A Deep Tranquility / Philosophy of Consciousness / Healthy Substitutions / Friday Trip

“As we read the school reports on our children,
we realize a sense of relief that can rise to delight that – thank Heaven – nobody is reporting in this fashion on us.”
– J. B. Priestly

Diana enjoyed the many games at Main Event.

Ordinary happiness is a feeling that has an object
– for example, a happy event, winning a prize,
or wearing pretty new shoes.
But, If the issue of your happiness ceases to be an issue,
You may find it.

The problem with ordinary happiness is that it never lasts.
A happy event is soon followed by a sad one.
Most of us go through life looking for things to “make us happy.”
But this “fix” is never permanent,
so we keep looking.

We think of happiness
as something that floats
in and out of our lives.

The Rev. Dr. Nobuo Haneda,
a Jodo Shinshu priest and teacher,
said that “If you can forget your individual happiness,
that’s happiness defined.
If the issue of your happiness ceases to be an issue,
that’s the happiness”.

One word for “happiness”
from the early Pali texts is piti,
which is a deep tranquility.

Perhaps,
We have assumed it was
something else.

We enjoyed bowling.

And now, for my students in Philosophy, I share a bit of knee-deep philosophical reflection from
Franklin F. Wolff, an American mystic, poet, philosopher, and mathematician, who combined an extraordinary intellect with profound mystical insight and a mathematically induced predilection toward meticulous analysis. Wolff devoted himself to the goal of transcending the normal limits of human consciousness. (So here I sit in front of a variety of references, including a wictionary, pictionary, yes, let’s make it a game, dictionary and what in the world is that-icktionary. You may need help too.)

Please do not return to class and tell me you thought so deeply about this and now your head hurts, again. My job is get you to use your head for something other than testing new shampoos. Remember, according to sub atomic particle physics, if you stop thinking, you, along with the rest of the Universe, may consequentially not exist. Einstein wondered if the moon would really disappear if everyone stopped looking at it – seriously!  See you on the flip side of reflection.

If you survive reading this, I will award you an Honorary Nth Degree, a mathematically specious solecism, to convey the message that your thought processes have been raised to an absurdly high level (or possible that you are confused too!). Enjoy . . . .

The Philosophy of Franklin Merrell-Wolff
by Thomas J. McFarlane
read more here

Wolff graduated from Stanford University in 1911 with a major in mathematics and minors in philosophy and psychology. He then went on to Harvard graduate school to study philosophy, where he was particularly influenced by the study of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. As a result of his philosophical studies, Wolff became convinced of the probable existence of a transcendent mode of consciousness that could not be comprehended within the limits of our ordinary forms of knowledge. Prior to completing his degree at Harvard, he returned to Stanford to teach mathematics. read more here

OK. Sit down and get really comfortable. If you fall asleep, it’s alright. I did. Now I shall attempt to help you navigate through the verbage (verbiage is, perhaps, more technically correct, but that’s verbage too). The overabundance or superfluity of words may heighten your anxiety, but keep focused. Pretend you are on safari and the machete of your mind is clearing a path. Set your alarm clock and wake up from time to time, and continue this voyage into the unbelievable and unknown. Clutch the arms of your chair, breathe deeply and hang on!

The Double Slit Experiment is an experiment in Quantum Physics in which the effects were shown by Thomas Young way back in 1803, but since has been proven even more strange by many others. It’s power truly reveals a mind-altering view of the world and how we affect it. read more

The Double Slit Experiment shows us that
we create reality
just by observing it.

Subatomic material will take every possible path at the same time as a wave when not observed. When observed, the particle collapses down to one point as a particle. What can this mean about us? Do we all have powers that we are not aware of? What it does seem to prove is that we create reality by observing it.

With that depth of understanding, Franklin Merrell-Wolff postulates the following: (Here is where you take a really deep breath.)

“Reality is inversely proportional to appearance”. In other words, the degree of the true substance or reality is the inverse or opposite of the degree of ponderability.

Lazer Tag was everyone’s favorite.

Thus, concrete objects of experience, which have a high degree of ponderability, are the least substantial. Subtle or abstract objects of experience, on the other hand, which are less ponderable, partake of a higher degree of substantiality and reality.

The effect of this insight upon Wolff was an acceptance of substantial reality, where the senses reported emptiness, and a greater capacity to realize unreality in the material given through the senses. (Hang in there. It gets deeper.)

Thus, Liberation does not necessarily involve any new object of experience or change in the content of consciousness. To seek such a new object or experience, therefore, is a mistake. Genuine Realization, therefore, is a recognition of Nothing – but a Nothing that is absolutely Substantial and identical with the SELF. (You may need a nap about now.)

