Autumn Equinox at Findhorn

Autumn marked by chilly North Sea swim in early morning ... bracing ... in, head under, out again ... then round the beach, finding stones like mini- universes. .. Blake's universe in a grain of sand at a scale visible to the human eye ... everyone knows the poem, but who can truly comprehend it?

Plenty of philosophical musing on this trip North ... with a deepening of understanding of the Pioneer community, elders encountered, perspectives broadened ... new books bought, though few read, where beach calls ... and locally based FB friend, host for first night, turns out to be multi-talented and possibly designer and builder of retreat extension ...

A rest from Covid nonsense, masking resisted as normal for those valuing their mental health, but surprisingly many here complying ... others hugging as is the Findhorn way ...

More another time, to explore the deeper stuff ... this is just to mark the Equinox, with fascism still in power ... for how long? Rather scary how easily we comply with stupid orders from sinister politicians advised by corrupt scientists. .. Nuremberg had the Doctors' trials as well as soldiers and politicos ... bring it on, and soon ...

Tomorrow another day in Scotland, then home via elder daughter, hopefully. .. 

Hail Caesar!

Crises throw up demons sometimes, in some places, as if to flush out dark energy, long accumulated in national and cultural archetypes ... to illustrate deeper truths, not that new alliances are needed necessarily, but that human beings are One essentially ... and not separate from all that is, as explained before ...

History and Herstory too, since language itself is not neutral in the attempt to explain Reality with limited tools, repeatedly offers these images of some aspects of ourselves, bringing forth Caesar, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot as extreme examples ... feared by many, ridiculed by others, presented as saviours to solve specific issues, then revealing their demonic qualities when it's rather late to exorcise them easily ...

In crises also, as is known, lie the opportunity for new solutions to the existential problems which brought them forth ... sometimes in the form of gods, if we stick with a consistent metaphor for now ... though do beware the tendency for gods and demons to change roles ... or, to transcend the mythological and look honestly at ourselves as humans in group form, beware light energy flickering dark and back again ... or, employing psychological description, a bi-polar group identity ...

Leaders destroy followers, followers destroy leaders ... regular readers may recall ... the message is clear enough isn't it?

So, the followers of the strong leader, playing light let's say, offer their own power to the leader, and too often the leader falls in love with power itself and forgets to give it back, while loyal lieutenant types feel empowered enough to stick with dark, which suits their psychological frailty anyway ...

Meanwhile back in the city, week one went well ... lots of demos to entertain and educate, vegans rather pasty, white settlers from South Africa escaping a spate of farm murders and maintaining an anti-racist stance, then the main event, choreographed carefully by masked police, ensuring the BLM protesters led by one middle aged angry man apparently with one black parent ... the rest earnest white students and on the platform, from time to time, a well masked young man, dressed in red, with sunglasses and cap, unveiled a red flag with hammer and sickle, waved it about, flushed out the off right-wing type for police to have a word with. .. weird indeed! Plus three of us ready to protest lockdown ... hmm ... following week, no demo at all, though great conversations of a religious nature and a reading from a Welsh Gypsy with disturbing news ... not three score years and ten, but maybe ninety and passing healthy ... crikey!

Warm and sunny Sunday, early three hour wander, afternoon two hours more, topping up the tan and VitD as well as moving the body, keeping it in shape for twenty more years ... let's see ...

September Resistance ...

After some philosophical musing here, while more political musing happen over on the Facebook platform, it's time perhaps to reassure any readers left not risking that fast moving place. .. yes, monsieur l'editeur that's you specifically ... resistance has continued throughout this historic period ... there seemed no option in the mundane world, though philosophy reassures the writer that serious as the work here on Earth may be, it is very far from the be all or end all ... and if that seems pretentious in any way, then that's for you to say not me ... this small I holds itself lightly as is sensible if indeed it is illusory! And if it turns out to be delusion, what's lost? A cynical life, without the liberating sense of Love Universal? The loss of Fear?

