Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1732-1734)

Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
Of man what see we but his station here
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Though which to reason, or to which refer?
Through worlds unnumbered through the God be known,
‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own.

(Nothing is revealed to us outside that of which we experience.)

He who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied being peoples ev’ry star,
May tell why heav’n has made us as we are.
The strong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul
Looked through? or can a part contain a whole?

(Either 1) all knowledge comes from experience and we, not being infinite, cannot know the system as a whole, or (2) some knowledge comes from another source – for example, from innate ideas built into us or from revelation from the outside.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
all partial evil, universalgood;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

PotentialMix

Freewriting Mindful Music Exercise
(TRANSMITSTATIM SCRIPT)

Hindrances – Recognise, release, return
Desire for sense pleasure – rooted energy of compulsion
Grasping and wanting, seeking endlessly to fill emptiness,
Not wanting to End/Sense of completeness when ended.
Recognise the recognition… acknowledge the obstruction,
A version of Aversion, ill will… stagnation, sleepiness and low energy.

Restlessness… even mountains get restless.
Questioning Ruminations… the paralysis of analysis “What are you doing here anyway?”
Hindrances are manifestations, invest in investigation and gentle encouragement.
Do not take universal challenges personally.
Strive for restful resources for transformation.

The voices of critic changes into a tyrant darkshadow. Judging-Mind.
Unhelpful thinking/thoughtpatterns causes defensive shutdown,
lack of safety, corroding self-stability, manifests a state of experience and awareness of arising thoughts are unforgiving, turning into taskmaster perfectionist disguised as evaluating critic – an attack on worth as human being itself, undermining existentially, has to be able to recognise itself to know it is there, and to learn to not give the critic attention is to dismiss and counter the cruelty of the critic. Soften it, offer kindness, with awareness the berating subsides upon hearing the boundaries. Exploring behind the wall of the body of electrified anxiety and fear. Uncomfortable insecurities drop in. Hear the doubts, let it dwell, don’t distort the suffering, the deficient sense of self. Once the thought is present, asking yourself what you’re feeling at this point, sensations in the body, the impact of trembling heat… offer it kindness.

Potential Mix: Understanding the preparation for answering a calling, limits expanding unfulfilled, unrealised dreams yearning for belief, for the birth of an achievement, the pleasure of mysteries established by a restless spirit, being deserving to be useful, with honesty an established calling…help.

Where do you notice your innercritic?

Pinkplate Freewrite

Behold, developed incarnations,
descent of freewill is caused and effected by
joy and pain, each evolves independently,
slowly through needs of others,
reunion of brotherhood paths of riches
expansion of one-ness, vital aspect of separation, deep urge to progress,
Must Come to Earth, countless remains advancing humanity harmoniously,
presenting consideration for self-control, progressive climb along the physical plane of desire in the universal emotion fire drawn together, in a sense of significance fire is a secret, ancient sacred thing, anxious to give self, true love is a security, small circle unbinding wider, lightly balanced urge of idea,
minister of panoramic flow stilling strength in a quiet place, keenest of inner worlds,
on the shore of horizon blindly supported by worldly wisemen
Discovery is a spark indulged encouragement through the maze, living with the source of the flame, is facing the persecutor,until frailty accepted fully, freely, judgingly rebuilt to behave, in a manner, no less
these inflicted carry alone
mistaken for disertion,
curse you for ever trying
the resentment, agonising.
ever thankful, he gave his blessed

Summer by John Ashbery

There is that sound like the wind
Forgetting in the branches that mean something
Nobody can translate. And there is the sobering “later on,”
When you consider what a thing meant, and put it down.

For the time being the shadow is ample
And hardly seen, divided among the twigs of a tree,

The trees of a fores, just as life is divided up,
between you and me, and among all the others out
there.

And the thinning-out phase follows
The period of reflection. And suddenly, to be dying
Is not a little or mean or cheap thing,
Only wearingly, the heat unbearable,
And also the little mindless constructions put upon
Our fantasies of what we did : summer, the ball of pine
needles, The loose fates serving our acts, with token smiles,
Carrying out their instructions too accurately –

Too late to cancel them now – and winter, the twitter
Of cold stars at the pane, that describes with broad
gestures
This state of being that is not so big after all.
Summer involves going down as a steep flight of steps

To a narrow ledge over the water. Is this is, then,
This iron comfort, these reasonable taboos,
Or did you mean it when you stopped? And the face
Resembles yours, the one reflected in the water.

