A group of us were about to go to a club
to dance and have a good time;
we were all getting ready
in the house of an Asian man.
I was trying to find the right thing to wear.
Chose a coat at the last moment
(to conceal? or due to cold weather?)
The coat was plaid – I liked it.
It was night.
The Asian man was intuitive,
also gentle and slight of build;
he was unable to see as we see,
for he was blind.
Somehow he found me in his house,
he came to me and was crying,
weeping uncontrollably.
He said something “bad” was going to happen
if we went out to the club,
but he wasn’t telling anybody
because it was “just his intuition”
and he feared no one would believe him,
"they'll think I'm crazy."
I said that I believed him
and that I took his premonition seriously
and that I would help him to tell people
it was not safe to go to the club –
that none of us should go-
hopefully all would listen.
He seemed torn, not wanting to upset people.
“But people want to go, they want to have fun.”
I took a strong stance with him,
said he should not devalue, dismiss,
or deny his intuition,
said I would support him in warning people;
they could do what they liked after that.
He really feared sharing with people in this way –
would rather sacrifice his own sense of safety
to not upset others. I felt grateful
I no longer felt or lived this way. This way.
I took his hand and led him through the house
to the front where people were loading into the car.
We had been in there a long time, he and I;
people were wondering what had taken us so long.
I could sense the man was still hesitant
to “ruin” people’s good time by sharing
his intuitive-based premonition.
But in my mind I could sense the reality
of what he was “picking up” -
subtle energetic “signals" -
and I knew I myself wouldn’t risk going to the club.
I wondered what the “bad” thing was
(car accident? fight at club? moon rising?)
and noticed I did not care who was annoyed by
my actively supporting this man
and his intuitive sense.
I took his hand.
I took his hand.
I took his hand.
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Rolling
metaness
James M. Emmerling
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Comments
I would have loved to sit and listen to you. Intuitiveness balances impulsivity... premonitions are sometimes songs. rAted!
I no longer felt or lived this way. This way."
"I took his hand.
I took his hand.
I took his hand."
Reading the poem was like taking in the intricate detail of a bonsai. each curvature and chaotic branching constantly at odds with the ordered overall shape - ordered chaos. As in: The blind intuitive asian man and the setting of getting ready for a club, spiral into and out off each other - as you take his hand (spiral) this way (spiral) take his hand (spiral) (spiral) (spiral) Sincerely enjoyed this lens.
peece,
dj
The mpoem jogged me - a 'lost' memory that was always there.
peece,
dj
peece!
dj
Love your new style, as I know a bit about its genesis.
Much gratitude for sharing that info w/me.
The work itself...which we cannot call a "poem", in the traditional sense...(i daresay we must call it "prophecy", in the Blakean sense...)
is quite obvious in its "meaning" and "import"....
I shall return and help decode it later, after I go get
some damn diet coke
and food supplies....
I would hope YOU already know what it "means",
as you are the ...what shall we term it?...
vessel...
through which it manifested...
This kind of talk sounds a bit absurd to my "conventional ears",
but then again, I have decided to put them in the closet
and use my Real Ears from now on...
and maybe my Real Eyes will come back from
the Heavenly Optomotrist
all fixed,
soon..
Jim
p.s. drop the mccain...you already
know rolling's situation...
your duty is to prophesy,
in between appointments
and ...physical disabilities !
It is amazing I seized onto life the way I did, just the same, knowing from such a young age the challenges ahead - not just for me, but for us all, especially those of us "in flames."
And remember: The blind man could see, better then them all...He had/has "real eyes," of course.
Here is my preliminary interpretation of your work.
It is subject to revision, as more information
comes in, of course. And information seems
to be coming in quite clearly today....
(we should investigate July 17 in history)
The blind asian is a conflation
of your fevered imagination, of course..Aurobindo
comes immediately to mind...it is vital that
you remember his injunction:
DO NOT GO TO THE PARTY..
The Party is the Dionysian reaction that naturally
occurs at a time of spiritual freedom. but someone
must remain at the reins..or..ha..the reigns...
(consult simonetta"s vision of the golden thrones)
The Asian is the Eastern Influence.
material plane of existence...thus his hesitancy in
voicing opposition to the "party"..
as long as u live in the human world,
he reasoned, you can express yr love
for the divine only by LOVING THAT
IN WHICH THE DIVINE IS INCORPORATED...
