[f]or how couldst thou be patient about something that thou cannot comprehend within the compass of (thy) experience?
---Q:18:68
The verses of the Qur'an are not merely sentences which transmit thoughts, but are in way beings, powers or talismans. The soul of a Muslim is as it were woven of sacred formulas; in these he works, in these he rests, in these he lives and in these he dies.
--Frithjof Schuon.
This is true, whether we know it or not. Sometimes I ask myself, what may I know (a rather un-interesting question) and at other times: what ought I to know? Sometimes the latter bites, presses on us with considerable urgency, an immediacy that suggests we're missing out on something crucial, but for most of the time it remains submerged -we do not fathom our own depths-or when recognized we carry on living, papering over the cracks, convincing ourselves we are clever (universities specialise in this..instead of opening us up to wonder they 'produce' hollow men, mastering only a dry-as-dust 'analysis'). For the scientist a miracle is not just inexplicable; more to the point, to talk of it is meaningless..non-sense, strictly speaking.
How to live? Is it possible that a man is capable of uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason? How to live with loss, with being lost? Our oldest games: lost and found.
Los: how to go beyond what one knows, to live with an irreducible strangeness?
Not till we are completely lost, or turned around,-for a man needs only to be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost,-do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of nature. Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.
---Thoreau.
Let us love this distance, for those who do not love eachother are not separated.
--Simone Weil.
America was the great wilderness, not because there weren't other people there, but because this was where people came across the vast blue sea to lose themselves. We're all American now.
Shul. A mark that remains after that which made it has passed by-a footprint, for example. in other contexts a shul is used to describe the sacred hollow in the ground where a house once stood, the channel worn through rock where a river runs in flood, the indentation in the grass where an animal slept last night...the impression of something that used to be there.
Emptiness is the track on which the centered person moves.
(thanks to cyclewala for pointing me here)
14 comments:
are you by any chance reading rebecca solnit. because i am too.
i'm very into the bit about the wintu language
Yes, that's right! The quotes are from the same book you're reading. The Wintu bit is fascinating, isn't it?
keep well,
b.
another thought. i'm curious about your initial quote and its origin as the arabs didn't have compasses till relatively late on so i'm swithering as to whether that dish thing, and the word in the quote, might actually be an astrolabe
i'll get round to checking at some point but my resident arabic and koran resource has been hajj bound recently so it'll be a while before i can pin him for yet more questions!
cheers
s
Swiss, 'within the compass' is not a direction but a boundary. I liked this word compass because it was ambiguous -and the origin is always such-and pointed a way forward...
So, compass resonates with getting lost, but also with what is beyond the bounds (circles) of reason. Like the point of a compass that is both within the circle but also the origin of it, and therefore transcendent.
Khizr.
fish.
forgot to say..the first page of solnit.
is it? maybe i have a different version.
doubtless this works for the translator but a i'm a bit of a fan of astrolabe, compasses etc my curiousity was pricked (windrose is my one of my favourite substitutes)
had a check though and al-konbas, apparently wasn't first seen in use until 1282ish (in the wonderfully named the book of the merchant's treasure) so i'm still curious about the derivation.
discovery of the day however (when i say i'm a fan i'm of the lazy armchair variety)was that it sems that contrary to my supposition that the compass originated with the chinese it seems that the olmecs may have used needle and bowl type device as long ago as 1000bc
thanks a gain for setting me off down some other byways!
You talked of late capitalism, a blog being a sign of that. i don't even know what that means!
people are being reduced these days to identifying with buzz words, invented by busy, industrious philosophers. in reality, in a class room they might seem ok, outside, nothing, empty, puerile, like ozymandias' statue, broken, desolate.
i consider an "act" as something that relieves from a nameless pain. if it gives us poetry or philosophy, only then is it true.
I liked your new post.
Ha! I think you're very right when it comes to buzz words and jargon, Kubla.
late capitalism is a term that is uded quite frequently. One might say liquid modernity instead (see Bauman's book by this title).
so, late cpaitalism is in one sense a move away from the emphasis on production and saving, to consumption and display (whence the importance of signs, brands).
You might want to look at Debord's society of the Spectacle (online) or Daniel Bell's fascinating 'The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism). The 'second stage' (i.e late capitalism) is in accord with what I think Tawney would call 'the divine frenzy'.
'Outside' the same may be said for anything! But yes, your point is well taken: even poetry and literature are now analysed to the nth degree. Something of an 'industry' ..which is really my point! Even culture becomes a commodity in late capitalism.
Swiss, no, first page. Elijah.
Strange that this post should be about patience in the face of what we don't know and that all of us should completely miss that point! The sweet irony..
"So beautifully articulated that I realized this too was in my heart."
Ghalib.
Hello,
Astarte.
there are a lot of things - thoughts in there....all so important. which is why they make me silent. and thank you for putting this together in this form.
Astarte, I do wish you would write more about/by Ghalib.
Hope all is well.
Are things back to normal now?
Hi,
b.
Antonia,as always, thank you for your kind words. I didn't realize what there was in there. Only when Swiss mentioned Solnit did I realize that the picture actually made sense. And only when Swiss talked about 'compass' did I notice the word was ambiguous! Maybe Swiss should have written this post!
Salaams,
b.
i think this is the gift really, one is jotting some stuff down and someone else sees other pearls. that enrichens the whole thing....
Yes, how difficult it is to think of gifts nowadays!..instead: the calculating hand.
You don’t know how hard it’s been,
to find you a gift.
Nothing fits.
Why bring gold to the seam, water to the sea?
Every idea of mine seemed like hauling spice to the East.
No good to give you my heart, soul,
you own both already.
So I got you a mirror.
Look at you.
Think of me.
---Rumi,
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