the void. emptiness. its not what it seems. what is it about a taoist landscape painting that seems so refreshing to so many different kinds of people? the negative space, or whats not filled in. what is it about fresh snow, clean air, pure water? or good music? its about the space between the notes.

like silence after noise, or cool clear water on a hot stuffy afternoon, emptiness clears up the messy mind and charges the spiritual batteries.

many people are afraid of emptiness because they think of it as loneliness. so they fill everything in. they fill their calendars and their homes and their minds and their yards...and then thats when the loneliness sets in. quick, turn on the tv and make it go away. but it doesn't go away. it just gets pushed under the rug for awhile.

the tao te ching tells us in chapter 48, 'to attain knowledge, add things every day. to attain wisdom, remove things every day.'

when you get a great idea, and try to trace it back all the way to where it came from what do you eventually find? nothing. the void. emptiness.

in quantum field theories, the classical contrast between the solid particles and the space surrounding them is no longer valid. the quantum field is just a continuous medium present everywhere. in fact what we call 'matter' is just a disturbance of the perfect state of the field (the void), ripples on an otherwise still pond. einstein tells us, 'we may therefore regard matter as being constituted by the regions of space in which the field is extremely intense. there is no place in this new kind of physics for both field and matter, for the field is the only reality.'

eastern mystics have been saying this for thousands of years. the upanishads, a part of the holy hindu scriptures, tells us this underlying void (field) is not to be taken as mere nothingness, 'Joy, verily, that is the same as the Void. the Void, verily that is the same as Joy.' budhists call the ultimate reality Sunyata or 'emptiness' or 'void' which gives birth to all forms and phenomena.

this idea of an underlying quantum field is also central to the taoist notion of ch'i which literally means 'gas' or 'ether' and denotes the vital breath or energy animating the cosmos. it is tenuous and non-perceptable, present throughout space and can condense into solid objects. in the human body, the pathways of the ch'i are the basis of chinese medicine and the aim of acupuncture is to stimulate this flow. the flow of ch'i is also the basis of t'ai ch'i, the dance of the warrior. the confucist chang tsai says, 'when chi condenses, its visibility becomes apparent, when it disperses, it is no longer apparent. at the time of its condensation can one say otherwise that is but temporary? but then when it disperses can one say then it is non-existent? the great Void cannot but consist of chi.'

empty your mind and be still for a few moments. if you can.

posted by bluematrix at 06/30/08 23:06 | link | comments (2)

reading this really deep book by the author of zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, robert pirsig, called 'lila'. its got me thinking...

there is a battle forever going on within me. it is the battle of the intelligence of my mind and the intelligence of my cells.

sometimes, very rarely, in my darkest moments, the intelligence of my mind can't think of a good reason to live, but i go on anyways because the intelligence of my cells can't think of a good reason to die.

my cellular intelligence has been around for millions of years and it is not about to be put off by these recent intellectual patterns that is my current consciousness. my cells want immortality, they want to be passed on thru the generations to try and live forever. they're so old. they pay no attention to my mind. in their scale of time, my mind intelligence is something that just arrived a few moments ago, and will probably pass away in a few moments more.

these two intelligences co-exist but really don't interact much. the language of the cells has nothing directly to say to my mind nor my mind to my cells...they don't even speak the same language. everything 'i' am really is just software running on this current conglomeration of 'hardware' that is 'my' body. when i sleep, 'i' don't exist anymore than a software program exists inside a computer with the power off.

when mutation was the only means of genetic change, life sat around for 3 billion years, doing almost no changing at all. once they figured out how to break the barriers of mitosis and reproduce sexually, my cells have a been on a mission. sometimes the 'me' in this body can look at this cellular-based sex and find it all so intellectually base or funny or vulgar. but then as if by magic, lose all trace of funny and can experience it as high-octane attraction. my mind, sitting detached, aloof, and seemingly in control is suddenly rudely shoved aside by this other intelligence which is stronger than its own, and 'my' body slips into a kind of sexual cruise control. sometimes our morality filled minds are mystified at the things our bodies do without our permission... our cellular intelligence just laughs.

