The Ghost Song

Awake.
Shake dreams from your hair
my pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
the day's divinity
First thing you see.

A vast radiant beach and cooled jeweled moon
Couples naked race down by it's quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the wooly cotton brains of infancy
The music and voices are all around us.

Choose they croon the Ancient Ones
the time has come again
choose now, they croon
beneath the moon
beside an ancient lake

Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream
Come with us
everything is broken up and dances.

Indians scattered,
On dawn's highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s,
Fragile eggshell mind

We have assembled inside,
This ancient and insane theater
To propagate our lust for life,
And flee the swarming wisdom of the streets.

The barns have stormed
The windows kept,
And only one of all the rest
To dance and save us
From the divine mockery of words,
Music inflames temperament.

Ooh great creator of being
Grant us one more hour,
To perform our art
And perfect our lives.

We need great golden copulations,

When the true kings murderers
Are allowed to roam free,
A thousand magicians arise in the land
Where are the feast we are promised?

One more thing

Thank you oh lord
For the white blind light
Thank you oh lord
For the white blind light

A city rises from the sea
I had a splitting headache
From which the future's made

-Jim Morrison

Blake's Marriage, The Proverbs of Hell

Another portion of William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell is entitled "Proverbs of Hell". This portion, in what can easily be seen as a reversal of that which has been traditionally seen as "hellish", Blake sets forth a slew of proverbs that make a whole heap of sense, both in the time they were written, and in the world of today.

I will discuss several of them here:

The first two are relatively closely related,

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

Drive your cart and plow over the bones of the dead." 

 Blake offers, firstly, what is easily one of the best lessons I have ever heard. "In seed time learn," meaning, when you are starting something, learn from it. Do not let it become something that is mundane and unimportant, learn from this new experience, even if it is a familiar process. "[I]n harvest teach" which  means when you have worked to bring something to its fruition, make sure you teach others how to make (or avoid) choices and situations that you found yourself in. "[I]n winter enjoy", even if nothing else in the proverb meant anything, these three words are profound. They carry the meaning of recreation, relaxation and enjoyment. Blake says that, once work is done, one should strive to enjoy themselves, for the struggle is over and they are now relishing the fruits of their labor.
The next proverb, "drive your cart and plow over the bones of the dead", while being an extremely vivid and morbid sounding thing to say, it can be interpreted in quite a positive light. Blake may have been saying, "move forward, the past is past, though the mistakes are now skeletons, you must continue on with the knowledge you have gained."

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

 This, especially so in 1790, when first published, is incredibly suggestive that people have not been approaching wisdom in the correct manner. Blake is implying that by living so perilously close to the edge, one can gain a great view of the infinity that lies on the other side of the cave wall (which I mentioned in my previous post). This new wisdom can be shared, but only by bringing others to this edge of insanity and excess, which can lead some people over the edge and to their untimely demise. The road of excess is one fraught with danger, and a high chance of an early death due to the unhindered nature of this new "enlightened" life.
I will allude to Jim Morrison, the drinking, the drugs, and the poetry. Even if you don't like Morrison or the Doors, Morrison's writing had a haunting and deep level to it that is not a commonplace in music, or even in poetry, especially these days.

"Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!"

 Essentially, nothing gets done unless it is done. Prayers and praise are meaningless, only doing things right makes it work well. Water and fertilize your crops and they will grow strong.

I will leave you with one final proverb:

"Thus Men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast."

 I'd love to hear someone's interpretation of that, if anyone wants to comment.

-Wolfram पहला प्रजना

Blake's Marriage, The Doors of Perception

 

The Doors of Perception:

The Gaps in the Wall

   William Blake's famous poem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, has a passage that goes as follows.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." -Marriage of Heaven and Hell; plate 14

 It is this short passage that has some of the most profound and lasting meaning out of the entire poem. The vivid imagery and the fact that Blake calls man naive and unaware of what is truly happening.

Man thinks he knows, but he knows not.

Blake's assertion that everything is "truly infinite", is a large, impossible concept to ever (due to its inherently unending nature) completely understand.

