After seeing Bladerunner 2049

All is in God. The reason that God is conceived as the Creator in the Middle Eastern/Western religions is that the Divine Consciousness is a fount of imagination – from the imagination can emerge limitless manifestations. We exist as projections of this Divine Consciousness and, from our position of blindness, try to probe the limits of our existence. We ask whether other planets, other civilizations exist in the universe and the answer is ultimately that they do if God wants them to. We know what God wants us to know. There are no limits to the imagination of the Divine – there are only limits to our human imagination, our human perception, our human understanding.

Hollywood is a kind of metaphor for the Divine Consciousness. Films create a convincing reality that often exceeds the limits of what exists in our current mode. The characters in the Bladerunner, some of them androids or replicants try to come to grips with what it means to have memories and thoughts that may not be theirs but someone else’s. The question of how they differ from humans arises. They question the value of their existence if it is only artificial and temporary. The filmmakers do not answer these questions for us. They themselves are caught in the same Ignorance as we human beings are caught. We cannot see truth from within the prison of our existence as representational beings within the imagination of the Divine.

Private blogging

It is difficult to find a good way of keeping a personal journal across different computers; or even to find software that keeps a journal nicely. On Linux I’ve experimented with Redbook, and for years have also been using a plain text filing system that uses a regimented form of the file name to keep track. However I’m thinking now that a better way may be to use WordPress for this purpose, as, irrespective of whether the journal is shared or private, the writing environment is now pleasant, clean and easy to use, and the journal is always available, whether the blog is shared or otherwise.

I was looking also at Vivaldi’s community. They have also started to use WordPress for blogs, which seems sensible rather than diverting valuable time and attention to developing their own blogging platform. I have to admit, I was tempted. But I learned something from my previous experience with Opera (as well as with other platforms). Opera created a really nice networked blogging system that was supposed to be bulletproof, or proof against ever removing it, since it was also the basis of a community around Opera itself. However, eventually they scrapped it. It was very unfortunate. Vivaldi is a nice browser, but, like many small tech companies, it’s all dependent upon one man. If were suddenly to sell out to a larger company, be killed in a car accident, or whatever, the future of Vivaldi would be questionable. So it’s better to stay with a company like Automattic whose future is more secure.

Divinity

I wonder still, about using this term “divine”, because it seems to be tainted with the same problem which I think we need to overcome in order to obtain a more real vision:

– the problem of everyday vision is one of outlook: we think of ourselves as separate subjects, and therefore see a universe of separate objects.
– when we use the term “divine” we are doing something similar. We are seeking or imagining what we define in advance as something bigger, broader, vaster than, or perhaps more important or senior to, ourselves.

Actually definitions are a product of our finite understanding. A definition is something that limits, sets a boundary around (Finite and definition are from the same root.) In Hebrew, the word hagdara (definition) is from the same root as Gader (fence). So, to define something is to put a fence around it. When we use the word “God” or deva (Sanskrit for God, which is related to our word “Divine”), we make God into a finite thing, or concept, whereas we are really trying to indicate something which cannot be defined, and which does not fit tidily into our finite understanding: something infinite. And, according to Hindu philosophy, name (nama) goes with form (rupa). So in Judaism it is forbidden to represent God by either, and when Moses asks God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”, the deity replies to Moses, “I am who I am (or “I will be who I will be”). This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.”. In other words, he said about himself all that a deity could say, without committing the error of self-definition as name and form. If we want to be true to ourselves, we must do the same.

When someone asks us whether we believe in God, they are really asking us whether we believe in a finite concept (the finite concept they know as “God”). The question itself is self-contradictory, because if God exists, it is as something far beyond any definition by which we can bind him. So how are we supposed to answer that question? Saying that we believe in God means that we deny the reality of God as something beyond our beliefs and definitions. Saying that we are atheists means that we do not believe in God as a concept (but perhaps we do still understand that there is a reality that transcends our separative vision). Saying that we are agnostics means that we think that the existence or non-existence of this false definition of “God” is unprovable, which is nonsense.

This is what Rumi (Mevlana Jellaludin Rumi, the Sufi saint) had to say about it: “Out beyond the ideas of faith (iman) and infidelity (kufr) there is a field: I will meet you there.” (the verse is usually poorly translated, but makes perfect sense when the words kufr and iman are translated properly and the meaning is approached in the spirit of the previous paragraph.)