posted by bluematrix at 06/21/08 17:57 | link | comments (1)

the word inspire comes from the words 'in' and 'spirit'. wayne dyer tells us one way to become inspired is to place your thoughts on what it is you want to become - an artist, musician, trainer, etc. start reading magazines related to your chosen topic. start going to websites devoted to it. begin to picture yourself having the skills to do these things. lose the doubts, and picture yourself confident in your new skills. then begin acting as if you already had these skills. get out in front of yourself and take charge of your destiny at the same time you're cultivating inspiration. the better you can visualize it, the more inspired you will be.
 
dormant within you are forces you are probably completely unaware of, ready to collaborate with you, once you get the courage to act. and acting this way is not deception, it is a silent pact with you and the underlying force of the universe. you pull towards you what you constantly think about.
 
i remember reading when david bowie first started in the music biz, he was the typical poor musician, but he spent his money on expensive clothes and arrived in limosines and just exuded what he wanted to become - a rock star. and people just figured he had become that already by the way he acted and the things he surrounded himself with - and treated him accordingly.

when i first became interested in sailing, i thought i would get started by just looking at sailing magazines. i never noticed all of them in magazine racks before. then a month later on a photoshoot, the photographer told me of a lake not too far from here with a marina with good sized sailboats - i had no idea it was there or that there were big sailboats there. i pretended to be interested in buying one and soon i was out on the lake with one of the owners on his 30' sloop. later that winter a little cash fell into my lap about a year after i started focusing on sailboats, i had a 24' cabin cruiser and spent most of the weekends for the next 6 years sailing. i eventually obtained my American Sailing Association level 3 Charter's license which is a piece of paper that i can show and chartering companies will turn over the keys to sail boats up to 50' long to me. renting large catamarans in the bahamas, the keys and the caribbean, complete with queen size beds, a/c, galleys with microwaves, stereos, and little inflatable dinghys in tow behind came next.

one of the best books on self improvement ever written, 7 habits of highly effective people, has as one of its habits - begin with the end in mind. visualize being where you want to go, keep it fresh in your mind with little reminders, and you'll be surprised on how many little things pertaining to your vision start dropping into your life. the universe will provide for you - but it doesn't know what you want until you tell it.

posted by bluematrix at 06/14/08 07:43 | link | comments (2)

april 19, 1995 was a very bad day for america. until the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil was the bombing of a federal building in oklahoma city. the attack claimed 168 lives (including young children in a daycare center in the building) and left over 800 people injured.

today i visited the memorial site. it was tastefully done with a reflecting pool and 168 metal and glass chairs (19 smaller ones for children), arranged in 9 rows (one for each floor) and set on a field of grass where the building used to be. the chairlike monuments (which light up at night) were like tombstones at a gravesite. along the outer perimeter there is a chain link fence where people continue to attach little memorial pieces in remembrance - anything from a key chain to a photo collage of a victim, to a wreath with a poem inside hung bravely in the strong wind and 96 degree heat today. one was a picture of two teenage girls today and one from when they were very young 13 years ago when they survived the blast but their mother did not.

i did not take the tour in the building next door but did read some horrific stories in some of the books sold in the lobby. one showed a pair of pictures - one of a beautiful 2 year old girl and another a crying fireman holding her charred, lifeless body amidst the smoking rubble. another one told how a women was conducting a meeting with 9 of her staff in a conference room. one minute she's up there talking to them and the next minute they are all gone and she is looking down 8 floors where rubble where the portion of the building they were sitting in - mere feet away - had collapsed.

i pictured myself in our conference room and tried to imagine what that would be like. it was a very discomforting thought. i began to think about places in the world where dealing with violence like this was (is) a part of life. it puts into perspective times when i get upset about have a project turn out poorly or even dealing with the pain of cutting my finger...i have no idea what real violence is like.

there were some strong vibes coming from this place.

posted by bluematrix at 06/06/08 12:20 | link | comments