Image: ©️Stephen Tanham
The spiritual teacher and philosopher Krishnamurti once wrote:
‘Recognition dulls the mind’.
When I first read it, years ago, I disagreed with his proposition. Surely, I reasoned, the act of recognition is a result of intelligence? We learn to recognise something as an act of shortening the ‘path-length’ of the brain’s logic, as it wrestles to categorise the seen thing.
Take a lighted candle, for example. We might enter a darkened room and have our attention drawn by one. At that stage we might only perceive a diffuse and gentle light coming from a height which is not the floor – but we recognise that ‘container’ of something of interest, even if we don’t have a name for it…
If we have further interest in the object, we might stay with our container and notice that the source of the light is a tall, white stick. The light source appears to be dancing upon it, as though it were alive. The light is not uniform in shape; what initially looked like a sphere of light is revealed as an oval with radiant ‘rays’ of light streaking from it and into our eyes.
A voice may caution us that this streaking effect is a subjective illusion; but, in reality, everything in that narrowing-down sequence is an illusion.
This lightning-fast process is recognition. It’s purpose is to show us the familiar, so that we may be ready to use the object. It’s also vital to the ‘animal’ side of us to recognise that which may hurt us, so, after recognition, we can be prepared to be defensive.
We can, if we train our perception, see the stages above. If we do this, repeatedly, the act of detailed observation of something we think we know can open us up to new riches. This is what Krishnamurti was talking about. He went on to say that the mind is a treasure-house of richness, dulled by the layers of containers that we wrap around perception in order to know and use its usefulness.
We cannot really know what the object is. Its dissection takes place in our minds. We first evaluate what type of object or effect we are looking at, then we look for detail. Finally, we look for purpose. When we have all of these, we ascribe knowledge to what we are looking at. Our primary purpose is to make it useful. We might have been searching for that lighted candle and are now in a position to put it to good use.
Or…
Or we might have deliberately set a candle in that darkened room so that we could ‘sneak up on it’ – determined to see it differently. Nothing would have changed, and yet everything would have changed. We wouldn’t be interfering with what was really ‘out there’. But we would be open to changes in the richness with which it is perceived… and if we let that flow, it might alter the out-there/in-here position?
Such a deliberate act of consciousness would have been rightly called magical in days gone by. Perhaps we could do with a bit of magic in our world today?
Perhaps this is why good art captivates us? We know it has no ‘usefulness’ other than to capture our eyes, then our minds and, sometimes, our hearts. That very thought should show us where in perception the higher octaves lie. The fact that we separate ‘things’ at all, rather than seeing them all as continuous shows us an important facet of human consciousness. But a deeper discussion of this should be the subject of a further piece.
Our candle offers no threat. It’s light, streaking into our eyes, has always been symbolic of a much deeper act of recognition.
©Stephen Tanham Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit teaching school of modern mysticism that helps people find a personal path to a deeper place within their internal and external lives. The Silent Eye provides home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised. The course materials and corresponding supervision are provided month by month without further commitment.
Steve’s personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
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+ #Collie dogs, #ShortWrytz, #Silenti, Collie dogs, landscapes, Love, Pet Heaven, Photography, Silent Eye School, Spirituality, Your inner wolf
#ShortWrytz – Who Knew?
by Steve Tanham
Who knew…
How softly your paws would pad to the door, just before I enter.
How your hazel eyes would gaze and melt with joy when the new day dawns.
How your sleeping yelps would replay the joys of the day.
How you would, one day, sit in front of a blown-open door for an hour, guarding the house until we returned to find you there.
Who knew…
©Stephen Tanham 2020
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit teaching school of modern mysticism that helps people find a personal path to a deeper place within their internal and external lives.
The Silent Eye provides home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised. The course materials and corresponding supervision are provided month by month without further commitment.
Steve’s personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
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#FurryFives : interview
by Steve Tanham
– Yea, well it was cool at the time, but you can only take so much of living in a bush in Bolton…
So what changed the course of your abandoned life?
– Well, his mother walked past with a pampered Pomeranian pooch…
Yes?
– And I thought, “Holy shit, look at the lifestyle that goes with this one!” And followed her home!
(This is a true story…)
©Stephen Tanham
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From Sue…
She is no marble angel with a kiss of ice,
A dark ghost, never waked,
But a woman, warm and soft,
Embracing a velvet universe,
Melting the stars of eternity,
Deliciously blushing,
Longing for life.
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The Talking Darkness #writephoto
by Steve Tanham
This is in response to Sue Vincent’s #writephoto ‘Frozen’ and the photo above.
He chose his moment to appear at the edge of the dark forest; the forest through which they had come on their murderous journey.
The few that knew him used his ancient name: the Talking Darkness….
