Memories are like images that flow reflected on the surface of water, at times fast, skipping, turning in on themselves among curling eddies, at times distracted by currents, breaking up into choppy waves … or coming together as facets meeting in quiet waters, as in a calm heart, where past, present and future images arise clearly.
Then again, if waters were always still, never flowing, the reflections in our heart would remain static and never change.
But how to stay aware of images that bring up irrational fears from the deep waters of our collective mind? Imprinted in dust, earth, mud, rock, sand, water and blood, such fears, be it for survival or identity, based on traumatic histories, rob us of our capacity for rational thought. How do we stay aware of the phonmenon that fear begets fear?
We live in a time when listening, by those who have the capacity for it, seems of crucial importance. A time when individuals must make an effort to understand diverse traditions and opinions, a time to aim for compromises, a time to utilise all the knowledge and wisdom aquired by the eduated, and those with wise hearts, a time that requires us to act in unison towards the maintenance of our beautiful planet and all its inhabitans. It’s a time for politicians to look ahead, beyond the span of their appointment. It’s time to wake up – to see the amazing potential of people migrating across the globe, whatever the causes, it’s happening, a time when sharing each other’s traditions and talents can be enriching to everyone.
Our imagination is our hell and our paradise.
Imagination is all: the creator, the maintainer and the destroyer of life, replicating the natural seasons of our earth.
The same capacity for imagination that makes us ill can also heal us.
Humans have a choice.
Course of Mirrors 
“Our imagination is our hell and our paradise.” and “The same capacity for imagination that makes us ill can also heal us.”
So true. If only more people knew that. Thank you for saying it.
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Thanks, Katia. Coming upon Rumi this morning, I found the idea put more beautifully:
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are the pain
and what cures the pain. We are
the sweet, cold water and the jar that pours.
It’s from a John Moyne and Coleman Barks version of Rumi’s poems.
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Imagination is one aspect of human life. Human life is one aspect of the physical universe, albeit an interesting one.
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Hi Bumba, your comment brings up another Rumi poem, it’s that kind of morning here …
I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes. They are small,
but they see enormous things.
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Very nice.
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Cool op-ed like piece. Here, anyway, some of the pols are busy stirring up the fear memories, and some folks talk about remembering what they never knew or experienced to begin with. But the collective mind thinks on.
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Aye, emotions are churning here too. It’s white water rafting or staying on the banks, headshaking.
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Your imagery and photos are glorious. Then you are so correct that people need to awaken to the changes in the world and to accept one another. It will be interesting to see what happens. I pray people grow more accepting!
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Thank you Gwynn. Prayer may well shelter our little flames.
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Being ever rooted to the ground and surrounded by our personally designed castle walls, can give us stability and a deal of localised courage.
But to know courage, we also must know fear.
As you point out Ashen, still waters reflect little of the new and much of the known. A safe place.
All things are perfect until our desire alters the paradigm. Perfect in their beauty or ugliness, perfect in their use or otherwise. We decide for ourselves and begin our construction around that idea. To change people, politicians, society – first we must see; and as you say – hear.B
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– to know courage, we also must know fear – thanks for this reminder, B.
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I love the beautiful landscape and sky-scape, awakening a sense of the grandeur of the planet we live on. When I was young, I looked outward toward the horizon and on a very clear day I could see as far as 80 miles (128 km). I saw successive distances of mountains and clouds with different color hues and brightness. My world seemed to blend into the mysterious. By analogy, let us project an image of people on earth as it might be in Heaven. It is sad that many people have not experienced mystery in their early years of life. This could first require a life of security and comfort. So many children and families have been suffocated by poverty and frustrations because of cold, hunger, and social threats. Alas, mankind might have evolved differently than it has.
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Thanks for commenting, Rubin. Yes, the lack of security so many people suffer is very sad, and to witness this on a global scale can easily overwhelm us. Some of us lucky ones know very well how an initial welcome and comfort in childhood can go a long way to overcome later challenges.
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Ashen further to your wonderful post, you refer to the migration across the earth of today. You have enlightened me here and excited me. The possibility of enriching all cultures by the integration of others, for me is a revelation. I understood this to a point, however never considered it in such a whole way.
Thankyou for enriching my life Ashen. B
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Beautifully written and very profound in its meaning and manifestation of thoughts…memory are always such a fascinating part of our life, intangibles but very much integral to life and living. Water, reflection is a lovely metaphor that captures the real imagination of our memories. These memories gets stored in our deeper sub conscious mind and gets to conscious mind we encounter extreme or similar situations which had created those moments of memories.
What a lovely way you have put the confluence of past, present and the future images arises…everything in the storehouse of mystery called as memory.
Even though science keeps unraveling the ‘mystery of memory’…the mystery continues even after thousands of years of scientific research and even after infinite spiritual quest.
😀
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Hi Nihar. I’m cheered by your visit and thoughts. Thanks.
I meant to leave a comment re: the latest post on your blog, but had a window pop us saying – the driver refused connection.
Here’s what I meant to shaare, resonating with Keats 🙂
… I feel more and more every day, as my imagination strengthens, that I do not live in this world alone but in a thousand worlds … John Keats
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These unquestionably some wonderful words from Keats and has to be profound and very powerful in its manifestation of thoughts.
Yes, with the rapid growth of imagination with so much around us we have expanded our horizon of imaging the space and pace of thinking.
Always a pleasure reading your so deeply thought and critically driven thought of yours…in fact written few post both on “imagination” and “memories” , I was excited to read your post and indeed it instantly resonated with me…
By the way are you not able to access my blog and post your comment, pls let me know may be I’ve enabled some my security features, I will correct it.
😀
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No worry, I can access your blog, Nihar, I just can’t leave comments.
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Let me check, if there is any snag in the comment functionality…is the comment section not showing or not accepting the comments?
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Ashen this is beautiful and encouraging. May each of our thoughts and desires and imaginations focus on a melting pot of people, each culture enriching the other, each knowing that the highest of our potentials can be reached. We’ve known how low we can go, history tells us so – and we know how high we can reach and that goal be attained. Thank you.
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Thanks Susan. I went to google: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot
and looked up the melting pot theory, the multiculturalist theroy, and the assimilationist theory … Fascinating reading.
It’s clear that forced assimilation has never succeeded, but a beautiful cultural mosaic can happen naturally if a system allows compromise. I think people will tolerate inevitable disagreements over many cultural issues as long as their voice is respected.
I like the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson … Man is the most composite of all creatures …
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