Which Way

Zeno

Who will you follow and where will you go. Up or down, which way. Forwards or backwards in an infinite universe, where the very concept of direction has no meaning.

Will you listen, perchance, to a holy man or prophet. Does philosopher or mage have the answers you seek, a fool even.

Or an inner voice perhaps, as you wander the water marshes. The cry of gulls, the shriek of the buzzards, the paddling ducks. Overhead the dull grey of winter skies soothes and complements, a light, pattering rain adding its quiet voice to those of all else around you.

Are you tired of life maybe, or just its struggles and inanities. Do you weary of the earth and skies or is it the tedium of your species which wears you down.

Everywhere there is noise and yet a signal seems nowhere to be found. Unless from within. Yes, there perhaps lie the answers you seek, in the emptiness and clarity of your own mind. It is all so simple and yet what artifice we have created.

Leave the guile of man, renounce his web of clever tricks, his mechanized toys and manifold distractions. No man has the answer to all and yet we must seek. Does any man have the key, the code the wand which will unlock even a small part of the mystery. Perhaps such a man exists but he will be deeply hidden.

Conceivably he may be found somewhere, this mage who has unearthed the story of life. But if you seek him you must know where to look. He is in the world but not of it. If he gives expression to his secrets, his voice will be small and he will not ask for payment.

Perhaps his voice is to be found in music or art. He may be singing a line of mournful plainsong or plucking a stringed instrument while others sing the lyrics and notes of John Dowland. Come again, he says, sweet love doth now invite.

He may be found perhaps in ancient stained glass or the more modern beauty of the pre-Raphaelites.

Or are you he, and hiding in plain sight. Yes, yes I think that must be right. The small glimmer within which knows right from wrong, good from bad. Go inwards, be silent in the tumult. Shut off the turbulence and ferment and seek meaning within.

Somehow on better days the answers emerge. A great clarity and calm settles upon the mind and gnosis seems so very close.

Break with silence, re-unite yourself with tempestuous humanity and such lucidity will shimmer and fade. The gossamer thread of true meaning is not to be found amongst the big people.

And did the countenance divine shine forth in those quiet and watery pastures by the sea. If so, the trick is to remain there, in metaphor at least.

Which way. Within.

12 Comments

      1. Many things are found when one is “lost”, often times we find the things we did not know were missing. This may be more productive than “knowing the way”. Nothing is found when one is not “looking”.

        ~FF

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  2. This posting is a clear indication of the power of utilizing both reason and introspection in order to discover the fullness of our capacities as humans. Your willingness to engage these extraordinary thoughts and ideas gives your writing a much broader appeal, in my view, and when you allow your open-minded approach to blend with your occasionally more skeptical side, the contrast is thought-provoking and engaging.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the link to the music of John Dowland and it’s obvious why there is such an appeal for this music for someone as engaged as you are in the exploration of music and art.

    Reading here has become an enrichment that I very much look forward to, and even though I do not always feel able to offer any useful comment, please know that I am increasingly interested in your efforts, and appreciate and admire what is clearly a degree of progress you are achieving in your machinations.

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    1. Kind words John and thank you. Like all of us, I have my ups and downs but moments such as I describe are increasingly valuable to me. Perhaps the ultimate answer is that we just “are” and need to adjust to accept that. And indeed be grateful and enjoy it.
      A

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  3. “Who will you follow and where will you go?” Ahh, that is the question. It reminds me of Jesus asking His apostles in John 6, “’You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'”
    The madrigal by Collegium Vocale IS phenomenal. I am kind of disappointed the “cover” had to show a woman trying to look avant-garde with a cig hanging out. Otherwise, she could be quite lovely.
    Oh, and btw, as an avocational philologist, I must object to questions without question marks!! 😱 How dare you. 😂😂

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    1. Yes, isn’t that a magnificent recording. She is till beautiful, the soprano, even with the cigarette. I have sung that piece (the bass part at lest) and that recording was an inspiration when I was learning it. The music is actually surprisingly simple but the effect magnificent. As to question and exclamation marks, they just seem to disturb my flow somehow. Each to his own I suppose. Good of you to comment and thank you for reading the nonsense I wrote.

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  6. I obey the soul
    she tells me
    what is meaning
    what their purpose is to me

    I can of reality
    just be a fool

    the inner voice
    rises like the fog

    Long
    while
    to have
    is a great art

    the spirit means itself
    in everything its dew drops
    its healing properties

    the simple
    is the hardest part
    at all

    The life
    the soul cannot be fooled
    it gives the necessary insight
    of them for yourself
    deliberately edited

    the magicians
    those who are about
    all being
    the repulsive
    in yourself
    the other
    claim with their doctrine

    the incarnation
    is still going on
    the magic lies in it
    that nobody knows
    what life is really for
    and why

    we are all
    bad or good
    of indivisible dignity
    and have to master ourselves

    sweet love promises a lot
    and it doesn’t hold up

    the stained glass in the cathedral
    it doesn’t matter
    who among the colors
    from daylight
    kneels in front of them and prays

    I’m not fermenting my senses
    I’m going through my own storms
    alone
    without another

    mine is as an event
    encountered no god in my experience

    i’m a little insignificant person
    the silence waits for me at the gate of my end
    I never found the truth
    so I won’t look any further for that

    the unconscious has
    has many faces
    even those I have never seen in the real world
    their context of meaning
    is not always very clear to me

    I am working on it

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