Anyone in the dark green shadows looking out to the approaching night would have seen nothing. But, had they stared a while, they might have been able to make out the outline of a man in a long coat; a coat so dark that it seemed all the light was absorbed by it.
He collected the light, stored the edges of act and consequence in pockets so deep they touched the edges of time. The light he collected was the truth, the living dust of events so significant that they changed the course of history. The motes of light that made up his long coat told stories, stories so exact that those they spoke of were frozen as they watched them repeated; re-told by the mesh of momentary brightness in a manner that silenced, terrified and spoke…. the truth.
The Talking Darkness was not summoned often. Hundreds of years might pass before he was called to bear witness to the truth of another episode of collective horror.
Always, there was a bloodied body. Often that of a child… Sometimes, a very special child.
The eyes of the Talking Darkness followed the curve of the forest to the far clearing where a large fire burned. The body of a child had been placed on a bier following his murder by the ten. Four of the ten were moving the bier so that it would lie over the centre of the flames–incinerating the evidence of their deeds.
The Talking Darkness always assigned the land-trigger to something associated with the deceased – the victim. In that way, the act of justice began within the humble remains of they who were wronged, and the world around them that had been robbed.
Through closed eyes, the Talking Darkness watched as the four of ten danced away, shocked, from the consuming flames which exploded around the small body.
And the land cracked…
The eyes that had been closed opened as the curve in the forest changed shape, extending itself into the encroaching night. The path to murder had become a highway of ice, glowing and lighting half the sky with its intensity.
With ancient boots, the Talking Darkness strode along the ice-road, with every step his coat lightened in colour, matching the darkening eyes of the ten, who, led by the four, were being dragged in frozen horror towards the white heat of the child’s burning body.
It would be a long walk to the flames. There was no hurry. The full story had to be told in the bright darkness before time could move forward, again.
©Stephen Tanham 2020
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit teaching school of modern mysticism that helps people find a personal path to a deeper place within their internal and external lives.
The Silent Eye provides home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised. The course materials and corresponding supervision are provided month by month without further commitment.
Steve’s personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
+ #Silenti, Consciousness, esoteric psychology, Higher Mind, landscapes, Life and Death, Magic, Mindfulness, Self-help, Silent Eye School, soul in body, Spirit, spiritual turning around, Spirituality, Tarot, Tarot, The Fool,
Land of the Heart
by Steve Tanham
This is a self-help exercise I developed recently. I call it ‘Land of the Heart’
It’s an exercise that involves the surrender of the small self that feels so much pain and anguish, especially at a time of national division, such as we have on both sides of the Atlantic, today.
It’s an exercise that addresses that feeling of helplessness that many of us are enduring as we watch our civilisations change. We have been raised in an age that encourages us to take responsibility for things. On a personal level, this is healthy; but when confronted with the kind of societal change we now face, we can become narrow and negatively focussed by thinking we should be making a difference. In truth, we can only make a difference to our selves.
But the power of that should not be underestimated…
This exercise involves packing all those troubles – many of which are imagined, for we are seldom in real pain or danger – into a little mental kitbag and carrying that ‘wrapped’ bag with us into the world – our daily world – in a very special way.
At this stage we don’t surrender those troubles, feelings or anguish; we just keep them wrapped. But we carry in our hearts a conviction that there is somewhere else they belong.
As we set off into our daily world, we think of that little kitbag, perhaps slung over our shoulder like the Tarot card of the Fool.
The Original Rider-Waite Tarot card of The Fool, by Pamela Coleman Smith. Source Wikipedia
The Fool card, with its happy and ‘naive’ figure has different levels of significance. It would take a full blog just to provide an outline of them. It is the first of the Major Aracana of the Tarot and sits on the Tree of Life in a position that links the place of the Crown of consciousness with the place of the first emanation in the act of cosmic creation.
For the purpose of our exercise, the naivety of the supposed Fool is important. He has no fear of what lies ‘beneath’ him (or her) in the creation. This is because he IS the unfolding act of creation…
One more thing remains before we can take the walk of the Fool into the Land of the Heart. We need to find an old leaf, or a dead or dying flower… or something similar, that has experienced the glory of life, but is now fading… Its pattern remains, to show us something important; but a higher pattern that imprinted it has departed, to return to its pre-life potency.
Our final search is to find (or ask to be show) somewhere of great beauty. We need not be physically there, though that’s wonderful if it is possible. A photo of such a place works well, as does an abstract image. If the first photo in this blog moves you (as it did me) then feel free to have it and hold it.
We now have everything we need to carry out the exercise. In our minds we become the Fool in the Tarot card. Walking forward into our new day. We take the old leaf or flower and hold it in one of our hands, feeling love for the wonder of its life, but knowing that what it really WAS is gone… to become another IS.
