Replying to 'How does our theory become practice?'
Dear learners,
'Man is a spiritual being who, in order to be truly spiritual needs a body'
St Thomas Aquinas
'In an age of virtual anything the importance of bodies cannot be over
emphasized'
Kevin Kelly
Around two and a half thousand years ago Euripides noted how every man
shines and strives for excellence in the pursuit wherein his talent lie.
To this end Euripides said we give the chief of all our days.
Understanding this Plato replied along the lines that this same man shuns
and deprecates what he is weak in and will exalt its opposite, in the
belief that he is reflecting credit upon himself.
It is common knowledge in our greatest universities that the Dons and
professors must take once again to 'fresh learning' since the interface of
speculation and fact for application in the world must press the mature
inquisitive mind again against the ground of inquiry somewhat
continuously.
As At de Lange once said it very well IMHO, 'learning is a mode of
continuality in his life.'
The philosopher Hilary Putnam states that such speculative learners as we
might be are now faced with, '-the impossibility of imagining what
credible foundations might look like.'
Well before current 'cognitive scientists' and associated philosophers of
same make a direct 'hit' upon notions of experience inseparable from our
own essential embodiment (aka consciousness) Bohm could have said that, '-
these forms of groundlesness are really one: organism and environment
enfold each other and unfold from one another in the fundamental
circularity that is life itself.' But he did not. He just said lots of
other similar things instead.
Time is the fundament of fundaments, for me.
We are possibly as a mere scribbling child on what a poet once called,
'the doomsday skin of the universe.'
It was Bertrand Russell who said that philosophers have sought, with great
persistence for something NOT subject to the empire of time.
In Entropy PRODUCTION, as my feeble brain comprehends it I see and
continually experience 'time' become manifest. Time as products through
processes of dissipation. Objects in the world are the supreme
manifestation of the primordial forming ground, TIME/SPACE.
'That in and through which I live is that which I am.'
I know, sounds corny- it even came to me in the fields behind the church,
worse corniness?
For me at the moment I find it uplifting and centering to orbit around.
The 'hands' of the 'clock' do not so much 'tell' the time for me these
days.
I will take a big risk tonight. I will speculate publicly about the value
to me as I sense it a 'human being' of At de Lange's vision. But I will
not say for beyond me.
I think we are coming to a truly potentially frightening understanding of
our relation to 'reality' and 'spirituality'- the physical and the
metaphysical experience of the world. The realisation I sense is that the
'so called' real world is soon to become evidentially no more 'real' than
the 'so called' spiritual one.
I think that Maturana is right to tell us clean and good that we spend too
much time as our ancient Greek forebears told it and still tell us it if
we did but re-read them, that we are still defending the hubris of an
illusion built upon another illusion. (Why does a stack of turtles come to
my mind?) That also it is 'the denial of love'- (something purely
physical/metaphysical?)' that requires all our rational effort.' I would
say 'drives' our rational efforts. He (Maturana) asks 'why?' when life is
so much better in love than aggression, however well hidden, cloaked and
masked the aggressive instinct is. Love is the only ground I want to
dedicate my life to and in.
'I was born to love, not to hate.' Sophocles.
I find I feel pain from a distance. Sometimes I am a bit ashamed of this.
Made to feel ashamed? Encouraged?
I have spent great oceans of 'duration' in shame for not knowing enough
words, figures, signs, symbols, and articulations and all 'this and that'
because I did not understand how I am 'allowed' as an 'excellence borne
upon the whole' and that this self same whole is as dependent upon my
becoming/being as I am surely upon it. This is what I understand to be in
meaningful and purposeful co-dependence. I/you are a beautiful fact in
reality at all levels/states.
When I read what Maturana wrote about 'love' I was reminded of my first
approach in some real trepidation to At de Lange, who is by any account a
remarkable man among all the remarkable men and women who constitute the
community of minds here and elsewhere. Not for any reason did I approach
him first as a child.
Maturana points out for me that love needs no cultivation as aggression
does continually. 'Love is not special, it is not a virtue. It is a
fundament.'
'Love opens our intelligence.' Maturana
Do not argue;-)
Be gentle, gently.
Love is easy; 'it needs not be learned.' Maturana
Maybe TIME is the LOVE for/of whatever it is that moves the cosmos and all
that is in it.
Perhaps Entropy Production is the manifestation of that great ocean of
potential energy called love (all forms/contents) as it hits the shore of
human consciousness. The soul of/in the body.
It is how the 'great immaterial' fashions the 'great material' out of
'seeming' nothing.
It is a miracle.
As Prof. Dawkins puts it so beautifully, 'To be alive at all is a
miracle.'
Self-conscious for a moment, envisioning the eyes and minds scanning this,
all those MBA's, B.Sc.'s, BA's, M.Phil.'s and D.Phil.'s I think...¦press
delete. Why bother any of them with your 'little voice?'
Because, 'Every human being, as an autopoietic system, stands alone. Yet
let us not lament that we must exist in a subject-dependent reality. Life
is more interesting like this, because the only transcendence of our
individual loneliness that we can experience arises through the consensual
reality that we create with others, that is, through love.' Maturana,
Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought
Tough-Love, indeed.
And, -'Science presupposes that what is produced by scientific work
(empirics) should be important in the sense of being worth knowing. And it
is obvious that all our problems lie here, for this presupposition cannot
be proven by scientific means.' Max Weber.
