Transcendence here and now

[Guest guest]

I've followed the fire-stone here to JungFire. I'm reminded of a couple of

things. It's been many years since I read Buber, but I seem to

remember something about Hasidism (spelling may be incorrect), a belief

that we each contain a spark of God and that our purpose in life is to free

up that spark. Or perhaps to _ignite_ that spark into fire? I like that the

fire is _between_, I like that very much.

The gathering of the sparks is Kabbala I think -- may be in OT. I

would imagine that is where Buber found it. (Kabbala -- or perhaps

directly from Hasidim.) I remember finding it also in Eliot's

novel DANIEL DERONDA, a very interesting late work of hers that is

about a man who finds out he is Jewish and becomes involved in the

building of Zionism. Read all of Eliot when I was getting my M.A.

several years back, and did a couple of projects on this novel,

which I like so much better than, say, ROMOLA.

The two parts of the stone remind me of the two hemispheres of our brains,

and of experiences I had at one time of awakening in the middle of the

night and sensing a crackling energy down the middle of my head, as if the

two parts of my brain were joined by some kind of energy, perhaps learning

to communicate with each other in some new way. I'm also reading

_The_Alphabet_versus_the_Goddess_ right now which has much to say about

this subject of left and right brain, so I also think of the union of

masculine and feminine, but you've discussed this, haven't you?

It was my take, Bruce, though others may have had similar reactions.

I thought also that there was a certain fortified quality about the

Stone as I imagined it (which isn't necessarily the way Gwen described

it) -- I saw it as squarish and adhering by force external and internal,

almost by will, and the square (especially when it becomes three-

dimensional or do I mean four, anyway, concrete) always seems to me

to be an embattled protective formation whereas the circle or its

geometric counterpart doesn't. I didn't say exactly that: I think

I said its form might change. I would love to see a drawing of it as

Gwen sees it.

Gotta get off this devil machine.

I also think of the fire mandalas (veterans of Temenos may remember them),

which were a bit overwhelming at the time that I drew them. I like this

fire that burns between and binds together.

Me too. And I like the feeling that passion (=fire) is now a conscious

emotion in the group. I make a hell of a lot more sense when I speak with

passion. (And I do mean fire, not passive endurance or suffering, though

they are probably subspecies.)

We're coming out of hiding? (Wasn't aware that I was -- at least with

my friends -- hiding.)

Carroll