Looking at the view or image of the place we have selected, we surrender our small self and the kitbag into the image of the eternal and constantly changing world of which we can only ever have a tiny amount of knowledge.
And then, crushing the remains of the leaf or flower, we return the pieces to the ground, to feed what needs to grow next, thinking of the Fool’s kitbag as we do so.
We have freed ourselves from the contents of the kitbag. We have embraced and surrendered the smallness of our personal self. In so doing we have become a living part of the Land of the Heart.
©Stephen Tanham 2020
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit teaching school of modern mysticism that helps people find a personal path to a deeper place within their internal and external lives.
The Silent Eye provides home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised. The course materials and corresponding supervision are provided month by month without further commitment.
Steve’s personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
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Mellow, then Naked
by Steve Tanham
With gentle care, my drunken head
Is upwards tilted, facing Sun
I glimpse pale gold in summer’s field
To trace, already, winter’s dread
As hues of autumn’s failing now revealed
➰
Too soon! Unready heart implores!
But she, intent and moistened scent
Upon the harvest’s fulsome bliss
Inscribes my name on deeper lands-
Baptising wordsmith with her kiss
➰
This is my chosen task–her ask
To face the winds, the rain and snow
To see the bare yet feel the beat
Of life withdrawn to hidden mask
As thickened leather wraps my feet
➰
To dig through darker months the toil
Our hands return to deeper soil
Which, haunted by four faces’ song
Five-finds a singer always whole
And tells her truth; to write the wrong
➰
©Stephen Tanham 2020
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit teaching school of modern mysticism that helps people find a personal path to a deeper place within their internal and external lives.
The Silent Eye provides home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised. The course materials and corresponding supervision are provided month by month without further commitment.
Steve’s personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
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And one from Stuart…
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From Sue…
“Don’t give me your excuses…. you’re a superhobbit and superhobbits don’t seize up!”
My son had phoned me to discuss his garden, even though I had just spent yet another nine hours in it, moving tons of earth and stone… and that is not dramatic exaggeration but simple fact. I’d done the same the for two days before too. At my age and with my bones, I am entitled to seize up.
The first day, labour and time being in short supply, I had hand-oiled and moved three hundred yards of timber to help out… and that was bad enough. Truth be told, it was only adrenalin that carried me through the next day. I had waited at home for my own delivery, dragged fence panels and posts into my garden and carried in three hundred pounds of cement mix. My back protested, but needs must when deliveries are ‘kerbside’.
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– You wouldn’t get me sulking
Cappuccino!
– I only said your fur looks like a milky coffee…
And yours a cappuccino!
– Well, I am a cat!
©Stephen Tanham
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There’s nothing pretty about this street in Ulverston, but the depth and intensity of the shadow caught my eye…
Unseen to the photographer, just visible in the upper left – in the gap between the rooftops and the tree – is The Hoad; a lighthouse-like monument to one of the town’s most famous sons: Sir John Barrow.
Born in Ulverston in 1764 of humble origins, John Barrow rose, through his own efforts – primarily in mathematics – to become Second Secretary to the Admiralty and the country’s first Permanent Principle Secretary, surviving eleven changes of government and establishing the principle that civil servants served the country with the continuity of their expertise, and therefore had to be impartial in their actions.
He was a geographer and explorer, a master linguist – including fluency in Chinese, and one of the foremost mathematicians of his time. He was the last man to shake Admiral Nelson’s hand as the latter boarded the Victory, bound for Trafalgar.
His was the suggestion to exile Napoleon to St Helena, where the Emperor died, six years later.
I didn’t realise at the time of taking the photograph, but the shadow in the picture is thrown by the wall of the former Hartley’s Brewery, considered one of the finest beers ever produced in the north of England. Hartley’s was taken over by Robinson’s Brewery, who moved production to Stockport. The last Hartley’s beer to be made in the town was brewed on the 8th November, 1991. The former factory has been derelict for many years…
When I studied the picture, later in the day, I was struck by the poignancy of the shadow of the former flagship brewery and the sunlit and proud shape of the Hoad Monument to Sir John Barrow.
It’s a fitting image of the clash between historical wisdom and the power of change to sweep away entire worlds that we, mistakenly, view as permanent…
It seems that what is ‘good’ endures only when it remains connected to its source… perhaps something for which we are all responsible?
Cheers…
© Stephen Tanham
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit teaching school of modern mysticism that helps people find a personal path to a deeper place within their internal and external lives.
The Silent Eye provides home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised. The course materials and corresponding supervision are provided month by month without further commitment.
Steve’s personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
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#ShortWrytz : “thank you!”
by Steve Tanham
Thank you. Oh thank you… thank you.
😎 Steve
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