email conversation with F.
Subject: Sunday in June Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2004 17:13:25 -0400

> What is happening to our book writing? It is stalled! Can we still proceed and how?

Well, those things have cycles. Sometimes you write more, sometimes you write less. It's OK. What counts is that, in the end, you produce something useful and of value.

Of course we can proceed. :) We just did. ;)

> There is no more passion for questions and answers....

Believe me, it will come back at some time. :) It's OK. Why obsess about questions and answers anyway?

Remember: Don't take *anything* seriously. And first, not yourself! (Always keep this in mind: Taking oneself seriously in the beginning of the end, when it comes to the pursuit of Wisdom. One can be serious, or wise. It's very difficult to be both.)

> J doesn't agree you comments about literature as unimportant.

He must be a literary guy. ;) Wisely, I already mounted some advance defense about my disrespect for literature. :) Let me add to it that some French writer of importance once said something to the effect that "literature is the art of arising tempests in a glass of water". ;) I respect all water ("Water, Bearer of all Life" as Schauberger said), but the ocean is more impressive than the glass, wouldn't you agree? (Although in the middle of the Sahara, the glass might be more useful :)

So, get me right: I have nothing about good writing. ;)

I even personally prefer to express myself with a minimum of literary form, as you must have noticed. About that, some friends of mine remarked that I must love listening to myself. Which, of course, is probably somewhat true. ;) But then, why not? To paraphrase a bit the French proverb, "ce qui ce concoit bien s'enonce clairement": What is well conceived should be easily enounced, and structured language should be able to convey a bit more than Ebonics.

But I can't take on myself to think that any of it, my own production included, is of any real importance. It's just words, on a piece of paper or a screen.

> Do you discount passion? Do you discount emotions?

Not at all! Passion kills people, and also builds empires. How could one discount that?

As for emotions, they are the fuel that moves us to act.

This is all very real, and substantial.

However, both passions and emotions are made up out of Desire, formed up out of dreams. In other words, they are of the substance of Maya. Taking them at first level, or taking them *seriously*, are both things quite incompatible with Enlightenment, it appears to me.

> Do you simplify everything as mind trips?

Yes and no. There are things beyond the mind. However, anything we "think", or "believe", is by definition an operation of the mind. That is, if you want to call it that way, a "mind trip".

> Do you warn against taking everything seriously?

That, for sure.

> Do you advice me to observe everything, including passion and emotions?

Certainly so. Any school pursuing wisdom, awakening, or enlightenment is going to advise the same, in one form or another.

> Should we detach ourselves as much as we can from this world, and why?

Yes and no. As someone said before, we should "be in this world, as if we were out of this world". Immersed, yet, aware of the world's ultimate nature, and, therefore, detached.

> What does it mean to be human and not god?

That is an answer each of us has to probe and ferret out for themselves. But at any rate, who said you and I are not God? Or, at least, a legitimate aspect and expression of God?

Even if we can't walk on water.

And even that... who says we can't walk on water, or levitate, or bilocate, or teleport, or anything the mind can conceive? If we attuned ourselves to the world in such a manner that it became possible, then, it would be...

My feeling about such things is it's not because *I* can not do it, right now, or because reductionist rationalism claims it's impossible, that it can't be done...

About impossible things, you know, in late 1902 or early 1903, a man who was perhaps the most illustrious Professors of Physics in the USA at the time wrote an article in Scientific American. There, he explained, and mathematically proved, why heavier than air flight was *scientifically impossible*.

Fortunately, the Wright Brothers did not know about it, or did not care. In any event, what they did a couple weeks later apparently changed the Laws of Physics.

The conclusion of this is or, the noted physicist was wrong, or the collective undertaking of those who believed in heavier than air flight actually *did* change the laws of physics. Now, OK, this might sound a bit far-fetched. However, if the Observer modifies what is Observed, does it not ensue that such a thing as modifying the very laws regulating the process might indeed be possible? Think of it!

In fact, this is a view, which I hold as perfectly possible, from a rational point of view. And that, precisely because of the laws of physics themselves, at a higher level, and as we know them. This is an area where Giordano Bruno had great insights.

> Why do you sometimes seem like you are outside of this world, or above this world?

If I seem that way, *then*, I must indeed have achieved some level of Wisdom. ;)

> Is struggle and suffering intrinsic?

As the Lord Buddha once demonstrated, struggle and suffering are the price we pay for our entanglements with Maya. In other words, it comes with the territory.

> When I started this email I did not intend to ask questions. Should I update the rest of those 84 questions from a few weeks ago? I don't even want to look at those questions!

Well, you just updated them a bit, and got the answers right away. Someday soon, you will get another installment on the 84 questions. ;) So no need to look at them more, right now. They will come back to haunt you at any rate, along with their answers. All of it naturally, and with no further suffering of your part. ;)

> I cannot concentrate on ANYTHING for longer than 10 seconds (except when I am daydreaming and thinking and writing down my thoughts like this).

Harness the power of daydreaming, transforming it into an industrious servant.

> How can I learn concentration? Should I practice meditation?

That is at any rate definitely a great idea.

> I am so scattered and unfocused, in every way. Sometimes I feel this is just intrinsic of me. [I'd suggest to use "consubstantial to me" here, rather. It's an intrinsic quality or feature of you...]

As for being unfocused, this, again, is making a great case for the need for a good Master... ;)

> Can I use this to my advantage, and how? Or must I learn to control my thoughts?

Answer to the first part: Yes, certainly. Actually, since this is one of the mark of a "generalist", in a way, you should develop that aspect of your self. And turn a possible handicap into a feature or quality. Remember: Your degree is like a guarantee of income, whatever you want to focus on. Therefore, rather than trying to control your thoughts, learn to harness this "scattered-ness" of you mind. Turn it to your advantage, for whatever you truly wish to do. Which, I believe, is to express your creativity, and a certain natural talent and proclivity to think in global terms, and dwell in territories where Science and Art do converge, to perhaps become One...

> Scattered again,

> Ah san

I know it might sound like some sort of pro-domo plea, which it is not, but to me it again appears clearly that your considerable talents cannot truly be expressed without some morphogenetic (form-giving) external input. Exactly like actors and writers need and have agents, managers, and editors, to help them be themselves, and make money, so do you, at a different, yet somewhat similar levels.

So, if I were you, I'd maybe choose some subject in Epistemology that is precisely somehow at the confines of Art and Science. It can be "scattered" as much as you want: The fact that you have nothing to prove in hard science anymore, gives you the ability to go as far into these confines as you wish. From there on, we could perfectly actually create here a grad school where you'd indulge in any pursuit that please your mind at a given time, and teach whatever you wish.

Actually, there is an existing model for that: About 500 years ago, in France, King Francois I created an institution just for this. It still exists today, and is called the "College de France". It is both the most prestigious academic institution in France, and a place where people like you and me can teach whatever they want, however they want it, and get paid for it. (I always thought I should someday try to get a position there. :)

We could create something like that here, at some small level. If we do, sooner or later, if we pursue this, it might very well get grants, bequests, donations. Slowly giving substance to this flimsy, crazy idea. ;)

At any rate, amid something of that nature is where you should seek to be. Someday. And you can be, if you truly wanted.

F