Since first coming across Bernardo's writings in 2013, I've felt that a wonderful accompaniment to his philosophy would be various contemplative art forms that inspire a calming, a peaceful awareness which allows the conceptual boundaries which seem to separate us to be seen as mere overlays, not constituting an independent non-mental reality.
To that end, Jan (my wife) and I have been creating blog posts and videos to inspire that larger awareness - which we refer to as "open heartful awareness."
This video and music accompanying Wendell Berry's inspiring poem, "The Peace of Wild Things," is meant to help evoke that sense of deep calm, peace, spaciousness and delight.
Watch without analyzing, without trying to "figure" anything out. Watch also without '"trying" to induce any changes in awareness or in experience at all.
And most of all - enjoy!
The Peace of Wild Things
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Soul_of_Shu
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Re: The Peace of Wild Things
Welcome back Don ... good to know that you're still with us in corporeal form. Thanks for the lovely contribution, poetically evocative of the walks I take most early mornings through the lakeside woodlands, meadowlands and marshlands not far from where we reside.
Hope to hear more of the same.
Dana
Hope to hear more of the same.
Dana
Here out of instinct or grace we seek
soulmates in these galleries of hieroglyph and glass,
where mutual longings and sufferings of love
are laid bare in transfigured exhibition of our hearts,
we who crave deep secrets and mysteries,
as elusive as the avatars of our dreams.
soulmates in these galleries of hieroglyph and glass,
where mutual longings and sufferings of love
are laid bare in transfigured exhibition of our hearts,
we who crave deep secrets and mysteries,
as elusive as the avatars of our dreams.
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Ben Iscatus
- Posts: 490
- Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2021 6:15 pm
Re: The Peace of Wild Things
Lovely as this is, I'm unclear why it is particularly relevant to BK's work. Analytic Idealism is naturalistic and therefore accepts that nature is as likely to be red in tooth and claw as calming and peaceful.
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Soul_of_Shu
- Posts: 2023
- Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:48 pm
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Re: The Peace of Wild Things
True enough ... as usual, what is focused on determines what is missed. There is indeed more than enough gut-sickening bloodshed going on in the shadowy depths of those woodlands, meadowlands and marshlands that it's hard to figure how one misses it. Mind you, there's something exquisitely transfixing about watching a heron morph from a picture of perfect stillness into a lightening-quick blur to snatch a fish, flashing silver so as to be almost indistinguishable from the sparkling splash, then masterfully transferring it from beak to throat like the shake of a lamb's tail, wherein it undulates downward, snakewise, back into the Dreamtime from which all such nature, beatific or not, is begot.Ben Iscatus wrote: ↑Sat Aug 14, 2021 11:59 am Lovely as this is, I'm unclear why it is particularly relevant to BK's work. Analytic Idealism is naturalistic and therefore accepts that nature is as likely to be red in tooth and claw as calming and peaceful.
Here out of instinct or grace we seek
soulmates in these galleries of hieroglyph and glass,
where mutual longings and sufferings of love
are laid bare in transfigured exhibition of our hearts,
we who crave deep secrets and mysteries,
as elusive as the avatars of our dreams.
soulmates in these galleries of hieroglyph and glass,
where mutual longings and sufferings of love
are laid bare in transfigured exhibition of our hearts,
we who crave deep secrets and mysteries,
as elusive as the avatars of our dreams.
Re: The Peace of Wild Things
Good questions. of course, Berry is not being literal but symbolic.
Here's a "non-thought" experiment:
Notice thoughts arising on their own.
Notice that the contextual awareness which englobes the thoughts has no boundaries.
Notice emotions arising.
Notice that the thoughts and emotions have very positive and very negative qualities.
Notice that the contextual, all-surrounding, all-encompassing awareness does not have positive or negative qualities, and yet to the extent thoughts and emotions and physical tensions have quieted down, the awareness appears to be accompanied by a deep, vast sense of peace.
That is what Berry is talking about.
Notice as the peace begins to pervade all regions of experience, it is accompanied by a subtle sense of bliss.
Notice in that all encompassing light of awareness, peace and bliss, the sense of thoughts, emotions and sensations no longer appear separate from the awareness.
Notice that all forms - sky, moon, sun, stars, trees, rocks, water, earth - are seen to be made of awareness. And YOU are the Source of that Awareness.
In the Madhyamaka view, no single factor - mind, pure awareness, matter, etc - can account for all of this. Rather than looking for a philosophic view that can take all of this into account, the Madhyamakans simply deconstruct all views until there is only awareness/peace/bliss.
Here's a "non-thought" experiment:
Notice thoughts arising on their own.
Notice that the contextual awareness which englobes the thoughts has no boundaries.
Notice emotions arising.
Notice that the thoughts and emotions have very positive and very negative qualities.
Notice that the contextual, all-surrounding, all-encompassing awareness does not have positive or negative qualities, and yet to the extent thoughts and emotions and physical tensions have quieted down, the awareness appears to be accompanied by a deep, vast sense of peace.
That is what Berry is talking about.
Notice as the peace begins to pervade all regions of experience, it is accompanied by a subtle sense of bliss.
Notice in that all encompassing light of awareness, peace and bliss, the sense of thoughts, emotions and sensations no longer appear separate from the awareness.
Notice that all forms - sky, moon, sun, stars, trees, rocks, water, earth - are seen to be made of awareness. And YOU are the Source of that Awareness.
In the Madhyamaka view, no single factor - mind, pure awareness, matter, etc - can account for all of this. Rather than looking for a philosophic view that can take all of this into account, the Madhyamakans simply deconstruct all views until there is only awareness/peace/bliss.