AND THROUGH WHICH IT MANIFESTS...
namely, all sentient beings...
this has meaning only when the egoic structure
is transcended..but!..he said ego must die..
we have issues with that...
"we mus t assume that the supreme
existence is
a conscious being..."
he is immanent in it... he is capable
of personal relations with us..
see aurobindo's "on yoga"...
ok, aurobindo is the archetypal historical impersonation..
im-person-ation...of supreme existence..
He gave all his powers to the Mother
at his death...
"they say prayer has the power to help
so pray from the Mother...
i try to love my neighbor and
do good unto others..
but Mother, things aint goin well"
dylan, "aint talkin"
why aint things goin well?
well, is suppose because he is with dionysus..
at the Party, eh?
hm..more soon..need diet coke...ack
Interesting to note that although we were in the Asian man's "house," we were in the West, and the house was blithely suburban in style and decor...East meets West - Influencing each other - not always to the other's benefit...
well, of course, re. "east meets west"...that came to me
almost immediately...
this little prophecy/visionof yours can be
historically/mythologically interpreted with ease:
the eastern influence has reached its Zenith in the West...
there is no further to go with it....
as of now, it is just serving the Great Party at the End of the World...all that spiritual wisdom "Americanized" and commodified
and integrated into the Post-Capitalist Monstrosity
Moloch...there is a buddhist center next to an auto dealership next to a convenience (mark that word..."convenience"...for...um...later)
store where I bought some diet coke today from a very friendly Indian guy..also chips ahoy cookies and double a batteries and
a paper so i may informed of local temporal doings...)
We live in a semi-California-ized world here in the
great Northeast...the birthplace of Liberty...
we are staid and serious, money-obsessed, and very very
paranoid...we want nothing to upset the surface reality...
the social bubble...we see asians, indians, blacks, hispanics among us now...200 years after the great Enlightenment men
(Franklin, Jefferson, Washingto, paine....all around 1800, mind you, when the Romantic Revival was underway, and the Transcendentalists were about to take up their place in history....) (and in Germany...the German Enlightenment, so different from the French version, and the English, and later the AMerican...)
200 yrs later, sirens scream all day...ambulances...cops...
we live in a police state here in manchester...the
poor folks...blacks especially...call it "klanchester".....
sirens....Sirens! calling brave Odysseus and his men to their deaths upon the rocks of senseless sexuality and sin.....
the eastern influence here is a commodity only....but if this new flame society is truly to get up & running here in
the heart of Suburbia, in the white districts...and the middle class minority districts.....eastern wisdom is NOT ENOUGH....the great
white intellectual tradition , crashed on the rocks
of Academia and Competition
and Tenure and Linguistics and
a hodgepodge of ignorant quotations...
HAS TO BE REVIVED....IN THOUGHTFUL , quiet
venues....as the Party at the end of the World Rages on....
the Asian gentleman is no longer
guiding you...you already have achieved
your Constancy
and your intuitive eastern wisdom
lights you up like a magnetic storm in the Sun...
(recall that recently there was a total eclipse of the sun in India)
you are a savage light now....and
he holds YOUR
hand,
not the other way around,
anymore...
vive!
(hm...)(re. S.A. &....)(well,obviously...)
Tonight i am in a magnificently mellow mood and
wish to use the computer only for OS...& to depend upon
the few books I have (fatefully, i guess) decided to
bring to my "hideaway..."
S.A. is quoted in my little gem of a hardcover (orange cover)
"Eastern Wisdom & Western Thought" i got in a used book store
in Maine one time visiting my social worker sister SuzieQ, one of the light/loves of my lackluster life...
it's by PJ Saher...w/ intro by the luminous Jean Gebser...
on page 161 o f this book which would be the one thing i'd need on the proverbial desert island, "on yoga"
is excerpted...
"all life, when we look behind its appearance, is a vast yoga. (or methodized effort towards self-perfection)
a vast yoga of Nature
attempting to realize her perfection in an
ever-increasing expression of her potentialities
and to unite herself with her own divine reality"
The ways in which this parallels Herr Hegel are simply
endless...he & Schelling with their Natural Philosophy...
well, that is for another time...
"yoga", saher writes, is "a means of COMPRESSING
one's evolution into a shorter period of
bodily existence. Therefore all life is
consciously or subconsciously
a yoga...and ...here is a point to make regarding
your asian gentleman....
