chip in.’”  
    Robert Thurman https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=the+lost+years+of+jesus+youtube#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:0d231144,vid:8EQG94rZ3_g,st:0 

“In ancient times, various holistic sciences 
were developed by highly evolved beings 
to enable their own evolution and that of others. 
These subtle arts were created 
through the linking of individual minds 
with the universal mind. 
They are still taught by traditional teachers 
to those who display virtue and desire to assist others. 
Students who seek out and study these teachings 
further the evolution of humankind 
as well as their own spiritual unfolding. 
The student who ignores them 
hinders the development of all beings.”

Lao Tzu

 

Bonnie Baker "Field" harvestgallery.ca

In Stormy Times, Remember ...

“When you become uncomfortable or frightened, remember that difficult emotions are your most profound teachers.” Ruth King

“Doing tasks fully and thoroughly can help ground us while also providing a sense of accomplishment and, by extension, an enhanced sense of agency.” Christopher Ives

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” Lao Tzu

"We lie in the lap of immense intelligence,
which makes us receivers of its truth
and organs of its activities." R.W. Emerson

“When water is still it is like a mirror…
And if water thus derives lucidity from stillness
how much more the faculties of mind?
The mind of the sage in repose
becomes the mirror
of the universe." Chuang Tzu

“Kindness and compassion is the fundamental truth.” The Dalai Lama

Light the World... by Mollycules www.BuddhaDoodles.com

Words about "the nameless"

     Most of us were born into a religion and traumatized by it, and/or were traumatized by others' religions. So it's very common & understandable to be stuck in cynicism, aversion, anger, hatred etc towards religions. Nevertheless, it's vitally important to FREE ourselves from the prison that our afflictive emotions create: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.com/2020/12/natural-evolution-of-understanding.html

 

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

Laozi, Tao Te Ching

 

     Below are two deeply insightful mystics, the late Robert A. Johnson, and Cynthia Bourgeault, who happen to use Christian terminology - just ONE of MANY - for "the nameless" - that which cannot be named. 

     “Apparently, one must separate from God so that there is an objective standpoint from which we can observe. In my own homespun theology, I believe that perhaps God wanted human eyes in order to be able to see the splendor of the Golden World. If so, then it’s our business to be the eyes and ears, to see and hear the splendor or God, but it requires that we stand apart from God. To be a discrete observer necessitates that one is separated from what one is observing. That is the alienation of a human life. One is reminded of the Zen comment on the intermediate stage of development when ‘rivers were no longer rivers and mountains were no longer mountains.’
     That sense of being separated is the ego. In arriving at adulthood we all have built an ego structure, a separate sense of ‘I,’ but it is precisely that distance from all else that makes us feel so lonely and alienated. One then must find a way to restore the unity with God, to worship. This is the Zen stage when ‘rivers are again rivers and mountains are again mountains.’
     It is our human duty to witness the splendor of God, which is my sense of worship. What makes all of this so difficult is that our duties are in conflict. These principal duties are to separate from oneness (the childhood paradise), develop an ego, and live a cultural life; and then to reunite with the oneness of God. Generally the early part of one’s life is taken up with the necessary distancing from God: learning about the cultural requirements of the society in which one lives, leaving the house of the parents, developing one’s independence and sense of personal self. There is a constant pull back to the sense of unity from which we came, and in Jungian psychology that it called the mother complex. There is a regressive pull in each of us to quit this business of winning independence, to escape the painful human process of becoming a distinct, separate personality. Physical suicide is the ultimate expression of the mother complex, but it takes many other forms, such as the use of drugs and alcohol or mindless consumption of food or other material goods. When people come to my consulting room with a drug problem, I tell them that they are addressing the right problem but in the wrong way. They are trying to go back to a paradise when they need to go forward to a paradise.
     We must separate from God before we can reunite with God. We must create a useful life, learning the customs of the society in which we live. You cannot put back together again that which has never been adequately differentiated. Consciousness must separate before it can reunite. Many of the spiritual communes, monasteries, and spiritual practices in this country are nothing but institutionalized mother complexes, with selfishness and ego regression running rampant in the name of spirituality.
     It is a legitimate question to ask just how far one really needs to push this differentiation before one can legitimately seek to reunite. That is an individual matter. A very simple person may not be differentiated to any great degree, and I have seen this among the traditional peasants who live in the small villages of India; they have the right to put things back together again without a great deal of differentiation. But educated Westerners go much further in developing their consciousness, becoming so split that it is difficult to become whole again. The cultural laws of Western society encourage us to get as separate, as specialized, as unique as we can get. To get a good job today you must have a college education, and a professional degree or a Ph.D. is better still. We are trained to become more and more specialized. Then on Sunday at church we are advised to merge ourselves with God. It’s no wonder we’ve become a neurotic society; the wonder is that we are not all schizophrenic!
     Once we have built a strong ego, we must then link it back to the matrix from which it has grown. Differentiation of consciousness is only one-half of our life journey. But to say, ‘I want an experience of God’ is a total oxymoron; if there is an ‘I’ seeking an experience, that is precisely the problem, since an ‘I’ that sees itself as separate from God is the cause of the suffering in one’s life. There’s a Christian proverb that says he who searches for God insults God, because a search implies that God is separate. Zen Buddhism also is very articulate about this, stating that the very motivation for satori or enlightenment is suspect. You find the kingdom, not by seeking, but only by grace. Seeking after the splendor of God is a highly egocentric and fragmenting thing to do. I now understand that the most profound religious life is found by being in the world yet in each moment doing our best to align ourselves with heaven, with the will of God.”
     Robert A. Johnson, Jerry M. Ruhl. “Balancing Heaven and Earth: A Memoir of Visions, Dreams, and Realizations.” HarperCollins, 1998.