I think what Blake is driving at in this passage is that man, at some point, need to try to open that door, or to clean one of the glass panes of it, to catch just a glimpse of the other side of that vast, wise and terrifying void. As it is, man only sees breif blips of the infinity that lies beyond the everyday naivete of mankind.

Could the enlightenment of the Buddha and Buddhists be the realization that there is truly no bounds to what is out there? How do they communicate this to the un-enlightened, the commoners?

What happens when people don't think they have the mental capacity for philosophical thought?
  I'd actually like to address this question. They lose hope, to some extent, they lose hope. People who don't think that they are capable of philosophizing are generally not able to take a definitive stance on certain things in their lives, even though everyone always has some definite philosophical view. For example, I was talking to a friend of mine, and she said that she couldn't be philosophical. I said it was impossible, because everyone is innately philosophical to establish a worldview. Hers was that everyone should do their own thing and find their own way to be happy and successful. I told her she was an Existentialist (see my last post), and it really widened her eyes to what she was capable of.

In effect, if one thinks one cannot, one cannot (arguing as an Existentialist), because if one says one is not philosophical then they will never see just how belief oriented and philosophical they may be.

The moral of the story, and the message Blake is trying to convey:
Have a paradigm shift. Change your view on things, especially if you can escape the wants, needs, and hassles of being a man.

Blake wants people to start seeing things, to break away from the herd mentality that is such a dominant force in the cultures and societies of today, yesteryear and the future. Eventually this paradigm shift could be a dangerous weapon, something that will be sought out for discussion by governments that do not approve of dissent.

There is no way to protect your thoughts, since that is the case, have your own thoughts, not someone else's, and always try to break free and see things as they truly are, infinite. 

-Wolfram पहला प्रजना

On Existentialism

To my fairly basic understanding of anything, and my views and interpretations, existentialism is the philosophy that one is entirely responsible for deciding one's course in life. It is imperative that one makes one's own decisions because if one doesn't, then they will lose their way. There are several key aspects of Existentialism, all of which are important to the philosophy.

Some of them are:
Existence precedes essence:

• Which means all individuals are born as blank slates so that they are able to make themselves into whatever image or being-thing they wish. It could easily be compared to the tabula rasa theory of John Locke. Jean-Paul Sartre said "man exists [first], encounters himself, then defines himself."

Dread (Angst):

• Using the classic example of one standing on a cliff, it is when one not only fears falling off, which is completely natural, but fears throwing oneself off, the realization that there is nothing holding one back is what defines this dread. (I used angst in a different context in my last post). The realization of one's innate freedom is what defines the dread, the realization that one can do things that are good, and that one can make decisions that are destructive.

Freedom:

• Quickly following (or before) that realization of dread, comes the true recognition of one's freedom and the ability to create oneself in any way possible. With this comes the fact that nothing pertaining to oneself is unchangeable, meaning that one is ultimately responsible for one's actions, as well as one's values. 

Subtopic: Facticity:

• Facticity is the events in one's life that are outside of one's own control (ex: birthplace, weather) and though one's facticity is "set in stone", it doesn't determine a person. It is an influence, yes, but it is not a determinant.

Authenticity:

• One must act as oneself, not as any other entity or essence requires (such as Oneself or one's genes). One must act as oneself and make decisions in accordance with one's freedom (which is indeed limited by one's facticity, but not to the extent where it can affect one's authenticity).

Despair:

• When one loses or suffers a breakdown in one or more of the "pillars" of their existence (an athlete suffering a crippling injury, for instance), this is a feeling of hopelessness. Even if one is not outwardly despairing, it can still be called that because one's "being-thing" (the thing they were striving to make themselves) is compromised, one can end up in a state of despair

The Other and the Gaze:

• The Other, with a capital 'o', is any other free subject who inhabits the same world as a person does. 

