I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating and conspicuous; in one place along slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface as broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many tinted as an opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely wooded and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame i the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances, and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring. I stood as one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me and I had never seen anything like this.
Goethe
The worst is, that all the thinking in the world does not bring us to thought; we must be right by Nature, so that good thoughts may come before us like free children of God, and cry, “Here we are.”
A far more difficult task arises when a person’s thirst for knowledge kindles in him a desire to view nature’s objects in their own right and in relation to one another . . .he loses the yardstick which came to him and when he looked at things from the human standpoint.
In the human spirit, as in the universe, nothing is higher or lower; everything has equal right to a common center which manifests its hidden existence precisely through this harmonic relationship between every part and itself.
Whatever appears in the world must divide if it is to appear at all. What has divided seeks itself again, can return to itself and reunite. . .in the reunion of the intensified halves it will produce a third thing, something new, higher, unexpected.
But these attempts at division also produce many adverse effects when carried to an extreme. To be sure, what is alive can be dissected into its component parts, but from these parts it will be impossible to restore it and bring it to life again.
The things we call the parts in every living being are so inseparable from the whole that they may be understood only in and with the whole. Life as a whole expresses itself as a force that is not to be contained within any one part.
No living thing is unitary in nature; every such thing is a plurality. Even the organism which appears to us as an individual exists as a collection of independent living entities.
When in the exercise of his powers of observation man undertakes to confront the world of nature, he will first experience a tremendous compulsion to bring what he finds there under his control. Before long, however, these objects will thrust themselves upon him with such force that he, in turn, must feel the obligation to acknowledge their power and pay homage to their effects.
As soon as we observe a thing with reference to itself and in relation to other things, forswearing personal desire or aversion, we shall be able to regard it with calm attention and form a quite clear concept of its parts and relationships. The further we continue these observations, the more we are able to provide links between isolated things, and the more we are able to exert our powers of observation.
Equilibrium - Stephen Harrod Buhner
All living organisms - all self-organized systems - are like this: They all retain an exquisite sensitivity to perturbations of the equilibrium that occurred when they self-organized. They remember that moment of equilibrium; they are attuned to it. The threshold itself is a living identity to them. They very closely monitor their internal and external world through extremely tight couplings, at billions upon billions of points of contact, in order to process the energy, matter, and information that is coming to them. These couplings occur in space through their nonlinear, fractal geometries and in time through their nonlinear fractal processes.
Self-organized systems are living identities, that engage in continual communication, both internal and external. They are not isolated, static units that can be understood in isolation. To examine them in isolation kills the living entity itself, and paying attention to the thing and not its communications - its balance-initiated information exchange - reveals very little about the true nature of what is being studies.
A poem by Novalis
When geometric diagrams and digits
Are no longer the keys to living things,
When people who go about singing or kissing
Know keeper things than the great scholars,
When society is returned once more
To unimprisoned life, and to the universe,
And when light and darkness mate
Once more and make something entirely transparent,
And people see in poems and fairy tales
The true history of the world,
Then our entire twisted nature will turn
And run when a single secret word is spoken.
I just love this poem....
The darkness of night is coming along fast, and
the shadows of love close in the body and the mind.
Open the window to the west, and disappear into the
air inside you.
Near your breastbone there is an open flower,
Drink the honey that is all around that flower.
Waves are coming in;
there is so much magnificence near the ocean!
Listen: Sound of big seashells! Sound of bells!
Kabir says: Friend, listen, this is what I have to say:
The Guest I love is inside me!
-- Kabir