 
     Cynthia Bourgeault (CB): “I became more and more intrigued and disturbed about why it was that Christianity, a religion that clearly has one of the most loving and inclusive gurus that’s ever walked the face of the planet, at its epicenter, should tend to develop itself in formats that were so rigid and exclusive and non-generous. And why didn’t people walk the talk? It became more and more of a heartbreak to me. So it was actually through reading Jacob Needleman’s 'Lost Christianity' in 1980, that the first pieces began to come together. He said at one point, ‘telling people to wake up and be conscious is like telling stones to pick themselves up, sprout wings and fly to the sea.’ There’s a missing piece, and until you can get that missing piece online, you can’t do the teachings of Jesus. ‘If one aspires to live the beatitudes or any Gospel teaching it is necessary to establish the level of consciousness from which they emerge.’ is virtually a direct quote from Symeon the New Theologian in the 11th century, who was the first one to be on to the fact that the Jesus teachings emerged from a very high level of consciousness, and that until you could basically run that program, you are going to be constantly dumbing it down to a place where it’s basically an inversion of itself. So Needleman was onto the fact that something was broken in the way that we pay attention that kept our consciousness scrambled, low, distracted, and not under our free command, and it was this that was constantly making hash out of the Gospel that Jesus was teaching."
     Rick Archer (RA): “A speaker, or anyone, can only speak from their level of consciousness; a student, or anyone, can only listen or hear from their level of consciousness, which brings in the whole ‘pearl before swine’ thing, the parable of the sower, if we want to quote Biblical references. There’s always going to be a gulf, not only contemporaneously in the life of that teacher, but then as time goes on, and the teachings get passed down like a party-game from one ear to another, over time it gets more and more distorted. I think it’s happened in every tradition.”
     CB: “Even our understanding of what ‘esoteric’ means. Nowadays, people will think esoteric means secret information that’s withheld from people, which is ridiculous. The esoteric dimension of every faith, which is very simple, is hidden in plain sight. Nobody’s hiding anything. But until you reach a certain level of receptivity, and the teacher reaches a certain level of broadcastability, you can’t see it, you can’t pick it up.
     They say that until a student has enough collective well, and is able to sort out on their own and discriminate between a billion different things out there, the thing that has their name on it, they’re not going to be able to appreciate, they’re not going to be fit for work anyway. It’s like a chicken picking its way out of the egg, you have to do that work before you’re ready to be where the teaching is going to put you.”

     RA: “How do you develop that discrimination to find the thing that’s right for you, among all the different influences out there?”
     CB: "Gurdjieff had a teaching about A and B influences. And he said most of us are out there in the world surrounded by A influences, which are all sort of competing things making a play for our attention. And it’s not until you can recognize something that’s a B influence, which has a qualitatively different taste for you, that you can follow it. You’ve got to get there yourself. How that happens? – A little luck, a little management. I certainly think that meditation is a really good starting point, because it allows you to filter out a lot of the garbage that’s obviously just playing at superficial parts of you, and to listen to something qualitatively deeper.
     I think actually we have the direction wrong of the journey all along. We start from the impression that we are here, and God’s over there, and that we have to go towards God. And if you can make enough noise and jump up & down loud enough, you’ll attract God’s attention. But I think rather it is always the opposite - we’re flowing out from the divine at any given moment, as a particular path, as a kind of instantiation of divinity in form. We’re always guided, and the path is always specific to ourself. What we have to learn is simply to stay in alignment with it. That’s what learning B influences is all about. It’s easier to stay in alignment once you get the hang of it, than not to stay in alignment with it and try on a billion different paths because they seem interesting. I venture to say that God is your heart of hearts."
      Cynthia Bourgeault - Oct 23, 2017 Batgap interview:  https://batgap.com/cynthia-bourgeault/

