Years ago I wrote a meditation book for children in which one of the exercises, Magic Meal, invited its readers to consider (among other things) that in eating a meal, they were actually and in fact, eating starlight.
Considering temporal lineages as we are currently being invited to do, I allowed myself to focus on that during supper a few evenings ago. I was absolutely astonished as to the number of different temporal lineages which gathered together to create this phenomenon of ‘me having supper.’ These lineages included the room, the furniture, the equipment, the implements, the food and the ‘me’ who was having supper (just one example – the cutlery – its metallic origins, who made it (their lineages), who transported it (their lineages), who sold it (their lineages)…etc…I think you get the idea…It quickly turned into a multi dimensional kaleidoscope of timelines, all linking with each other and with an unseen network of pasts and futures.
Today, on a country walk, at a certain moment, as I passed a cottage, a woman emerged from the door into her garden. I was aware of a moment of wondering in me about the ‘temporal lineages’ in both of us which had led to my being right there at the moment she came out of her house.
As for the first moment in time, as suggested by Rinpoche in next week’s reading (DTS page 82). It’s true that such a hypothetical first moment has no past lineage, but it leads in this example to a future lineage – i.e. to ‘now’ – this present moment. But how can it do that with no past imprint to ‘feed forward’ to now? I’m not sure if I’m getting too complicated here (or missing the point – or several points!)?
What I do increasingly feel about TSK investigations is that arriving at any kind of conclusive ‘understanding’ or ‘answer’ is absolutely not the point. The whole value of it is in the questioning. It feels like ‘being-gym’ (more than ‘brain gym’). I wonder if anybody has done any research to see whether regular TSK-ers have developed more/unusual neural pathways than those who have not engaged in TSK exercises. It certainly seems it has the capacity to evolve a new kind of human.
Caroline in England
Hi Carolyn in England,
Both my parents ended up in Canada via England. and before that were sired by sunlight alighting upon Earth. More specifically, I have been, like everyone before me, nurtured under a canopy of leaves that drinks in living sunlight. Within a minicule fraction of an arc-second within the spherical expansion of sunlight, lies a blue and white planet named Gaia, who detains and gathers in starlight on its way to distant galaxies, galaxy clusters, and points beyond our knowing. Upon the surface of Gaia’s face there is a towering tree, constructed out of the rainfall and dissolved nutrients from deep within the darkness of earth, whose leaves joyfully catch the sunbeams and draw them underground where its roots are enlived by these swimming flashes of starlight. Without the fruit of such trees, all who walk upon the land could not live. We are indeed the children of starlight. — Michael