(gotta post or may be lost)
that ever fell on India
(ties to our reluctant Lost Girl, found Safe, Nabina)
was that yoga as a science was ruined by
the wrong kind of people practicing it...the harmony of
the whole (of Yoga) was mutilated by
overdeveloping some aspects and neglecting others...
usually out of egoistic or foolish motives...
blindness, perhaps...?
this brought about a sharp incompatibility between ordinary
life 7 yog....
"so strongly," says SA, "has the false idea prevailed
that to escape from life is
now commonly considered
as not only the necessary condition,
but the GENERAL OBJECT
of yoga"
so..to safeguard one's spiritual evolution, from the
plethora of duties imposed by society,
what is of course needed is:
a changed attitude toward those duties.......
the yoga of work or duty
must be supplemented by and complemented by
the yoga of meditation....
the yoga of widsom is to be enriched by
the yoga of devotion
and the WHOLE IS TO BE KEPT GOING BY A SOUND
YOGA OF PHYSICAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING"
For Man is: that term and symbol of a higher existence
descended into the material world
in which it is possible for the LOWER
to transfigure itself and "put on the nature of"
the higher...
and the higher to reveal itself in the form of the lower...
_________________________________
Just by coincidence I was reading the dread Wilber
(Baldy Two) this morning.... his "Sex, Ecology, spirituality"...
re. the "Ascending" and "Descending" Paths of the Western tradition....
To interpret is never NEVER
to look upon something "objective" as
containing "hidden meaning"...that is "fallen world"
(academic) thinking..i saw him as Aurobindo..
you see him as Far far eastern..
and now begins the interpretive dance, perhaps,
of the Tension of Opposites???
per Bal...i mean Newton.....the dialectical unfolding of the
meaning of soemthing that BEGAN
as your dream, but has progressed to something
more than that...you keep saying you are but the oracle...
you have recieved...and...
i am personally delighted with your new "linear thinking",
"interpretive" self....you now take OWNERSHIP OF
YOUR VISIONS....
I would jsut love to hear YOUR interpretation...
Nothing else to do on a Friday night, alone in blessed
Isolation
on Bastille Day...or..ha..the sequel to Bastille day..
bastille day 2, starring who else but heath ledger
as the guy who..um..stormed it
The parable of the blind seer is a common thread in T.S. Eliot’s work. Here are some lines about Tiresias, the hermaphrodite, from “The Wasteland”:
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives 220
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Your poem reminded me of these lines—the prophet’s intuitions about ordinary moments in people’s lives: the typist at teatime, your choosing of the plaid coat.
Let those who have eyes to see, see. Those whose eyes only perceive the external world are often blind to the spiritual dimension.
I applaud your decision to choose inner vision over outer vision. Thank you for taking his hand, Angelique.
—Melissa (wearing my other hat :-)
is reached when "the conscious yoga in man
becomes, like the subconscious yoga in Nature,
OUTWARDLY COTERMINOUS WITH LIFE ITSELF"
And this philosophy was a healing balm offered to
the unbalanced extremists (who still thrive, i suppose)
of both East and West....to restore a sense of balance
in life...the "Integral Yoga"...
This is the "philosophia perennis" in its pristine purity....
for more Aurobindo wisdom....
"the manifestation of a SUPRAMENTAL TRUTH-CONSCIOUSNESS
is the capital reality that will make the divine life possible...."
"As the eyes of the sag e are opened to the light,
so is his EAR unsealed
to receive the VIBRATIONS OF THE INFINITE
(for all, ultimately, is vibrations, yes? On the physical level certainly, so we must assume on the "supramental level" too)
...from all the regions of the Truth
there comes thrilling into him
its WORD,
WHICH BECOMES THE FORM OF HIS THOUGHTS..."
finally...to wrap up our "Aurobindo Interlude"
(which, considering our collective distress for nabina, who is familiar with & devoted to him ,
seems appropriate, no?)
"IT MAY WELL BE THAT BOTHE TENDENCIES,
THE MENTAL AND THE VITAL AND PHYSICAL STRESS
OF EUROPE....
AND THE SPIRITUAL AND PSYCHIC IMPULSE OF
INDIA,
ARE NEEDED FOR THE COMEPLETENESS
OF THE HUMAN MOVEMENT"...Sri. A.
Now...tell us about constancy, would ya?
con-stanc(e)-y....
con-
s t a n c y.............
??
I do not wish to be a constant pest, but I would like to point out to
you that you constantly refer to constancy and yet have never to my knowledge explained this most important term....