Religions, Languages & Wonder

     “Religions are like languages: 
• all languages are of human origin; 
• each language reflects and shapes the civilization that speaks it; 
• all languages make meaning out of the raw facts of our existence;
• no language is true or false; 
• there are things you can say in one language that you cannot say (or say as well) in another; 
• the more languages you know, the more nuanced your understanding of life becomes; and 
• as important as languages are, the final ‘language’ of wisdom is silence.” 
       Rami Shapiro. “Holy Rascals. Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries.” Sounds True, 2017.


     About those conversations in my head: http://www.johnlovas.com/2020/04/far-far-beyond-self-talk.html


          “When there is silence,
           one finds the anchor of the Universe
           within oneself.”                                         Lao Tzu


     “Perhaps as a child you sensed a world that touched a deep and mysterious wonder. You may have had an experience you felt certain no one would understand and so you never shared it, but it has stayed in your heart – some kind of knowing that seemed at once completely true and yet confusing to your mind. Perhaps there was a moment in a temple of trees when a shaft of light from the rising or setting sun struck the jewel of your heart. You may have been hiking on a mountain when you suddenly were stopped by joy, wonder, or a sense of awe. It was not just the view, the misty colors of the many ridges you could see in the distance. Your senses touched the Infinite, and you experienced beauty; something vast touched the vastness within you. Its radiance may have come as moonlight playing on the ocean’s waves. It may have shone through a piece of art, a poem, or a dream that touched what connects us.
     You may have had a glimpse while sitting in a church or a temple, when the silence and reverence of place seemed to invite you to the silence within your Self. Perhaps you felt it when a baby gazed into your eyes from the eyes of such innocence that all of your defenses melted in such sweetness. The jewel may have shone through the stories you have read, heard, or experienced from great spiritual masters in various traditions. What sparkles is not the stories or words; it is something deeper that touches your heart.
     The jewel seems to shine most brightly when we experience love – love for a person, a pet, a moment. … 
     It is the jewel that gives rise to our impulse to know it more deeply and to want it to be revealed more consciously. Bubbling from the hidden depths of our Being arises an impulse to know what seems to lie beyond our limited ideas of who we are. There arises a sense of mystery, an impulse to know God, Truth, Self, enlightenment, love, or peace. This is spiritual impulse. Infinite Truth or Spirit has placed a longing in our heart, in the heart of our awareness, to know itself, to awaken itself beyond egoic consciousness. This impulse transcends both ego and self. We could call this impulse ‘the seed of enlightenment,’ a seed that has been planted deep within and perhaps has lain fallow in the rich soil and silent ground of our Being.

     Spiritual practices are methods that can begin to soften our stance toward our self, toward life in general, and to open us to what transcends the habitual. They are invitations to become intimate with the wisdom of silence and stillness.” 
       Dorothy Hunt. “Ending the Search. From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness.” Sounds True, 2018.

      “Awareness born of love is the only force that can bring healing and renewal. Out of our love for another person, we become more willing to let our old identities wither and fall away, and enter a dark night of the soul, so that we may stand naked once more in the presence of the great mystery that lies at the core of our being. This is how love ripens us -- by warming us from within, inspiring us to break out of our shell, and lighting our way through the dark passage to new birth.” John Welwood

Don Pentz - West River, Keji - acrylic on canvas - fogforestgallery.ca

Balanced Intelligence - Hemispheric Integration

     “You are not thinking. You are merely being logical.”
                                                      Neils Bohr, physicist & Nobel laureate     
     Isn't using "merely" and "logical" in the same sentence dangerously taboo? For many of us it is. Yet a Nobel laureate in physics might know something about thinking & logic.