Empiric (exploration and demonstration) is essential to the scientist's
way of "laying bare the truth". Some say that this "laying bare the truth"
is or should be the overall or 'one and only mission of the scientist'.
But are we not entering the dimension of belief when we make such a claim?
Is it not more important to know WHY the scientist has to "lay bare the
truth" rather than actually "laying bare the truth"? Is it not more
important to know what else the scientist has to do than "laying bare the
truth"? Do we humans not first need a skirt of fig leaves to cover our
spiritual nakedness?
I reckon a hidden (maybe 'subliminal' is the right word?) issue for some
protagonists in this debate is around 'letting go'. Letting go of an
apparent 'fixation' on a word like 'entropy' and moving toward 'entropy
production', which at least improves the scope for some new movement;-)
'All the emotions that entail the negation of the other, such as ambition,
competitiveness, envy, or aggression, reduce intelligence.' Maturana
I understand notions of patience, wanting answers. I am sure we all have
the inner tensions of wanting/needing to know. Learning to love the
questions (as they flow) is the better learning experience, for a while.
(Rilke)
I have been waiting upon one particular desired outcome for about twenty
seven years now, I wrote At about this and I got a quite satisfactory
answer, 'there is an intrinsical connection between the time for every
creative process and it's occurrence in the world' Minimum and maximum.
So, the longer I wait the better that one gets, sounds good to me. (I
realise this prompts thoughts of 'mortality being around the corner' for
the skeptics, robbing me of my future 'just desserts', so I will choose to
end my contribution with a story about that aspect of corporeal existence
if I may?)
1/ So far as I have understood one important aspect of 'entropy
production' it involves us in trying to hold the idea among others of
'fields' and 'force'. The point of an LO is among other things, 'one in
which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually
(seeking to) increasing their capacity to produce results they really
care about.' (Hope that is about right Rick?)
2/ Love is Visionary, Maturana.
3/ Love is the 'key' one to many mapping of At de Lange's vision as I
'experience' it
(Hope that is ok At?) And with this little triumvirate, out of literally
thousands and thousands of sheets of paper in my small study this evening
what pops out of the pile, so to speak? Synchronicity one to one? This
from Margaret Wheatley, ' I have come to understand organizational vision
as a field -a force of unseen connections that influence behaviour, rather
than as an evocative message about some future desired state.'
We are beginning to see how communities think. Conscious 'con-scire'
knowing together. Consciousness is social.
Doc Holloway once wrote on this list, ' -we are all engaged in bringing
forth a new world view with the evolution of thought concerning
organisations, societies, principles, ethics and learning.' This sounds
highly creative to me. It is a reason for being here, now. It seems very
aligned to what I find continually in At's postings to this list.
This instant;-)
There is or can be with the correct wisdom great compassion in
'withholding'
I think At' has seen, experienced, some new connections that for those yet
to undergo the particular metanoia are still blind to. There is deep and
significant pattern in this I feel.
Just a few days ago, as a 'learningful person' I accomplished a lasting
lesson with His Holiness the Dalai Lama; the lesson was called
-Transforming the Mind- and I was guided to this by my friend and his-
'S.R.' who was herself once guided to His Holiness in the mountains;-)
very unseeningly, smilingly.
"Whenever I associate with others I will learn
To think of myself as the lowest among all
And respectfully hold others to be supreme
>From the very depths of my heart."
"When others out of jealousy treat me badly
With abuse slander, and so on,
I will learn to take all loss
And offer the victory to them."
"When one whom I have benefited with great hope
Unreasonably hurts me very badly,
I will learn to view that person
As an excellent spiritual guide."
"- And by understanding all phenomena as like illusions
Be released from the bondage of attachment."
This is tough love.
Try it!
Now I wish to say just two more things.
I think that there is an element of 'conversation' about this thread. I
have said that because Maturana offers this bit of wisdom and I think we
would do well to listen to it in some peace and quiet.
'The systematic systemic denial of love through conversations that through
rational arguments that use notions of efficiency, economy, progress,
purity, obedience to god, or perfection pretend to justify such a negation
and is a carefully cultivated feature of our patriarchal culture. But the
denial of love, is the source of all human suffering as an addiction to
righteousness and pain.'
Tough love?
Fragment...¦' Oh, how I wish I could turn the clock back to that day. We
were in Warsaw and they just stormed into the house, terrifying us. Our
parents were not there. I was nine and he was five. We were given just two
minutes to collect everything for the journey. As Michael ran down the
stairs I looked up and saw he had no shoes on. I shouted and screamed and
swore at him, 'Idiot -You do not even have your shoes on.' He went
scrambling back into the house for them, a soldier picked me up and put me
on the back of a lorry, it just drives off. I never saw Michael again. I
went to Auschwitz...¦I never knew where he went. And all the rest of my
life all I could think of were those last intemperate words that I left
him with.'
Some things are unutterable.
Love in loss among the many things.
Learning, to let go.
'Nous elevons a bout de bras, sur le plat de nos mains, comme couvee
d'ailes naissantes, ce couer entenebre de l'homme ou fut l'avide, et fut
l'ardent, et tant d'amour irrevele...¦'
'With outstretched arms, on the palms of hands like a brood of growing
wings, we raise this darkened heart of man, avid, ardent, filled with such
unrevealed love...¦'
Saint-John Perse
Best wishes in the spirit of learning and love
Andrew Campbell
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