Still I think the glue that binds reality into one undifferentiated whole is best represented as love. Love does not suffer the same flaws as our finite intellectual definitions. It “knows no bounds”, and so, to Rumi, and to so many others in theistic religions, God, or the infinite reality, is often regarded as “the beloved”. But in non-theistic religions also, like Buddhism, a spirit of gratitude and love are just as important.

In terms of gratitude, we are not thankful to someone (the deity) for something. Both are a product of our separative vision. If a butterfly appears before us and gives us joy, then we are, according to a more integrative vision, thankful to all of reality which has chosen in this moment to appear before us in the guise of a butterfly.

Reading The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Not utmostly impressed so far with Arundhati Roi’s new novel. It’s kind of all over the place and I’m not sure who I, the reader, am supposed to be. Political writing, and I suppose any type of writing, from India has to decide who it is written for. In my opinion, the best writing doesn’t try to be over-accommodating. Sonia Faleiro, for example, in “Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars” didn’t make things at all easy for a non-Indian reader. As a result, there was a lot that I didn’t understand. But that was fine – it was even fine with a British newspaper that declared it to be one of the best books of the year. Roi tries, sometimes in a rather convoluted way to try to explain political issues or historical events, in long boring asides. At other times she goes to extraordinary measures not to mention politicians by name, though it’s perfectly obvious enough who she is talking about. I don’t get it. I can’t imagine that she is keeping anyone happy; either an Indian or well-informed non-Indian reader on the one hand, or a foreigner who knows little about India or its issues.

With regard to the content, I haven’t encountered much that is new to me, though I’m admittedly comparatively well read in her subject matter. What I enjoy most about Indian novels is the story telling. Indians seem to have some kind of innate ability to create interesting characters and tell amazing stories about them. And the best writers, among whom I count Rohinton Mistry and Amitav Ghosh, also know how to weave politics and history into their writing expertly and keenly. In the same way as a Charles Dickens brings 19th century London to life, Mistry can make me feel like I know 20th century Bombay from the inside. Anita Desai and Vikram Seth perform a kind of magic in translating a world that is completely foreign and making me feel at home in it. Reading U. R. Ananthamurthy is almost like encountering an anthropological study, but in a completely enjoyable way. Arundhati Roi seems less sure of herself. Perhaps she is trying too hard. I feel like I need to winnow away some of the chaff in order to get at the grain of what she is trying to tell me.

More later, when I’ve finished the novel.

Being a guest

There’s a lot to be said in favor of simply being a guest in a guest house. Here I am in Arka, in Auroville, staying here for the 5th or 6th time I reckon. They know me. I know them. They give me the same room each time. It keeps improving from year to year. Last year they made a door ledge to stop the scorpions getting in. This time they gave me a fridge. When I come, it takes me 20 minutes to unpack and set everything up, as I know where to put all of my few belongings. I know about the quirks of the water system and the wifi; the place in the room where the phone is most likely to get a signal; how to get a wifi signal by placing the antenna above the window mesh. I know what clothing and other items I’ll need to bring.

At a guest house, the client is king. There are not a lot of expectations on either side to deal with. I’m a quiet undemanding guest. I have few needs and could stay here forever. But if anything ever goes wrong with the relationship, it isn’t hard to find a similar guest house and set up there.

This is actually much better than either owning property or being beholden to somebody – an ashram, say. The few rules that exist are easy to abide by, the responsibilities are minimal. I determine my daily schedule. If I feel like getting up at night to do a little writing like now, I may. If I feel like taking a nap in mid-morning, it’s fine. And I’m old and mature enough to strike a balance and not to let too much freedom become a problem. So I’m sold on guest houses in familiar places. This is a perfect arrangement for summer.

Liberty Might Be Better Served by Doing Away with Privacy

Motherboard has an interesting article by Zoltan Istvan, “futurist, transhumanist, author of The Transhumanist Wager, and a Libertarian candidate for California Governor.”

“Privacy, broadly thought of as essential to a democratic society, might disappear.”

“While privacy has long been considered a fundamental right, it has never been an inherent right,” Jeremy Rifkin, an American economic and social theorist, wrote in The Zero Marginal Cost Society. “Indeed, for all of human history, until the modern era, life was lived more or less publicly, as befits most species on Earth.”

“For many, this constant state of being monitored is concerning. But consider that much of our technology can also look right back into the government’s world with our own spying devices and software.”

