Unobvious Portal

_______RS

Notes: This haiku arose while reflecting upon and re-reading Gertrude Reif Hughes’ thoughtful and stimulating foreword to Rudolf Steiner’s monumental text “The Philosophy of Freedom” (sometimes translated as “The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity” — which gives an insight into the intended meaning of the term ‘freedom’). The book was written in 1893-1894 but the foreword was from a later edition, published in 1995. The book is very far from a typical philosophical work, which would turn many souls off, including myself in many ways. But if you pay it true and engaged attention — this book is still riveting and uniquely fresh. I have looked at it five or six times in life, always at least five or ten years apart, and it is every time a novel revelation. In contemplating the haiku, it is crucial to bear in mind that the act of noticing being referred to is realtime, in the moment! Not something realized a bit later, even a few seconds later, after the deed, relying upon memory.

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Meditation Upon Chalk

(This is a slight re-edit of one of the very first WP posts ever made on this blog about ten years ago, when I was transitioning from software-oriented technical writing to more creative things. The exercise exemplified is still of value, it seems to me)… There is a subtle distancing effect which our numerous online devices and other technologies foist upon our minds regarding the world of everyday objects. Left unchecked, we develop a disregard and disinterest in things and their nature, reflected in the disposable stance many ‘movers and shakers’ adopt towards articles of utility. But imagine if the surrounding world of objects could be reunited with their rightful depths of significance, qualities, and history! Suppose you had to think ONLY about a piece of chalk, to take a mundane example, for ten full minutes. How difficult would it be, and what could be recovered?

finis - chalkdovercliffschalk 79centssmall visible plankton

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Theology’s Knot

At the first stage of dessication, there is the rigid form, and the disciple, minister, and naysayer alike all cleave to it for its comforting corpse-like clutchability. Then a small fraction, one day, succeeds to observe the mystery from many perspectives, and the corpse begins to dance and asks a question. Then, an era passes, and for a very tiny fraction, their persistent, unfrozen awe and devotion observes what truly is, as a conceptual blossom, and heart-seen, but not seen by mind…

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Do This Before Waking

There is a country with exceedingly fuzzy borders we all traverse and meander about each night between definitely awake and definitely not awake. Dream state consciousness researchers call this fluctuating interim the hypnogogic condition. But there is also hypogogia: the transition phase between not yet awake and awake every morning. An equally evasive experience, but easier to empirically study on one’s own, I find. Whoever explores this persistently can more easily catch pictures of how altered consciousness looks, because the mental energy is increasing and refreshed in the mornings as opposed to night times. It is a matter of building technique…

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