(anyway i am "bumping" you,
and you really need all the bumps you can get, alas..
as do i....i guess all the bumps went to nabina..she is in a bump-surfeit now....)
CONSTANCY: STEADINESS OR FAITHFULNESS....
unchanging quality....
constant: com, with, together + stare, to stand.....
to stand with, together...
continually recurring (like these pesky questions,eh?)
unchanging, invariable...
but WHAT is unchanging in a sea of timespace where all i s
impermanent? HOW DO YOU HOLD TO IT?
ACK
I just LOVE this T.S.E. passage you offer - I have always responded strongly to the little of his work I have read. I shall make TSE and WB my "late summer" reading selection. I like how you noticed the ordinariness of choosing a "plaid" coat (and it is interesting to note how a Chess Board is a "field" in a certain sense, and, in a certain sense, is "plaid" - And we have all been discussing "fields" of reality / matrix's lately, I notice...
Newton - I also am heartened to know you "return" also to these posts and commentary threads - I do the same with yours (along with DJ, Metaness, and James) - I love to see where these threads are going!
James - I am eager to see if indeed the "Idiot" image (mirroring what Melissa implies with her comment - this was my sense of the man in the dream) changes your course of interpretation here...
Regarding Constancy: My teacher's teacher (a Chinese scholar - he is the one who translated the version of the Tao Te Ching and I Ching that I study, work with, and reference), when asked by my teacher (now colleague) many years ago for instruction in regard to the deeper wisdom/transmission contained within these two texts, this scholar said to my teacher, in all seriousness: "I am not sure I can yet teach you - I have only been studying [the texts] for 30 years." And he meant this.
This scholar / translator DOES emphasize "Constancy" - This idea of "Constancy," as understood within this particular translation of the TTC, warrants a deep and thoughtful discussion. Therefore, at your request, I will excerpt the section of his scholarly introduction to his translation of the TTC that addresses "Constancy" and post that as its own blog post on my own blog - Then, we can dialogue on it from there (those who wouldl like to engage in this way), but again, for penetrating the living, energetic "transmission" of the text, much time with "the word" (so to speak) would be required, versus a rapid discourse, as I am sure you are already aware.
peece,
dj
Could be just the thing to do: post about this "constancy" of yours
that EVERYONE is talking about 7 eagerly awaiting!!!
Wouldn't it be wild if it got such a deep, reflectful discussion going
that we, here on "the home of smart writers",
or whatever we call ourselves,
really penetrated the concept,
pulled it out of the ancient fogs
it currently dwells in
(the tao was written 2500 yr s ago,
an we have yet to rediscover it...!
it reminds me of a scene today:
i was packing, and i found my mother's
baby cup from when she was born: 3/3/1927...
'eleanor mae yule'...
so...
i brought it into the kitchen
and drank new diet coke
in this 82 yr old cup
and it was delicious...)
Pulled it from the mists of history
out into the new Light
that shines
(so tenuously, but
steadily building...)
here,
on your blog, for one,
and others....
yanked it into 2009
dusted it off
and learned its
life lessons...
with you as our teacher?
could be...could be...alot of things
could be...the light is always in the world
and always, always, it is not known...
not recognized...
why must that be so?.....
my question, bold perhaps:
why not?
why not speak with tongues of fire,
and make ourselves understood, after
so long hiding...
"truth cannot be told so a s to be understood
& not believed"...wm blake
why couldn't it
this "idiot" asian intuitive:
to "sacrifice his own sense of safety to not upset others"...
that's basically how you could describe the gentle lost souls
I deal with every day, and am now sort of in your position:
to take them by the hand, protect them ....
they all know there's a "bad moon rising"...
they feel it deep in their marrow, and hide themselves away
tight & secure, in their "mind forg'd manacles" ...
the duty you seem to take upon yourself here...
the sword turned inward....
the rolling fibrous eyes...remember them?
eyes are rolling..heads too!
Where i make my home, in the Great Northeast,
the idiots wander Main Street
barely noticed, defensive, but always
open to a solicitous approach...they have alot to
teach us...they are all Asian, really, whatever color they are...
gentle go-with-the-flow-ers...
Someday the flow will shift, and their time of redemption be at hand,
I hear tell..through the grape vine....
they all got their heads to the train track, and
can hear the rumbling approach of the Slow Train...