“But it’s not just government that’s a worry. It’s also important that people can track companies, like Google, Apple, and Facebook that create much of the software that tracks individuals and the public. This is easier said than done, but a vibrant start-up culture and open-source technology is the antidote.”

“If no one can hide, then no one can do anything wrong without someone else knowing. That may allow a better, more efficient society with more liberties than the protection privacy accomplishes.”

“Like the Heisenberg principle, observation, changes reality. So does a lack of walls between you and others. A radical future like this would bring an era of freedom and responsibility back to humanity and the individual. We are approaching an era where the benefits of a society that is far more open and less private will lead to a safer, diverse, more empathetic world. We should be cautious, but not afraid.”

Everything subject to doubt

What we have been taught by parents and teachers is doubtful.
What we are told by neighbours and friends is likely to be mistaken.
Our perception, experience and understanding are not to be trusted.
Common sense is a bit of a joke.
Reason, gut-feelings, mind and heart are all fallible.
Nations are unscrupulous and untrustworthy.
Leaders and politicians all the more so.
Merchants of goods and services are out for our money.
Scientists have a limited and therefore distorted understanding of reality.
Medical professionals test out this distorted understanding of reality on our bodies.
No guru is to be trusted – many are proven charlatans, and about the others, who can say?
Scriptures are not to be trusted; they mostly cause only mischief.
We can rely on nothing, only quietly make our way through life, holding all assumptions up to scrutiny, and not trusting the conclusions we reach.
Language, based on words and verbal associations, is itself inadequate to express anything real; and when left unexpressed, our intimations or reality remain vague and foggy.

We can
Spend a lot of time in silence, just being.
Unravel and reject conditioned responses.
Break down all old connections and imposed patterns.
Reject everything we think we know, see what if anything remains.

There is nothing to be afraid of.
Nothingness itself is not scary, only what we put in it.

Why meditation is important

It’s important because it is basically the only activity (or non-activity) that teaches us how to tolerate being alone with ourselves. For the majority of us not to have anything to do, without some form of engagement or entertainment is torture. We are “driven to distraction” by boredom. Waiting in line, sitting on long flights, being unemployed, or even engaging in some form of activity that is disagreeable, puts us on edge or worse. Like murderous or suicidal. Meditation can gives us the necessary mental training to deal with such situations, and gives us a different understanding of being.
Once when I was on a trans-Atlantic flight I suddenly realised that I don’t need the in-flight entertainment system. This was an opportunity to enjoy just sitting. Time was of no importance, long or short. In the normal situation, we try to shrink time by filling it, either by agreeable activity or entertainment. Having nothing to do makes it stretch, so that every minute seems like an eternity. This is true: every minute is an eternity. We are very rich in time, if we don’t squander it. When we do, our lives are over in a moment. Before we know it, we are old, and then we die. We don’t stop to enjoy the miracle of watching our children as they grow, or even to enjoy the beauty or the fragrance of a flower.

Yesterday, walking out in the woods and fields, I began to fret about all that I hadn’t managed to attain in my work. In general, I feel low self-esteem when it comes to my efficiency, in terms of what I manage to get done. The more I manage to do, the more seems to be left undone. The days that are the busiest make me the most discontented. Whereas when I do nothing at all, I feel perfectly happy. So, on my walk, all the thoughts about how inadequate and inefficient I am were coursing through my mind. I even gave them voice, speaking out loud. Then suddenly I thought – or said -, I don’t need to be doing this. This is all just about doing. And it’s not even about now. It’s about things that did or didn’t get done. I said to myself, I can turn this around. I can enjoy this present moment of walking, and leave all the other stuff behind. So I did. I had a wonderful walk. Before the walk I had felt tired and lacking in energy. Now I felt alive and fresh.

I have a problem (still) with doing. I do not have a problem with being. Being alone with myself, and not having anything to do is wonderful. Something to enjoy. I’m not alone, and not myself. And time is just an artificial construct in which we try to confine and give shape to experience. But to be. truly alive. to experience. is. to be. out of time and mind.

All the news is bad

from today’s stories
– The Trump administration is rolling back Obama era nutritional improvements to school meals, in order to benefit the food industry.
– A former Motherboard editor is being hounded by the Canadian gov’t in order to reveal his sources.
– Israel is trying to prevent tour operators from booking rooms in the West Bank, preventing entry from anybody who has expressed support for the boycott of goods from settlements, and sending thousands of travelers back from the airport for various other reasons.