Looking at You Only

The Eyes Have It

I am attempting to portray the way a baby's eyes looks out at the world and at his parents. Its an experience many are familiar with … but few understand. In the legends … it may have been the source of naming … the owl … as the bird of Athena. Adults may recall such a sensation on the occasions … when they used to be sure about most things and acted with impeccable attitude in situations.

 

Don Juan .. the mentor to Carlos Castaneda … referred to the same theme of impeccability in the personality of an individual … and that … was also named as the healthy normal state of the mind in a man. He even went so far as to suggest that … its an indication … of the mind's awareness of its natural perfection … and the man's bold stand in the acceptance of it. It is the … ' be still ' … of the Bible … ' and ye shall know God.'

 

In Eastern studies of the Tao … it is the attainment of the perfect accord of mind with body … and the mind is no longer ordering the body around. In Indic studies … its the mind of the sage … who has seen into the nature of reality. Its a statement of the poignant nature of life … in which a man is put through a process of metamorphosis in his personality … fully conscious of all the stages of the experience that he went through.

 

The reported sensations accompanying the experience are plenty … ranging from laughter and relief .. piety … to a calm acceptance of the workings of nature … at perfecting its created being. It carries a touch of being lost … even while the individual is fully alert to everything that takes place around him. Its a cultivation of a whole view … rather than viewing our life's experiences in its many parts … isolated and separate from each other.

 

For those who always viewed the world … with a reasoned basis … to their will … in the tradition of intellectualism … this may come as a pleasant surprise. It rehabilitates our view of the mind as a fixed will … or unquestioning nature. In its place … it introduces an element of the passions … in association with the mind … what scientists are calling … as EQ … or the emotional quotient. In relation to IQ … we notice that IQ … relates to symbols and signs … and their qualities. EQ is certainly a  a development of symbols … into manifested realities in life.

 

Its like the experience of language … when we began with hieroglyphics … then to words … and to the meaning … and thereafter to apply it with some volition of the individual to his experiences of life. Its therefore an advancement of viewing life in a … semi-theoretical basis … but thereafter … freeing our passions to live in it … with a full embrace. This is seen … in the demonstrative effects created by the followers of Hare Rama Hare Krishna … who suggest a singing and dancing in the streets. Or the way the Jews … Greeks … and others … dance to a celebration of life.

 

It encounters the inquiry as to whether … a bouquet of flowers arranged in a vase … presents a different view of flowers … compared to a garden of flowers. Or whether fruits on trees are different in perspective … as compared to fruits in a bowl … or a painting of fruits in ' still life.' To those who will say that … a flower garden … portrays the beauty of nature … but in a vase … it shows the hand of man … seem to miss the point that … our lives are about man.

 

And as man … we come to better appreciate the quality of nature as alive … and in the demonstrative personality of a woman. And in some way … when we come to be still … our mind sees HER … as the primordial creative energy of the universe … that she has chosen to subscribe to in her role as woman. In affirming that … the mind is free from its search … for its own origins … and finds the effects of HER … in the home with the wife.

 

The experience of grace comes to all of us. We have in the past … brought our strength and will … to the cause of grace … in the actions we undertook in the world. However where it was addressed to the … perceived guide of a God … it taught us that … we ought to offer the left cheek … when someone slaps us on the right. This has certainly become the bone of disagreement today … with regards to rational action and attitude. And it appears that its rightfully so.

 

Our responses today … to being hit … is to hit right back. My insights on the issue … inform me that … that response is from a point … beyond the panels of faith. When we respond that way … we are become something we were not before. Its a new experience. And that is the duty we bring ourselves to carry … and to inquire into its basis … rational … and its relation to our continuity of life. The Indic mystic Gandhi … demonstrated the power of offering the left cheek … when faced with overwhelming odds … and in the process … reminded the colonial powers … that they were amiss … on the fundamental principles of human equality.

 

In the quest for individual liberty and self understanding … a man faces something similar … in respect of challenges that are awesome and overwhelming. In the West … they used the term … Olympian … to describe such efforts that are required. And as we move into the 21^st Century … in the expanding landscape of mind … and knowledge … we wonder about these basic principles … in the exercise of life and limb.  That's done to review our approaches to self determination of our affairs. It is a long road ahead.

 

In Indic practices … a person who has undertaken his actions entirely in accord with dharma … but who continues to be provoked with aggravation is told … ' Go ask the creator.' And when the individual asks in consternation … ' How will I find him?' The response comes as … ' What you perceive him to be.' That puts in a nutshell … man's place in relation to his creator … and pits all our intellectualism … in relation to what it takes … to put out the creation process. It ought to make us curious about where we have come to in these times.

Reviews

[Sir Harold Chesterhill ..]

Super! Bravo, dear writer! My reading of your disquisition was gave me such a stir in my arbor vitae, what? I seem to recall a time whilst I was strolling through my estate in a particular state of aridity in my trinkets, that I decided to make advances on the largest of my maidservants Helga, whom I had acquired on a recent expedition to the northern lands to oversee a trade convoy. However, Helga had become particularly fierce when exposed to a robust British gentleman and expressed herself by shoving my withered form under a pillow and jumping up and down, shouting and breathing fire and such. The events concluded with a papping of the sack and a climax so meager, even the French would be ashamed! Bully!

Sir Harold Chesterhill of Hereford
(Dicated but not read)

[Magistrate Templeton]

My dear friend Sire Chesterhill!

So you are at it again, with Helga and what? I distinctly remember the last time you attempted to negotiate a member lengthening session with her-mightiness. It was such a disappointment that you came crawling, as much as a British gentleman can crawl, to my Estate to lick your wounds and avail yourself upon my staff. Never has the Templeton estate staff suffered so much as when you came to it in such a decapitated stated, with member trailing no less than 6 feet behind your entourage. Of course, after I had my best man Edgar fetch the esteemed physicians at the College of Medicine and Galloping-whatevers, you seem to have perked right up, and I mean that in a physical and mental sense, bully!

Keep your mustache clean!

Magistrate Templeton
Edited by Abbot Ridell of Doncaster Church of England

[Dayran]

Gentlemen Gentlemen

Never had a day in the tropics cool to such pleasant weather ... when I read both your comments in the review. Hjckrrh! Raise the vitae indeed! Poor Helga ... I dare say this one was a bit more than the long boat she must have been used to.

Sir Harold ... a rare pleasure indeed to have you pause and cool the vitae. Comes from too long a time of showing the world what civilization is about.

Magistrate Templeton ... Your honor has never failed to heal in ways even the medical profession talks about. A sense of humor is certainly the best medicine.

God is certainly on the throne ... and all's well in the world. Hjckrrh!