For any other readers left, including a couple known to risk both platforms, wondering if l'editeur is French in any way or indeed actually editing the rambling mess you're reading guess what? He is actually a Durham radical of miner stock, somehow maintaining a semblance of sanity whilst gathering salary and decent pension, an activist of the local government trade union, sceptical but not cynical (or perhaps a bit) ... a biker from those days when young lads divided up as mods and rockers, could afford the bikes and scooters as well as the insurance, and set off in groups to pre-arranged coastal venues for some argy-bargy, rarely lethal or dangerous to non-combatants ... rather like the football tribes ... that was young men post-war, needing rituals to establish manhood ... whoops, we seem to have wandered into sociology now!

Anyway, the editor's awol yet again, at his French maison,  possibly preparing for the blog in French, Wear et Dao peut etre?  All this biographical outing pointing to the vital point where politics and philosophy join up, which is about consensus reality and beyond that tool to make agreements of how we (not the others) see the World, the scary probability that all seven billion humans see a deeper reality uniquely ... no wonder then we disagree sometimes in Fear of ... what? Deeper again, each unique soul, in partnership with the Unity, somehow creates the reality they give attention to ... and for logic lovers yes, there appears to be a paradox here, since this blogger confronts dark energy not the light he chooses! Answers on a postcard please ... maybe more psychological work to do?

Notwithstanding, that game is on and has been for a while ... demo in the City Saturday ... like the good old days ... see you there, wherever your town or city is ... transcendence can wait a while ...

How to explain the numinous?

Today's title, question marked, therefore rhetorical, observing linguistic convention, commas carefully deployed grammatically ... whoops! those three dots, a habit in the blog, a radical device to disrupt and sow seeds of doubt about full stops ... which are unknown in our birthright, Nature, long abandoned in The Garden, a metaphor in biblical systems ... but the Word, of God or Prophets or any other word you like, is not the thing described. .. it's a trap! best stay silent, rather than babble in the Tower ... or play lightly with it, knowing that even Lao Tse, or Tzu, the Old Boy of Dao, or Tao, advised, or advises if The Power of Now is right, that The Dao which can be described is not the Immortal Dao! though 80 or so wise verses follow .... hmmm ...

Semantics, or General Semantics, worth a look ... Robert Anton Wilson explains it in an entertaining way, along with Zen and other sounds denoting nothingness or emptiness paradoxically full ... of energy, Infinite Potential ... where Bohm was pointing and the title of his recent film, though he himself, or rather his Bohm form, not the essence lingering in The Field ... passed on a while ago ...

Kurt Vonnegut, German sounding, but full citizen of BSA, a POW in Dresden when that city was flattened in one of the War Crimes of the century ... exceeded soon after by not one but two nuclear attacks to test the efficacy of the destructive power ... Japanese war crimes on the Burma Railway and other sites the justification ... the very bleak humour of the author emerged in his observation: it is important to exercise the vocal chords in case we have something important to say one day ...

Anyway, all this wordplay passes the time, though may not help describe some insights, the pathless path into the right brain, if that really is the location of Mind, Universal and or the individual and or the Superorganism proposed by Zen of Thich Nhat Hanh and Interbeing and others less well known ... Michael, for example, well enough known to Wear&Dao ... anyway that's numinosity and may only be pointed to at best ... sorry dear reader(s), you have to work it out yourselves. .. there's plenty of time, after all, if infinity's a thing ... or paradoxically no-time ... so, like the present! and prophets all around, major and minor to help you construct your unique Way ... hold it lightly, you'd be mad to take seriously, which, incidentally is good reason in DUK at least, along with COPD, to decline to suffocate yourself ...

Rain clearing to a mostly clear day in a quite wet August and time to walk ... and reflect on an amazing Reality opening up, beyond Fear, beyond Self, lived alongside other humans in parallel worlds where our consciousness evolves as creators, in partnership with the infinite potential in all, and simultaneously players, audience with the others ... phew, imagine that!

Latest possibilities include: small retreat extension starting to take form; winter trips to Sri Lanka and now Penang; or stay here for winter retreat, why not? it's where I live just Now!

Radha ...

Weird that one year on from the 50th Anniversary of Brockwood School, one of many set up in Krishnamurti's name, though the only one in Europe, and a month after camping three days there, tolerated by devotees on the edge of their half-baked quarantine, clearly fearful of .... what? perhaps the school itself, no longer much concerned, as far as parents and pupils are concerned, with K, the Messenger, or even necessarily the still powerful Message, that Truth is a Pathless Land, but attracting students, mostly fee-paying, yearning for the freedom offered, from examinations if they choose, certainly from bullying, since the pastoral care is second to none, and the beautiful surroundings, home-grown food, vegetarian diet, moderate fees, thanks to many volunteers and low paid teachers, who do hold the teachings dear ... oh dear! such a long sentence ... so many commas, and still no full stop!