     “Albert Einstein called the intuitive or metaphoric mind (right hemisphere) a sacred gift. He added that the rational mind (left hemisphere) was a faithful servant. 
     It is paradoxical that in the context of modern life we have begun to worship the servant and defile the divine.” Bob Samples

     Our intelligence is, of necessity, far more complex than the self-referrential internal narrative, left-hemisphere-dominant level we're all aware of, and unknowingly, tend to identify with as if it were a direct, accurate readout of all that we are & all that life is. This is a very common - almost universal, problematic form of mistaken identity ("cognitive fusion") and underestimation of ourselves & life itself.

     “If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.” Neils Bohr
     “Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” Neils Bohr
 
     “How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.” Neils Bohr
     “True words seem paradoxical.” Lao-Tzu
        “The maturity and wisdom of a human being comes when it is possible to see multiplicity, paradox, and complementary differences with a spacious mind and an open heart.” Jack Kornfield 
        “… a mature adult … can hold both conviction and paradox.” 
        Sharon Danloz Parks. “Big Questions, Worthy Dreams. Mentoring Young Adults in their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith.” John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

     “The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. But the opposite of one profound truth, may be another profound truth.” Neils Bohr
     Black-and-white, {either / or} thinking is essential for survival - to quickly, narrowly-focus down on a specific object & definitively categorize it either as 'grab & eat this', or 'run / fight.' This same objectively-distanced mode of thinking is essential for many straight-forward, practical tasks eg math, science & technology etc. 
     But the left-hemisphere alone is severely unequipped to deal with nuances, subtleties & complexities: relationships / social interactions - personalities, cultures, races, religions etc; the arts & humanities; collaboration / negotiation / mediation; depths of meaning, values, existential issues, etc. 
     Also, the left-hemisphere 'doesn't know what it doesn't know' - it was never meant to stop, question & analyze its own judgment. So there's no room for re-evaluation or negotiation, resulting in deadlock: 'I'm right / reasonable / good; You're wrong / crazy / bad.' Populists, dictators & political / religious extremists all seem to fit this mold of rigid, simplistic black-and-white snappy slogans that grab & hold the hearts & minds of fervent supporters and make mature reflective adults shake their heads in stunned disbelief. Indeed, we see left-hemisphere vs left-hemisphere 'partisanships' locking horns on the news every night. 
     To effectively appreciate subtlety (many shades of gray) & to manage complexity (metaphor, paradox etc), a quick either / or decision is not enough. The left hemisphere's detail-orientation MUST BE KEPT IN CONTEXT by the right hemisphere's ability to appreciate the big picture, complexities & relationships. Our complex, constantly changing, profoundly interdependent cosmos requires a both / and approach: BOTH a quick either / or decision when called for eg when doing CPR; AND a much slower, much more careful consideration of as many variables as possible, when called for eg deciding on whether to marry a person; or mediating a peace deal between long-time warring factions. 
     For individuals & cultures to thrive, mature, harmonious, left / right hemispheric integration is essential.

     Here's an ultra-condensed summary of 20-yrs of research culminating in a 588-page book: Iain McGilchrist. “The Master and his Emissary. The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.” Yale University Press, 2019.
     “If I had to sum it up, I’d say the world of the left hemisphere is dependent on denotative language & abstraction; yields clarity & power to manipulate things that are known, fixed, static, isolated, decontextualized, explicit, general in nature, but ultimately lifeless.
     The right hemisphere by contrast, yields a world of individual, changing, evolving, interconnected, implicit, incarnate, living beings, within the context of the lived world, but in the nature of things never fully graspable, never perfectly known. And this world exists in a certain relationship.
     The knowledge mediated by the left hemisphere is however within a closed system. It has the advantage of perfection, but the perfection is bought ultimately at the price of emptiness.
     There’s a problem here about the nature of the two worlds. It offers two versions of the world and obviously we combine them in different ways all the time.
     We need to rely on the (left hemisphere) to manipulate the world.
     But for a broad understanding of it, we need to use knowledge that comes from the right hemisphere."
        Iain McGilchrist. “The Divided Brain.” TEDtalk RSA Animate: https://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain


     “Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” Neils Bohr

Great Clear Sky with Clouds Passing By

How can the divine Oneness be seen?
In beautiful forms, breathtaking wonders,
awe-inspiring miracles?
The Tao is not obliged
to present itself in this way.

If you are willing to be lived by it,
you will see it everywhere,
even in the most ordinary things. 

Lao Tzu

There is only love.

All else, repeating stories exhausting themselves.

Rashani Rea

rashani.com

Public Gardens, Halifax, NS