It is a nondual knowledge of identity that transcends space and time.

(Here is where you may decide to be happy and major in History. Then you can have faith that the past really happened and was not an illusion. You are going to need comforting thoughts.)

Some of the effects Wolff experienced were:
(1) A shift in the base of reference in consciousness, transplanting the roots of identity from the relative to the transcendent,
(2) a transformation of the meaning of self – to a space-like identity with the entire field of consciousness and all its contents,
(3) a sense of penetrating knowledge into the depths of reality,
(4) a transcendence of space, time, and causality,
(5) complete freedom and liberation from all bondage. Experienced were qualities of joy, felicity, serenity, peace, and benevolence.

Wyatt and Gavin played many games.

(Now, I need to rest.)

Tension consisted in the contrast in valuation between the superlative Joy, Peace, Rest, Freedom and Knowledge of the Transcendent and the emptiness of the relative world.

Three Fundamentals of the Philosophy
of Franklin Merrell-Wolff

1. Consciousness is original, self-existent, and constitutive of all things. All experience and all objects are derivative from Consciousness. Thus Consciousness is constitutive of all things, i.e., all things are, in their ultimate nature, nothing but this Primordial Consciousness itself.

2. The Subject to Consciousness transcends the object of Consciousness. A concrete object in consciousness might be a visual perception of a chair or a sensation of pain in our foot. More subtle objects are appearances in consciousness such as a thought or memory, an intuition about something,

The subjective principle or aspect of consciousness is more fundamental to consciousness than the objective appearances in consciousness. The subjective principle is therefore transcendental, while the objective principle is not.

3. There are three, not two, organs of knowledge: perception, conception, and introception. Wolff’s philosophy is an affirmation of a third way of knowing which Wolff calls “introception”.

Perception includes all sensory knowledge we derive from seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting.

We learned to space out our meals, so to speak.

Conception includes all knowledge we derive from thought, memory, imagination, and the like. If we admit only these two forms of knowledge, then our knowledge of reality is forever limited to our hypothetical, conceptual speculations about what reality might be.

Introception provides immediate, categorical knowledge that transcends the subject-object distinction, i.e., it is not a relational knowledge of something by something else, but a knowledge through identity in which there is only knowledge itself that includes and transcends both knower and known. It affirms that there is also a capacity for transcendental knowledge. (Where is a good Buddhist when you need one?)

(Please do not disturb me, I may be in a trance.)

Put on your thinking caps. Here are Highlights from The Philosophy of Consciousness Without An Object by Franklin Merrell-Wolff