That's Life ... and in the blog, if the odd full stop occurs, remember language itself is not the Truth, and the Truth itself has no full stop ... maybe ...

After reading lots from K, indeed inspired to go on Pilgrimage, radically, having cleared the decks of all the stuff that wouldn't fit in the rucksack ... and biographies, some say hagiographies, Radha's wonderful book, not only admits the Shadow side of K, including Fear, but clearly reveals that her Mother, Rosalind, and Radha herself, have much to teach the World. .. let her last paragraph speak for itself ... she still lives so there may be more, who knows?:

"To Krinsh I feel grateful for many things. From earliest childhood he taught me to be free from the desperate seeking and searching for respectability and security, for gurus and masters and ideologies. I learned from him that comparisons and labels lead to prejudice and unhappiness, that conformity leads to mediocre imitation, that there can be no freedom where there is guilt or fear. He let me be free from him and taught me not to be afraid to wander in a pathless land."

As you'll see dear reader(s), as a proper writer, she employs full stops ...

The library continues to grow here in Stanhope, now including this heresy to join the shelf of K and Bohm ... K devotees be warned ... you're welcome as you know, and if reading Radha sets you free from dependency, fine ... if it offends you, that's your problem!

A small extension to the cottage is planned, to cater for seekers seeking not just books and DVDs, of K, Bohm, Buddhism, Daoism, Science and Philosophy, in novel form ... but also fellowship in simple comfort, walks in Nature (not separate from us), plain and simple food, some gathered from the woods and hedgerows, no rules except Love one another (and some ways to ease the path, not to constrain!) ... no Teachers, except each other .. or solo, a special opportunity, in Silence, to find yourself and know it ...

If no-one comes? That's fine too ... a downstairs bathroom's always handy as decrepitude beckons remorselessly ... the body rots, consciousness continues on ...

Rosalind

After last year's observations on Radha Rajagopal Sloss' book, Lives in the Shadows with J. Krishnamurti, the book itself arrives, with the author Radha's mother, Rosalind, centre stage.
The story, heresy to many K fans, fills out some inconvenient details of a love triangle with Rosalind, her husband and Radha's father, plus the amorous though ostensibly celibate World Teacher, Krishnamurti ...

Beautifully written, it's far from a kiss and tell tale, and very fair to K, faithful to his core message, echoed by the Buddha and exploring the psychology of faithful followers, to this day in denial of the humanity of their Guru ... the Guru who consistently insisted he was not a Guru, whilst enjoying the life afforded by the wealthy aristocrats, from England, USA and other places where the Theosophists gathered, in search of salvation, fascinated by the esoteric and occult, missing Buddha's Middle Way, Lao Tse's Simplicity, Christ's Camels Eye of a Needle and other inconvenient Truths.

Students of Jung, meanwhile, will see the significance of Radha's title immediately as she lays bare the hypocrisy sensitively, whilst keeping her Mother, Rosalind, known variously by different players in her story as Rosie, Rozzie and Ros at the centre ... and it is her story,  notwithstanding the parts played by Raja, her often absent, geographically and psychologically, Father, loyal to K for years, unaware K was meeting Rosalind's physical and emotional needs and Radha's basic childhood need for a present Father ... secrecy deemed essential to maintain the loyalty of the many women in love with the the handsome young chaste Teacher ...

Theosophy continues to this day, including locally in Durham, though not resonating at Wear & Dao on the one research visit ... to be honest K's persona not appealing either, though the Power of his core message is ... his other, later, relationship ... with David Bohm, scientist and mystic, drawn to K by their mutual grasp of the Truth: The Observer is the Observed ... their dialogues examining The Limits of Thought, The Ending of Time and other topics forensically ... finds Bohm more appealing as a messenger, though not a Guru ... and perhaps the only interlocutor K treated as an equal. .. for quite a while at least.