"[W]hen one experiences someone else, and this Other person experiences the world (the same world that a person experiences), only from "over there", the world itself is constituted as objective in that it is something that is "there" as identical for both of the subjects; a person experiences the other person as experiencing the same as them. This experience of the Other's look is what is termed the Look (sometimes the Gaze). " -Wikipedia

•  A key feature of the Gaze (or Look) is that no Other need be present.
• For example, if one is stranded on a desert island, and for 5 years one scrapes out a meaningful existence, building and farming and such, one can 'import' someone. One's family, friends whom one knows well, and can 'show' them the island and all the achievements that they have attained. By showing the Other this, one sees oneself through the eyes of the Other, and it gives the view that one needs to maintain their grip on themselves and allows them to maintain their self-view.

The Absurd:

• Nothing has meaning outside of that meaning which one gives to it. There is no meaning in the world unless one assigns some meaning to it. Since there is no such thing as a "good" person or a "bad" thing, "what happens happens", just as likely to a "bad" or "good" person.

Now that I've explained that to my satisfaction (and with some help from Wikipedia), it seems that existentialism is the most vital and sensible way to approach living.

One must make oneself, one cannot be shaped, or they will not be living, and then what will they be?

A point I'd like to make on existentialism: It still allows for spirituality and religion, it says that if you do what you must to become what you strive for, then you are allowed to be anything. Nothing takes on meaning until you assign it meaning, and then its meaning is concrete and definite, at least for oneself, which, in the end, is all that matters.

I wanted to write this description of existentialism to help myself come to terms with all it says and the many aspects of it, and to help me interpret it for myself. Do with this what you will, but I hope it helps in understanding existentialism and its quirks.

-Wolfram पहला प्रजना

Spirituality and Dynamic Living

This seems like a strange step, into this world of blogging and internet posts. It seems to be a widely biased world, seemingly deranged and overrun by rampant numbers of angst-y teenagers and angst-y adults. However, I do know that there are good blogs out there, I read some of them from time to time, though I do not follow them devotedly.

An Introduction

This is going to be a completely dynamic blog, most likely not a novel concept, but it is called the "Fruits of Consciousness" because a colleague of mine and myself will merely explore our awareness. To put it as Descartes "We think, therefore we share." I suppose a better way to put that would be as Sartre "We are aware that we think, therefore we are (and share)."

I have a feeling that my fascinations with the spirituality and with the ethereal world will come up quite often. My philosophical views on the universe will show up, and I may even pen a story or two.

My collaborator will most likely proffer a gamut of writings, from philosophical meanderings, to a slew of short stories, beginnings of longer stories, his mind is a creative one, and we shall see where it goes.

Spiritual Joys in the 21st Century

In this day and age, I think that spirituality is losing its importance. People use 'religious' and 'spiritual' almost interchangeably it seems, when they really are not the same thing. For example, if someone was a Christian, and they went to church every Sunday, not out of genuine faith, but because they were conditioned to, as it were, would they be considered spiritual? I wouldn't consider that spiritual.

If they went to church because they felt obligated to by their families or church or what have you (outside of genuine... well, genuine spirituality) then they really aren't spiritual, though they can be easily considered religious.

Many people are religious, they believe in something, to a certain extent, but then it gets warped in strange ways, televangelists are a good example. They like to sell God to people. I find it amazing, that people will buy, or 'donate', or whatever they want to call it, into these churches or organizations when all the tools they need are in front of their noses. All they need is their mind, their faith and their imagination, and they can have a direct connection to God, or any other spiritual realm or anything, which is a free and completely personal link.

Now, I myself am not religious, but I am very spiritual. I am more shamanic than anything else. I believe that there is more out there, and through the right means, the answers to all questions can be found. Be it meditation or sensory deprivation or through rituals and psychedelic experiences, the 'other world' can be reached and it is a definite way to gain knowledge, and if not knowledge, then it is definitely a place for the imagination to grow and learn, and for the child inside to grow and be nurtured.

The 'other world' is a place that seems farcical and far-fetched, but is a place that is, almost inevitably, generated by one's own mind, making it a place that is like the exotic corners of your psyche, where strange, fascinating creatures live and where new things and views are waiting to be discovered. This 'other world' is at its basest, a paradigm shift from the reality we all live in.

Conclusion 
I hope that this blog becomes an entertaining and enjoyable part of my life, and that it will evolve in an entertaining manner for those who will read it. However, there's only one way to find out!

Until next time,
-Wolfram पहला प्राजना