Focus on Metta – Sangharakshita’s Peace is a fire

The Four Limitless States. Metta is the basis of them all. When our friendliness comes into contact with suffering, compassion arises. When our friendliness comes into contact with other people’s happiness, sympathetic joy arises. When friendliness, compassion, and sympathetic joy are developed equally towards all, then equanimity arises. equanimity is not indifference; there’s no equanimity without friendliness. We can also add reverence or devotion. This is experienced when the metta, the friendliness, is directed as it were upwards towards the ideal, the spiritual ideal.

Getting to truly know another human being is like exploring a new continent – or another world, One plunges into abysses, wanders among lofty mountains, is lost in the depths of mysterious forests, rests in bowers of roses with the brook sparkling beside one and the birds singing in the branches overhead, and stands on lonely shores gazing out over the illimitable expanse of sunlit waters.

One stone divides the whole stream.

We should have strong feelings of metta towards our own self – don’t forget that! – and towards others, strong feelings of spiritual fellowship. And when I say “strong feelings” I mean strong feelings, not something tepid and lukewarm and half-hearted and faint-hearted, but really warm; even, if you like, a little hot! And strong, not feeble.

Metta is something that must be lived.

Metta – The Hymn of Universal Love (English translation)

Who seeks to promote his welfare,
Having glimpsed the state of perfect peace,
Should be able, honest and upright,
Gentle in speech, meek and not proud.

Contented, he ought to be easy to support,
Not over-busy, and simple in living.
Tranquil his senses, let him be prudent,
And not brazen, nor fawning on families.

Also, he must refrain from any action
That gives the wise reason to reprove him.
(Then let him cultivate the thought:)
May all be well and secure,
May all beings be happy!

Whatever living creatures there be,
Without exception, weak or strong,
Long, huge or middle-sized,
Or short, minute or bulky,

Whether visible or invisible,
And those living far or near,
The born and those seeking birth,
May all beings be happy!

Let none deceive or decry
His fellow anywhere;
Let none wish others harm
In resentment or in hate.

Just as with her own life
A mother shields from hurt
Her own son, her only child,
Let all-embracing thoughts
For all beings be yours.

Cultivate an all-embracing mind of love
For all throughout the universe,
In all its height, depth and breadth —
Love that is untroubled
And beyond hatred or enmity.

As you stand, walk, sit or lie,
So long as you are awake,
Pursue this awareness with your might:
It is deemed the Divine State here.

Holding no more to wrong beliefs,
With virtue and vision of the ultimate,
And having overcome all sensual desire,
Never in a womb is one born again.

 

https://accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/buddharakkhita/wheel365.html

‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action – into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.’ – Rabindranath Tagore

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Interrogate savage hearts

(Part of an upcoming series of scrap freeflow journal entries)

Welcome to this world
my child, the first free spin is
Always calculated.

I think, therefore I yawn.
Where I think,
there I am not
-because I forget
where I am
to think I am not
where I am…
to forget
I am, at all.

What are we when
we are without
that which does not
exist at all?

Our silence becomes the sign
that our words are desire,
and god becomes an inarticulate groan.

To create the world with words like water,
(the water before the water is the water after)

Embarking on beyond the visible
set forth in the distant haze
in the beginning we listened, and learnt
from mystics with meanings,
from teaming streams
down a path of implicit wandering
with unexpected visage

A Core self-fabricator
on the journey
into the
half-light half-void
energy exploration vehicle
consisting of devising,
swarming cells.

Our caves had no mirrors
but we had fire in our hearts
before we knew how to even
make it start.
….
….
The gradual glow
of the ever-rising
supra-soul,
inner-being
whose purpose radiates
from high silence.
Crucial embers,
fanned by an immense
divinity – existence.
Living just a constant flux of heart cloaks, lol.

While the emanations only lead to confrontation,
he who follows the intense search
for purpose without
a contribution…
will be left watching words grow, drying
in the scorched sun heat.

While the devil is hiding
in your fucking mouth.

‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action – into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.’ – Rabindranath Tagore