All above my head in the detail of course, but instinct serves the pseudo-intellectual would-be polymath well enough thank you ... not self-satisfied, and ever seeking Truth, noting synchronicities, embracing magical thinking ... all held lightly ... to take one's self seriously a categorical error, of course!

Bohm meanwhile, who died unrecognised by fellow physicists, most following Nils Bohr's mainstream advice, frustrated by the philosophical implications of the Observer Effect and limited by their insistence on the old paradigm denying the role of insight, instinct, inner exploration, advised: Shut up and calculate! since probability produced significant results ... is star of a recent film, Infinite Potential, free to view online and highly recommended ...

Dull weather enlightened by both Bohm and Sloss ... K too, now rounded out as fully human ... plus new information on the current existential challenge, which dragged the blogger from excessive solitude, a beautiful state, though not the reason to be landed here on Earth in human form ... to be fully Human, whether playing Light or Dark, is to engage with other humans ... Left hemisphere upgrade download completed and pieces of this dark phase of the multi-dimensional drama fall into place, revealing information hiding in plain sight from the World Economic Forum, three copies on order due Wednesday ... let's see ...

And my own human frailty, in the game policed by us, through Fear, fed by flabby thinking, excess wealth, unhealthy thinking, eating, lack of exercise and Sun? A tendency to paranoia, maybe fed by caution in the overlong communist youth, trained to suspect state surveillance ... not without reason, since our mission was to overthrow State Power ... mostly eradicated on Pilgrimage, especially in the simple years, without house or car or reserves of cash ... not large by some reckoning, but more than enough ...

Time to post, dear reader(s) ... thanks for your attention ... more to come for sure, though the Ultimate well out of reach, and best left there, as advised by the Dao, or Tao, and Lao Tse ...

Damp and dreary interlude ...

Low pressure brings low mood, not unusual in British summertime ... the reason countless Brits head South to roast in high pressure for a week or two ... kindly permitted by the Junta, who take away the joy by insisting on some half-baked quarantine when returning, impossible to enforce, of course, but nosy neighbour peer pressure is doing that job anyway ... plus fear of fines, also unenforceable ... police are plenty busy with proper criminals, courts struggling to cope. ..

One of the many benefits of a Pennine home is the propensity for differential weather patterns ... prevailing Westerly winds pick up water from the Atlantic and dump most on the popular Lake District, leaving Stanhope rather drier ... when an Eastern flow, not beastly, but static, sits around for days on end, drizzle waters the land, warmth boosts plant growth and humans get depressed ... the solution, a mere 30 minute drive, over the hill to Alston, highest town in England, centre of Britain, some say, and Sunny ... hooray!

Yesterday was for Philosophers. First, a FB post on Sophistry, the Dark Art branch of the Love of Wisdom, or, in this case, knowledge, a very different thing. Mouths for hire they called the Sophists in Ancient Greece, as they spun their yarns rhetorically, slipping fallacies into plausible and malign tales ... sound familiar?

Next, the routine morning walk, and Malcolm, a local friend and handshaker. .. not masonic nor long-term local, but a retired rigger. .. an occupation which you don't survive with Fear, since the work demands nerves of steel and full awareness ... he is walking his dog, with visiting grandchildren, aged 8 and 9. The elder is the philosopher, full of questions and insights to share with an adult prepared to listen to the voice of a child not yet beaten to submission by the system. And fascinated by the Quantum World, the world he inherits ...

After morning writing and mundane work, an after lunch excursion West and Sunny stroll along the railway footpath to the Cumberland-Northumberland border, on the roof of England ... an alarming loss of front teeth thanks to ill advised chocolate bar, a bargain and delicious! Still, equanimity prevailed, plate safely stashed for resticking when dentists resume work, and on to encounter with a young philosopher, aged 18, and her vicar father, who doubles up as associate professor of Theology ... nice work if you can get it ... and learn the convoluted messages of organised religions, notably Abrahamic ones ... Lucy was very keen to explore Consciousness, the Observer Effect in Quantum Physics and all the implications of that ... young minds are into that ... it's time after a century of the pioneers, Max Planck, Schrodinger and his cat, David Bohm, of course, still relevant today, though resisted by the old guard ...

A return to dismal Durham County, enlivened, for some mask work in the Co-op, an unexpected handshake from an emboldened young rebel and home for supper and a later night of restful sleep and meaningful dreaming ...