I fretted all night and could not wake up this morning in time for school: just when I need all my wits about me, firm discipline, I failed. There was an important meeting in school, a class, I missed it all. As the mind can see what has happened, and knows what I wanted, so I guess it would help set me back on course. I fear the times when I cannot see with the mind's eye, those are terrible times for me. Thank you for being there, here, for thinking and keeping goodness around you alive
DJ: I neglected to thank YOU for all you offered to this here thread thus far - the golden incense has been lit and received - contact with the ancestors has been made.
Rolling: I am thrilled to see a comment from you here - And actually, I do not understand the comment thread either, which strangely pleases me to no end - We are all just playing in the sandbox, I venture to guess, and having some kind of serious fun and some kind of fun seriousness (as usual). Also: I am going to post something on your blog tomorrow that may hold some interest for you (not sure) and may be a source of inspiration; stay tuned (I am having to research a bit to get more information).
Your fretting all night is understandable, given your current circumstance; it is always amazing to me how our mind and/or body can send us in a different direction than what we thought we were "meant" or "had" to do. Perhaps there was/is some wisdom at work in regard to you not being in that class today. And yes, you are right: The dream-thing I posted here does indicate that I "no longer live this way (This way)" - there is an implication that I re-directed my life-experience / life course. I appreciate you noticing this.
Many Blessings being sent your way - And to you ALL!
not for insipid moral or emotional support...
but so if we run across that famed elephant, you know the one..
that the buncha asian fellows all grabbed in different spots to i-dentify
we will all grab a hold of it separately, then together...
then compared notes, goddammmit
the one you mean=the one who kinda slips in & out of visibility, yes? Somethimes white?
or...wait...what about the "white elephant" your are NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SUPPOSED TO THINK OF.... and then you do....how is he related in our Family of Elephants?
quick history lesson: the elephant was th totem of Shiva...she took elephant form, y'know...a male elephant in India was given the title of father, or grandfather....Buddha himself in myth was begotten on the virgin Maya by
the elephant god Ganesha, "lord of hosts"...
even Yahweh, in his early days , before he hit the Big Time, was identified with an elephant....5th c BC...
the elephant still symbolizes the sacred marriage in a buddhist fertility ritual, as i'm sure yre aware
a melting-wax conglomoration of i's..
no I yet ready to emerge..
inappropriate sender:
please...
disregard all previous propriety
and send
with simonetta
strength
all possible Inspiration...
for there are many, many who need it...
and it is now incumbent on you to
provide...
for as our mother says
'
it is time...
let loose
by now, here in the 21st century, are they not? i had one way back in the 1980's, for god's sake!...and obviously it did me a great deal of "boundary-damage", as everyone (,...or,... at least, anyone who is watching) can see...ah, but wait, isnt this narcissism? to think "everyone" is watching"? well, no one really is....except!!!isnt this poor self image, inferiority feelings? ack...
i know for sure:it is I who am watching...so...I must be everyone, and no-one....well, this fits my new eastern/hegelian viewpoint! so...i am redeemed...except...i would also just like to be noticed....but in a lowkey, healthy way....
jim, self-cured
you were mistaken, i am afraid....
it was not a far far farthest eastern guy you dreamed of...
it was, in fact, um, Aurobindo...
sorry to have to correct you like that
in your work...well done!
You get some Blake quotes for a reward:
"i was walking among the fires of hell,
delighted with the enjoyments of genius,
which to "angels" look like torment and insanity..."
"(S)he whose face gives no light, shall never become a star"
"love seeketh not itslef to please
not for itself has any care
but for another gives its ease
and builds a heaven in hell's despair...
so sang a little clod of clay
trodden with the cattles' feet"
and...a little more...exuberant, as our wm can get:
"TO THE DEISTS!!!!
hE NEVER CAN BE A FRIEND TO THE HUMAN RACE WHO IS THE PREACHER OF NATURAL MORALITY OR NATURAL RELIGION.
hE IS A FLATTERER WHO MEANS TO BETRaY, TO PERPETRATE TYRANT PRIDE
AND THE LAWS OF THAT bABYLON,
which will shortly be destroyed
not with the natural sword but
with the spiritual sword..."
'to sin in the open face of day is cruel and pitiless
but to RECORD the sin for a reproach:
to let the sun go down in a remembrance of the sin
is a woe and a horror!
A brooder of an evil day,
and a sun rising in blood...
come then o Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of sin"
"The horror....the horror...."