Reflection 3

So many mirrors in my woodshop...

This bowl of Spalted Maple was made by Bel Sulzer of Louisiana -www.bayouwoodturners.com - really shows the beauty in the figuring and color of the wood.

Out to Southern Lumber the other day for a client's bookcase and, of course, I couldn't stay out of the hardwood section. Had to touch and smell the amazing variety of grain, color and texture up one aisle and down the next.

I spent alot of time with the maples; birdseye, tiger, curly, quilted, spalted and even burls. What an irony; the spalting in maple comes from fungus growth; white rot - the same kind that yields Shitake mushrooms. And burl? Happens when the maples sprout an unusual and knotty growth. These things maybe not healthy or attractive for the tree but look how stunning mold can be when someone sees the whole picture and creates something that is becoming to it; smooth, golden maple and the fungus so-called flaw that lends contrast and depth.

"Hold the mirror up to nature as 'twere". Shakespeare

People are like that. How often do we see the whole picture in folks - what we judge to be GOOD, what we want to call BAD - and then recognize them for the beauty they are, made in Creation's Shop.

MAYBE... maybe things look different from there.

The Essence of The Creator is Quantum

continuing Theosophy...

Our species seems to feel a need to justify our beliefs; hence as we evolved, we took our Myths and Creation Stories, recorded them, and thus made them Holy for ourselves.

The Creation Stories as told in Sacred Texts:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

The Bible - Revised Standard Version

"Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution."

(VII, 6)
"I am the source of everything; from Me the entire creation flows." (X,8)

The Bhagavad-gita

There was something featureless yet complete,
born before heaven and earth;
Silent- amorphous-
it stood alone and unchanging.
We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth.

Tao Te Ching

He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking-manifest, and is unmanifest.
And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest.

The Corpus Hermeticum

The line is obviously drawn. Whether fanciful fabrication or not, Myths of Creation provide the foundation for Religious Philosophy and the many texts held sacred in cultures throughout the world.

We now reckon ourselves to be in our 21st century (Yes? No? Maybe...) and still we discuss, expound, try to quantify and war over our beliefs as if the loudest or the strongest could ultimately prove their own version the everlasting Truth. What is to prove?

Photo by Phin

Reflection 2

A steady paycheck not withstanding, working a corporate job has it's drawbacks. I've adjusted fairly well but on the way home yesterday - imminently frustrated and not long from being told (albeit gently and with not so much disagreement from me) that I'm abrasive and perhaps it's no wonder folks don't necessarily care enter the Maintenance Shop that is my lair - I made a note to myself to print a sign for my toolbox that would read "This is not where I live; this is not who I am". For me, a kindly reminder of the As Above perspective. Read... "The world is wide and this place is really just a gnat's bellybutton - chill darlin'".

Well on the other hand, friends and neighbors have said that to find in me my not-so-state-of-the-art Workshop at home is to find me as close to Zenning & Creation as most have ever seen me; the overly caffeinated, all-but-chainsmoking, cranky hermetic seeker of enlightenment that I am. Again, not much disagreement from me...

So Below... I am not my protruding and painful cervical discs any more that I am my gifted hands that just seem to know how to build furniture and carve beauty. I am not my knee that dislocates at will any more than I am solely my brilliant IQ. I am not my sour kidneys, overworked liver or decreased lung capacity to any greater degree than I am my chrome bicuspid, cast-iron stomach or the heart that some say is o'erly kind. I am all of these things and none of these things yet Mind, Body, Emotion and Spirit are often capable of some transcendence regardless of the totality; all the gifts and shortcomings of the Inconsumate Work-In-Progress Incarnate that walks around here and calls this life.

"This is not where I live; this is not who I am". But for the time being, I am choosing the gnat's bellybutton; in much the same way I happily choose my Workshop as is, as I choose a willful knee rather than have surgery. How is it that I can achieve a modecum of Zen & Creation in my Workshop with it's limitations, with my leg and it's drawbacks, and yet lose most of it at my job and the less-than-ideal it often is?

