OPM 200, September 2nd Meditation (2004 & 2014)

 The legend continues…and, in turn, I will continue to present lengthy excerpts, with or without commentary, as this material represents the most innovative writing from the experiment that was never published.  So it receives it publicity in the pages of this blog!

“Don Quixote regarded the range that was now beginning to rise like a wave about to crash upon the forgiving shore.  He knew there were innumerable paths through the forest, some that would easily cross the rive that ran beneath the range.  He had always regarded the forest as a maze that lead to an even greater obstacle, that primeval moat that had swallowed so many a weary traveller who had neither the experience, nor the wisdom to camp along its banks before crossing at the first light of day.  Many, exhausted and exasperated by the maze of trees and brush, or determined, would hastily attempt to cross the river at night, the time when most found their way to the water’s edge.  It was a plunge into the abyss, not a crossing, for most. 

There were amongst those who attempted the night crossing a small group who knew the slow, steady pace one must take, the moments to swim, and the moments to let-go with the current.  For those with experience, the waters were a pleasure.  Fore those of little of nor experience, who lept with no guidance, or beckoning, the outcome was predictable.  Man and reluctant beast, if the fool were lucky enough to be mounted, lacking the strength to think and act were taken by the river, never to be seen nor heard again.  Some, who were fortunate, managed to be thrown back upon the shore.  These survivors were the ones who spread the stories of a deep, foreboding toll that rang within the waters.”

[I’m interrupting the narrative to make a few observations.  First, the preceding paragraph can certainly be read on its own, but the philosophical background is totally missed if one has not read the material from the meditations that focused on Heraclitus and Lao Tzu, not to mention Heidegger.  The preceding expresses a hybrid of their combined thinking, a synthesis that is organized around Heidegger’s Eckhart inspired gelassenheit.  The crossing of the river has its own historical indexical references, but is also deeply symbolic and indicating the struggle of humanity against the Nature’s law, and the force of becoming.  The river’s current represents that force, and this sets up an interesting tension:  how do we ‘cross’ change?  This is not necessarily the same as navigating, although one does the latter when attempting the former.    Finally, the ‘deep, foreboding toll that rang within the waters,’ has its own context: the sound created by the vibration of the centerboard on the Hunter (my 14ft sloop aka The Dancing Bear) when its running with the wind.   I first heard this when sailing in the northwest harbor, that has a maximum depth of about 36ft.   The swells of the late afternoon tide flood combined with the easterly winds that blow with the tide flow created some white caps.  The combined forces of tide and wind moved the sloop along at a steady pace, and, in turn, created the unique bass sound from underneath the boat.]

“The descriptions of the river’s toll were varied, but fell within the tonality of a bass-baritone.  Some said it was like the growl of a bear, and were convinced it was the grumbling of the ravenous river’s empty belly.  But there were others who spoke of the calm and peace they received upon hearing the toll, as it if were a signal of their salvation.  They were the one who had taken an oath to the river they called Gracia.  These were the lot who chanted evocative melodies in the forest, the ones who roamed the trees and brush as stewards of the forest, guides and sometime protectors of those who were lost.  Their chanting were songs of welcome, of peace and goodwill.  The water had transformed each one, and gathered them together into a community, a fellowship of caretakers.  Their salvation had been revelation, a liberation from the confines of their ego-driven desire to conquer and vanquish.  They had laid down sword and shield, and taken up the tools of builders, the trades of those who create.  The river disclosed compassion to those who heard her calming toll.”

[Another interruption to note that I seem to have been channeling the imaginative style of Tolkien!   I had visited Oxford for the first time earlier that year of 2004 – that’s where I presented the paper that got the whole experiment underway – and was completely taken in by its medieval magic, spires and gargoyles, river and bridges.

In the next line there is an indexical reference to the Buddhist Wondrous Sound, which I wrote about in OPM 159, and offered the following commentary on July 23^rd:  “The point is that hearing the totality  --  what the Buddhist call the ‘Wondrous Sound,’ and Heraclitus the ‘Hidden Harmony’ – and experiencing the ‘event of appropriation,’ is that originary moment that gets originary thinking underway.  Here I am repeating what I have written many times before in this blog, but it is worth repeating if only as a reminder that the important shift from ‘ego’ driven calculative cognition to meditative thinking is one that happens when we seized in the manner described by Thoreau by the titanic force of Being, disclosed to us through what yesterday I felt inclined to call Grace.”  Grace in Spanish is indicated gracia, or gratitude: gracias a Dios. The river in the legend is named Gracia by those who are grateful.]    

“In response to this wondrous sound, the caretakers had resolved in their oath to care for all life in the forest, and spent most of their time pruning trees, with whom some believed they could speak.  Skeptics, and other men of reason, dismissed all this as ‘folk-lore’, and recognized the caretakers work as a practical way of maintaining a healthy supply of wood for the fires and shelters they built for the weary travellers who were most grateful for their hospitality.  This ‘practical’ reasoning was ‘correct’ insofar as the work of the caretakers was viewed from the perspective of the humans who passed through the forest, but far from the mark if one took a holistic view of their work as happening within a complex, yet organized set of relations.  It was to this organic unity that the caretakers had been released, and to which they devoted themselves.  As for the river, the caretakers also resolved never again to attempt a crossing as a matter of pride, a debt they believed they owed to the one who had saved them.

“It was said the river herself determined the exact number that were needed to care for the forest and tend to the needs of those who wandered upon it.  Others, cynics who sought power over others, mistrusted the entire scene, and deemed the river a demonic enchantress who seduced those she ‘saved’ into her service of creating a false sense of security, an invitation for that steady stream of travellers who would supply her with her sustenance.  Those who took this darker view of matters related to the river were, of course, those who desire for power compelled them to take a mindless leap during the blindness of the night.  Of the cynics, a rare few managed to make the evening crossing.  For that lot it became customary to let out a fierce howl upon reaching the opposite shore.  The howl was intended to ‘wake’ the river, whom they believed they had caught dozing in the latest hours of the day.”(09/02/04)