Photo: ‘Division’ by Tumisu – Pixabay
https://tinyurl.com/y9tkfy3j
As Being… the past is happening still. It seems like an odd thing to say, but there is a sense in which it is a valid observation…when the point holds the whole… conflicting conceptual things can be so… at the same time, in the same space… by opening the conceptual partitions we presuppose…
Here is a clever illustration… You read the verse below from top down, our normal way, and it’s quite a depressing perspective. But if read from the bottom up, an opposite view is presented. So, if you read it first the normal way, and second the reverse way, you arrive at both optimistic / pessimistic perspectives represented in the same space. And because you carry with you the first reading (down) into the moment of the new reading (up), you also carry your understanding into the same time. Thus, demonstrating opposites exist in the same time and space. Past and present too…no distance, in the same Space and Time, and in this sense, the past is happening still…
This carries into the open how we conceptualize under the surface, qualifying moment to moment experience as to like and dislike, include and exclude, this not that, and so on, as we structure meaningful experience.
Today was the absolute worst day ever
And don’t try to convince me that
There’s something good in every day
Because, when you take a closer look,
This world is a pretty evil place.
Even if
Some goodness does shine through once In a while
Satisfaction and happiness don’t last.
And It’s not true that
It’s all in the mind and heart
Because
True happiness can be obtained
Only If one’s surroundings are good
It’s not true that good exists
I’m sure you can agree that
The reality
Creates
My attitude
It’s all beyond my control
And you’ll never In a million years hear me say that
Today was a good day
Now read from bottom to top .
Playfulness of language, speech, images, pictures and thoughts! Thanks to both of you. Karin
Hi Michael,
Funny you should mention Escher… my girlfriend has one of his black & white prints where white fish in the sea below become the white sky above, while at the same time, black geese in the white sky above become the black sea below… also demonstrating opposites can exist in the same time and space without taking a limited position, all the while emanating from separate lines…fish and fowl, and black and white, as one.
Regarding the original verse, I don’t know where it originated. My friend Don sent it to me as a photo of words on a single sheet of paper. I think he found it on the Internet without attribution…
Brilliant. Where did this Escher-like verse come from?
Even if cause and effect are in operation, who is to say which is cause and which is effect? Seeing that our attitude creates situations– even while we are blaming situations for how we feel–seems a valuable tool for deconstructing the helpless conviction that we are stuck some place we don’t want to be.