Better question - How to hold my modecum of Zen & Creation in the face of the paycheck I'm choosing?

Zen and the Art of Telephone Avoidance

I unleash my shadow
and twist
pushing mortal mechanism
through the grinding of
my own gears and
into a 112mph
void

All things are different
here and yet
they are the same
I become a part
of it all – I am...

the fog that reaches deep into asphalt curves and rolls Gaia beneath me
I am the sea in waves of sweet mustard and particles of sand both finite and infinite
in Creation – I am at once a feathered stone snow storm
formless human fire and leaves that weep color in timeless season – I am...

four-legged sense memory stalking ev’ry quantum possibility
each rooted cell by
wheeling cell in
the treads and tar
of now

I become a part
of it all and
the sound of your
voice comes closely
armored from far away

Everything is different and yet it is the same

Don’t thank me for
resignation into good enough
That is your Creation

Photo by Phin

The Essensce of The Creator is Quantum

continuing...

Myth: 1. a story that is usually of
unknown origin and at least partially traditional, that ostensibly relates
historical events usually of such character as to serve to explain some
practice, belief, institution, or natural phenomenon, and that is especially
associated with religious rites and beliefs

Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary
Unabridged 2nd (New York: Simon & Schuster 1983)

In the beginning Earth and Heaven were great
world-giants, and they were parents of numerous offspring.
Celtic

The Great Spirit first made the world, and next the
flying animals, and found all things good and prosperous – He is immortal and
everlasting.
Seneca

Cagn was the first being; he gave orders and caused
all things to appear, and to be made, the sun, the moon, stars, wind, mountains
and animals.

African Bushman

In the beginning there was Apsu, the sky god and Tiamat,
the chaos goddess. From their union came all gods.
Babylonian

The earliest myths and legends were oral traditions passed down by people seeking to understand their world and their place in it. Any sampling of Creation Stories from various cultures will reveal the cosmos, the earth and her family and even other gods, created from chaos, nothingness, mist or vast expanses of water. The Being responsible is diverse; pure thought, two Beings (often polarities; male & female, good & evil), an Element or an Animal. Nonetheless the shared foundation remains - Someone/Something brought to bear.

Is any one story more true than any other?

Maybe...

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "Maybe," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "Maybe," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "Maybe," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "Maybe," said the farmer.

http://www.utah.edu/stc/tai-chi/stories.html

Reflection 1

Could be a somewhat early for this but here's a bit of what I mean.

So Monday I spent the morning glazing and sealing fake rocks for under the fruit trees in my yard. How ironic... fake rocks for landscaping. Okay, well 1) they were free 2) they were going in the landfill if I didn't take them so GOOD; A) I'm not taking rocks from their home to populate my suburban environment. B) I'm keeping them from ending up in our considerably overfilled dumps.

Ah... but they're fake and I'm using prodigious amounts of noxious chemical to protect them from the elements. Thus - BAD; What kind of unknown crapadoodle will be leaching into the soil near my beautiful fruit trees...

Nonetheless, it doesn't escape me that if this the "As Above" so to speak, the "So Below" begs the question "How much time do I spend glazing and sealing parts of my personality that, while genuine, I do not necessarily display in their real proportion?" Read - how much curmudgeon, marshmallow, pessimist, comedian, monk et al do I live accurately and what do I exaggerate for my own protection? And further... is it GOOD or BAD....

MAYBE...

I aspire.

Literally...

"God being Quantum"
The Essence of The Creator is Quantum

I live in a Universe where The Creator speaks with as many voices as there are ears to hear. Acts in as many ways as there are eyes to see, and can validate as many truths as there are souls to witness. The Omnipotent orchestrates and, is at all times, the perfect balance of grandeur and detail, of matter and nothingness, of order and chaos. The ultimate Yin and Yang.

The power of the exquisitly simple "As Above…" is in it’s invitation to observe the world around us as a reflection. To contemplate only the diversity in plants and animals, each with their own unique place in Creation’s scheme, is to know that the paths that lead to relationship with the Divine Spirit are many, varied and all of them true.

To be continued...