Consciousness-without-an-object is. Before objects were, Consciousness-without-an-object is. Though objects seem to exist, Consciousness-without-an-object is. (I think I need an aspirin.) When objects vanish, yet remaining through all unaffected, Consciousness-without-an-object is. (Magicians know this.) Outside of Consciousness-without-an-object nothing is. Within the bosom of Consciousness-without-an-object lies the power of awareness that projects objects. When objects are projected, the power of awareness as subject is presupposed, yet Consciousness-without-an-object remains unchanged. (This is why teachers use transparencies.) When consciousness of objects is born, then, likewise, consciousness of absence of objects arises. (Kind of explains Algebra!) Consciousness of objects is the Universe. Consciousness of absence of objects is Nirvana. (This is why I meditate until I fall over.) Within Consciousness-without-an-object lie both the Universe and Nirvana, yet to Consciousness-without-an-object these two are the same. (I need a Venn or other-worldly diagram here.) Within Consciousness-without-an-object lies the seed of Time. (This is why you need an object called an alarm clock.) When awareness cognizes Time then knowledge of Timelessness is born. (Is this when the alarm clock wakes me up?) To be aware of Time is to be aware of the Universe, and to be aware of the Universe is to be aware of Time. (I guess it pays to know what time it really is.) To realize Timelessness is to attain Nirvana. (Now I know why I’m happy when I’m dreaming!) But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is no difference between Time and Timelessness. (Get to work late, and this may not be exactly true.) Within Consciousness-without-an-object lies the seed of the world-containing Space. When awareness cognizes the world-containing Space then knowledge of the Spatial Void is born. (Is this when we dream?) To be aware of the world-containing Space is to be aware of the Universe of Objects. (This may be why we collect things.) To realize the Spatial Void is to awaken to Nirvanic Consciousness. But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is no difference between the world-containing Space and the Spatial Void. Within Consciousness-without-an-object lies the Seed of Law.       (I thought it was J. P. Court!) When consciousness of objects is born the Law is invoked as a Force tending ever toward Equilibrium. (I got lost here.) All objects exist as tensions within Consciousness-without-an-object that tend ever to flow into their own complements or others. (I hope you got that, I didn’t.) The ultimate effect of the flow of all objects into their complements is mutual cancellation in complete Equilibrium. Consciousness of the field of tensions is the Universe. But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is neither tension nor Equilibrium. (Now I need a drink, and I don’t drink!) The state of tensions is the state of ever-becoming. Ever-becoming is endless-dying. (He was just dying to say that.) So the state of consciousness of objects is a state of ever-renewing promises that pass into death at the moment of fulfillment. Thus when consciousness is attached to objects the agony of birth and death never ceases. (Oh, No! It’s my Mother’s fault!) In the state of Equilibrium where birth cancels death the deathless Bliss of Nirvana is realized. (Say again!) But Consciousness-without-an-object is neither agony nor bliss. (I’ll never go shopping again!) Out of the Great Void, which is Consciousness-without-an-object, the Universe is creatively projected. (Physicist Brian Greene explains how properties at a black hole’s surface – its event horizon – suggest the unsettling theory that our world is a mere representation of another universe, ….. Reality, that is, may be akin to a hologram. This is something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. Fermilab is building a machine that may prove that “reality” is only a holographic projection from the outermost boundary of the Universe. Reality may be a hologram in which all is projected illusion. Fermilab particle astrophysicist Craig Hogan is building the most precise clock of all time to directly measure whether our reality is an illusion.  Read moreThe new physics states that the entire Universe is a giant hologram projected through our brains creating the reality we see. But then what is projecting that hologram. Physicists hope that this surprising finding is a clue to the ultimate theory of reality. Now ask yourself, how does the brain react to virtual reality? Just ask a child, who toys with it everyday. They remove themselves from what we consider to be our real world, and get their minds immersed into another virtual world by playing virtual world video games. But are we, all of us, part of another virtual world? Within a hologram, the whole is within the part. No matter how many times you divide the whole, the part will always contain it’s totality.At a deeper level, reality may be a super-hologram (there is a super massive black hole at the center of each galaxy, including ours) in which the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. For now, the building blocks of reality are behaving in ways which are inexplicable.This may link up with theories that consciousness brings reality into existence through observation.Please keep in mind that those who go after the pull of the unknown can inevitably risk loosing their grip on reality by discovering that it possibly doesn’t exist in the first place, with reality possibly being an illusion. In which case, your haven’t really lost anything because, there wasn’t anything to lose to begin with. The Universe as experienced is the created negation that ever resists. (Resists what?) The creative act is bliss, the resistance, unending pain. (I’ll never say NO again, I promise!) Endless resistance is the Universe of experience, the agony of crucifixion. (How did religion get into this?) Ceaseless creativeness is Nirvana, the Bliss beyond human conceiving. (I was always happy with my coloring book.) But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is neither creativeness nor resistance. Ever-becoming and ever-ceasing-to-be are endless action. (I think I already got that.) When ever-becoming cancels the ever-ceasing-to-be then Rest is realized. (Thank God!) Ceaseless action is the Universe. Unending Rest is Nirvana. (You got that right,) But Consciousness-without-an-object is neither Action nor Rest. When consciousness is attached to objects it is restricted through the forms imposed by the world-containing Space, by Time, and by Law. (Now my head hurts.) When consciousness is disengaged from objects, Liberation from the forms of the world-containing Space, of Time, and of Law is attained. (I’m going to stop thinking about things!) Attachment to objects is consciousness bound within the Universe. (Shopping can get you into trouble.) Liberation from such attachment is the State of unlimited Nirvanic Freedom. (We were told, “less is more”!) But Consciousness-without-an-object is neither bondage nor freedom. Consciousness-without-an-object may be symbolized by a SPACE that is unaffected by the presence or absence of objects, for which there is neither Time nor Timelessness, neither a world-containing Space nor a Spatial Void, neither Tension nor Equilibrium, neither Resistance nor Creativeness, neither Agony nor Bliss, neither Action nor Rest, and neither Restriction nor Freedom. (This man took several math courses too many. Did he not meet the deadline for withdrawal?) As the GREAT SPACE is not to be identified with the Universe, so neither is It to be identified with any Self. (I lost my identity at number 2.) The GREAT SPACE is not God, but the comprehender of all Gods, as well as of all lesser creatures. The GREAT SPACE, or Consciousness-without-an-object, is the Sole Reality upon which all objects and all selves depend and derive their existence. Beside the GREAT SPACE there is none other. (I don’t know about you, but the great space that was my mind is now filled with smoke.) You may want to read this again. But I wouldn’t read it a third time. There are such things as limits. Too much of this and you will major in Philosophy and end up driving a cab. And some of the people you give rides to may be a bit unreal. But you will have a deeper depth of understanding and will  empathize with them. You may no longer be capable of deep reflection. But never object to reflect.

