Epiphanist

 

 

Famously, painter Thomas Hart Benton told his young art student Dennis Hopper: “One day you’ll learn to get tight, and paint loose.”
 
For an intuitive, spiritual being in the twenty first century, some elements of thinking need to be tight if free thought is to be exercised. Recognising those elements amongst the continual stimulation which is on offer can be a frustrating experience. There should be some basics that support inevitable changes to the comfort zone.
 
Epiphanist is a series of prose, verse and graphics describing concepts and insights which might form a sufficient structure for peaceful, inclusive, robust ideology.
 
Rene Descartes is a hero. He taught us how to remove our preconceptions and began a tradition of analytical consideration which is the basis for the rationality of science and logic. He is hailed as the father of modern thought.
 
To analyse the recurrent perceptions which come in prayer, love and spirit, and factor them into a rational thought pattern is one of the challenges of a modern spiritual existence. Accepting a skeptikal viewpoint which ignores these perceptions is to be poorer rather than wiser, even though the mythologies and superstitions traditionally adhering to the perceptions are often dubious.
 
It is comforting to think that we learn in a linear way by exercising our inquiring minds, but this is not necessarily the case. The radical and important learnings often come in quantum leaps, or epiphanies. In the world of reason, the well travelled leaps can be prescribed as steps in a curriculum and progressively and systematically explored, with tests and measures for understanding. The syllabus for a spiritual life is another matter altogether.
 
Spirituality in western society is dominated by the bible and the church. The persistence and pervasive influence of religion suggests that it either genuinely represents spiritual truth, or it is an accurate description of some of the hard wiring of the mind. In terms of the subjective quality of our humanity, there may ultimately be no way to make the distinction. A Christian heritage is neither an unfashionable outfit to casually discard nor a dogma to mindlessly cling to, there is a culture and tradition of learning, insight and understanding which endures beyond obvious human failing.
 
The famous epiphanist Saint Paul demonstrated the consequences of a sharp shift in thinking, and also that it can take millenia to realise the implications of new thinking. Over time, seemingly minor variations in ideology between the Pauline and Apostolic traditions generated heresies and schisms culminating in the reformation nearly five hundred years ago, and consequential, unfinalised philosophical divisions between the churches. Fundamental thinking must be very tight indeed!
 
Attempts to rationalise the wisdom of the Gospels do not stand up to rigorous logic, but this is the nature of spirituality. An expectation of ultimate truth is inevitably a fallacy in the spiritual context. While spiritual truth is evident and recognisable; acceptance of it’s paradoxical, personal and transient nature is often very difficult. It may be helpful for understanding to avoid contradiction by coming at each issue from different angles. This sort of lateral thinking might get easier with practice, or just be attributed to neuron leakage in an aging brain.
 
A thought does not take very long. Even a new concept might be easily contained in a thirty second grab. In the time it takes for the plot development of a traditional two hour movie, there could instead be a bombardment of two hundred and forty cleverly developed ideas, each in a carefully timed commercial space. The favourite medium of the age, the internet, flashes every realisation of the imaginable as fast as the data connection that can be afforded and the ability to accept or reject the data.
 
In the world of the thirty second grab it is easy to look for and find instant gratification. To approach Epiphanist in that way will reinforce what is already known rather than finding a common mind. Be patient. Amongst the clutter in the mind come fleeting half thoughts of almost comprehension. These concepts and contexts are slippery to grasp – like little fish!
 
“Put a little salt on their tails” my mother might say.
 
The double dactyl verse used throughout the work contorts words into a rigid space. The double dactyl was originally devised in the fifties by two poets, Hecht and Pascal, as a light verse form similar to a limerick. The challenge is always to preserve the context, and a bit of poetic licence is necessary from time to time. I can rarely bring myself to completely waste the first line, but always address the subject in the second, even if it is not someone’s name. Strictly speaking, the rules are that there are two four line stanzas, the last lines of each stanza must rhyme. All lines are double dactyl rhythm, except for the last lines of each stanza which are dactyl plus one – four syllables. The first line is usually a jingle, typically “higgledy piggledy”, and the second line is the subject, usually a name. The second stanza must contain a word of six syllables. Please enjoy them for what they are.
 
Apart from the quotes from the Bible and Lama Surya Das, and a few photos, all the work is original and protected by copyright.
 
Translated by the heart.
 
Laugh out loud in your Labor of love.
 
Grace and Peace to you.