Please allow me to share this stunningly beautiful poem with you:

Compassion
by Franklin Merrell-Wolff

O Compassion! More than the other loves of men,
Less than the High Indifference;
Calmly standing by and waiting; years, centuries, millennia;
Taking to Thyself the suffering of all;
Transforming toward Joy;
With Light restraining Darkness; with good, evil;
Refusing release while others are bound;
Melting differences;
Accepting impurity, giving purity;
Bound by no law, yet acquiescing in bondage;
Available for all as the light of the sun,
Yet forced on no man against his will;
Needing nought for Thyself,
Though giving to all in need;
The Base of all hope for this humanity so low;
Pure Radiance Divine.
Sweet art Thou, unutterably sweet;
Melting within me all hardness;
Stirring inclusion of the low as the high;
The evil as the good; the weak as the strong;
The unclean as the pure; the violent as the considerate;
None left out;
Awaking new understanding and patience beyond Time;
Arousing forgetfulness of the petty in the grand sweep of the noble;
Equalizing regard, yet exalting true worth;
Reaching beyond all contradiction.
To Thee I sing, glorious Spirit;
Grandest God mankind can know.
—   —   —
Other web sites related to Franklin Merrell-Wolff:
The Franklin-Merrell-Wolff Website
The Franklin-Merrell-Wolff Fellowship
Friends of Franklin-Merrell-Wolff group on FaceBook
Franklin Merrell-Wolff – Consciousness Without An Object Discussion Group on Google Groups
Franklin-Merrell-Wolff on Wikipedia

Well, this has been a little deeper than the knee is high. But now you have the mathematicians bent on things. Aren’t you glad you had trouble with Algebra. If you get too deep in some of these subjects, you may find yourself all alone and then have nothing to do but think. Now, get some sleep. And if your head is hurting tomorrow, stop reading philosophy and watching television for awhile. Later, you can view some commercials and not realize that you are still in pain.

From: Christina Reiter, M.S., R.D.
Resident consulting dietitian at the University of Colorado–Boulder Wardenburg Health Center for Nutrition Education and Therapies.

What we eat and how we feel are linked in very complex ways. A healthy approach to eating is centered on savoring flavor, eating to satisfaction and increasing energy, rather than focusing on weight.

Get satisfaction!

Both eating and physical activity are fun, sensory experiences! In both, aim for pleasure — not pain.

Eat like a kid 

If adding more fruits and vegetables sounds ominous, look to “finger food” versions that preschool kids love — carrot and celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, grapes, berries and dried fruits. All are nutritional powerhouses packed with antioxidants.

Think Small

Often the biggest deterrent to improving health is feeling overwhelmed by all the available advice and research. Try to focus first on one small, seemingly inconsequential, unhealthy habit. If you have a can of soda at lunchtime every day, have a glass of water two days a week instead. healthy, positive habit.

It’s easy to build from here by adding more healthy substitutions.

FRIDAY TRIP

For Friday Feb. 20, 2015

Due to popular demand, we will meet at 10:00 a.m. at ROLLERLAND WEST, located at 7325 Calmont Avenue –Telephone: 817-244-8290. At approximately 11:15 a.m. will we will travel to At approximately 11:00 a.m. we will travel to La Madeleine Country French Café to enjoy lunch. Following lunch we will travel back to the school to work on our Shakespeare production with Director, George Rodriguez.
Pickup will be at 3:15 p.m. at the school.

Emergency Tele.: 682-777-1908

Please call and let us know if you will be late.

Students are NOT to leave Rollerland or the restaurant
without the approval of Dr. or Mrs. Anderson.

FINANCIAL: Rollerskating $10.00 (Please pay Dr. A.) and please provide funds for lunch.
Refreshments available: Yes!

Uniform pants with a belt & red monogrammed school shirts are required.
PARENTS / FRIENDS / NEIGHBORS, are always invited to participate on our trips.

IMPORTANT DATES:
Feb. 1 Tuition Deposits were Due for 2015-16
Mar. 9-13 Spring Break Holidays
April 3 & 6 (Fri. & Mon.) Easter Holidays
April 28 Scarborough Renaissance Festival (Drama Competition is “Twelfth Night”)
May 4 & 5 (Mon. & Tues.) Anderson School Theatrical Production “Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare” at Stage West Theater

“I’ll walk in the rain by your side,
I’ll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand.
I’ll do anything to help you understand,
and I’ll love you more than anybody can.
And the wind will whisper your name to me,
little birds will sing along in time.
Leaves will bow down when you walk by
and morning bells will chime.”
– John Denver

Please visit this (William’s) Weblog at andersonschool.net for trip details posted each Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.