"Becoming The Flower"
Recently. I posted a series of blogs on the topic: "What Is Reality?".It was a particular experience that I had, which I have attempted to describe below, that motivated me to write the same:
In my early thirties, I was reading two books alternately: “Existentialism” by John McQuarrie, and “Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis” by Erich Fromm, D.T. Suzuki and Richard De Martino. At that time, I knew nothing about Zen Buddhism. I was familiar with Psychoanalysis, having read a bit of Sigmund Freud's work; in fact, that is the reason I bought the book.
One evening, I was sitting outside in a shaded area reading one of the books. I think it was “Existentialism” (although I am not certain since it happened so long ago; besides, both books were playing in my mind as I was reading them alternately). I was trying to get an understanding of “existentialism” based on the following quote by the author from the work of Jean Paul Sartre:
“Man's existence precedes his essence. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and then defines himself afterwards.
If man is not definable, it is to begin with, he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself.”
Jean Paul Sartre
At the same time, the following quotes from the lectures on Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki in the book, Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, came to me:
“Flower in the crannied wall
I pluck you out of the crannies:-
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower – but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.”
Tennyson
“When I look carefully
I see the nazuna blooming
by the hedge!”
– Basho
Suzuki was trying to point out a difference in the “Western” and the “Eastern” ways of seeing.
(cont'd in comments section)
Comments (21)
In the second poem, Basho, a Japanese poet was walking along when he came across a beautiful nazuna flower blooming by a hedge. He also was moved by the beauty of the scene with the flower flourishing alonside the hedge. Just like Tennyson, he composed a poem (haiku) seeking to express the feeling it evoked in him.
In Tennyson's case, the flower had to die. He plucked it out of the crevice and held it in his hand in trying to understand the mystery it represented. However, he was now dealing with a dead flower, not the living flower as it existed when he first saw it. Whatever understanding he arrived at would not have been in relation to to the live flower as it existed.
In Basho's case, he sought to appreciate the live flower as it existed and composed his poem based on this. In a sense, in his attempt to know and understand the flower, he projected himself into the flower and “became” the flower.
It is significant that in Basho's case, the flower lived whereas in Tennyson's case, the flower died.
(cont'd in comments section)
I can assure everyone that this was not an LSD trip or a high due to any drug since I have never taken such substances.
This sentence my friend is the point in your experience.....what ever we experience differently from normal life can happen only by a change in time speed......it happen like inside a vacuum , where the time is different from outside and indeed you are right, it is a separated different dimension ......it happen more or less always,when we make discoveries ......outside that vacuum dimension everything else are moving in a different time......normal Science has not yet recognize it, but it belong to Spiritual science, as I have name it........one day in the future, we Humans are going to use it to move to other Solar systems, as it is going to give the capability.
I have been in that Dimension several times and the special thing is, that inside it, the gravity can show it self into a different direction, than to the Earth.
When my sister died I felt and heard something differently all together, never forgot that either. Certainly not the same but certainly a different dimension if I can say it that way.
The first experience I do not need to repeat as it stays vividly when I bring it to the fore.
The second I would not want to experience again, no less vivid when I rarely think about it.
I am at peace with life Socrates so do not delve into anything, as i believe i am lucky in just being.
Wishing you well
to make it little more clear, as it is not so easy to understand, because there is no comfortable word to explain the meaning and function of that dimension.....so I meditated this morning and I got a word, that can give little more information what it is all about and the word is PORTABLE........
That dimension is in some way isolated from the normal world we experience, but not separated....it can flout in a vacuum, like an own little Universe and are able to move with the person, that is inside it and experiencing it or what ever is inside it.
The time speed is completely different inside and very often you see from inside the outer World as moving very slowly.......like if you drive a care with high speed, it is still looking like that the care are moving slowly in the normal world time speed and when you could in normal state never keep the care in that speed,without crashing out, when in that vacuum dimension it looks like moving slowly trough the curve.
What you experienced in that Dimension was, that you like cloned your self for some time to a flower.......when I check my children, if all is ok in them, that same thing happen to me, but in my case I am becoming the child, that I check.....I can see, feel and react to everything, as that person....it is like I am exactly him or her.....and all to that, I'm able to dig into the even deep parts and to experience if something is not ok.
In that dimension system, you can stop the time, move backward or forward in time.....the same what Tesla told about, when he said, that he saw the past, present an future in the same time......so all new inventions are also worked out in that similar vacuum dimension.......and there is no limit at all, to what you can experience and what information you can get in that dimension or reach out to other more specific dimensions......all is, are you open to it or are you in a box......and more you give freedom to your self and let it open more, more you are going to understand about the mystery of the life and our meaning of existence.
And the Alien spacecrafts, that thousands of people have seen, they are almost sure in a vacuum dimension too.....so it looks like they have advanced already so much in science, that they can work out by skills a vacuum dimension and move the spacecraft like a portable devise, with a different time speed inside, perhaps zero time in use.
Yes, and I know, some of you, that are reading this are for sure making me crazy......but I am happy to not be bound in dogmas and only believe, as I know, that we can be able to open doors to real knowledge, if we are ready to use the hug capacity that is in the real hiding inside our self.......
Although not directly related to the subject of your blog, I thought this quote by Osho may be appropriate :
If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
So if you love a flower, let it be.
Love is not about possession.
Love is about appreciation.
The sharp-edged shards no longer seem broken but soft,downey and light.
Thanks for your scientific insight into my experience which I felt was of some unique and unusual dimension of consciousness that transcended the ordinary day-to-day reality.
You have expressed some very interesting views about a "vacuum dimension" and Time based on your own experience.
My focus is simply on the beautiful feeling and joyous emotion that I experienced.
Thanks again for sharing your views with us.
"I am at peace with life Socrates so do not delve into anything, as i believe i am lucky in just being."
I know you have a special connection with Nature, which is reflected in your "tree hugging" whereby you experience that peace which you mentioned.
My reference to becoming the flower obviously is not meant literally, of course.
The focus is on the realization of a "living flower", and not on a dead flower as depicted in Tennyson's poem.
One "becomes the flower" by becoming one with the living flower through experiencing a sense of unity with it and all things in Nature.
Your reference to the quote by Osho also stresses the significance of the "living flower".
I had an experience like that too
That's very interesting , I just summed it all to one conclusion - there is a middle to everything. Easy enough, you were just between reading n writing n examining life and death. Which one you chose that helped you see the sky n clouds clearly n beautifully is where you belong. Right here sweety lol right here on this crazy earth where life, where most of the time, is a beautiful thing :)
You made your right choice, I would have chose that too lol
Btw, am not a Dr or anything of the sort, I just found it easy to figure it out ;)
Further to my comment to you re the living flower in contrast to the dead flower,
here is something I wrote and posted on CS Poetry Corner:
Life and a living being
can never be separated
See one
and you see the other
Destroy one
and you destroy the other
Pluck a flower from a tree
and dissect it
to understand it
You no longer have that flower
as it existed
on the tree
You may have an understanding
of the relationship
between the components
of a dead flower
but you will have forever lost
the totality of the experience
of the LIVING flower
To see the flower
in its completeness
BECOME THE FLOWER
and understand a reality
that can only be experienced
but can never be put into words
for the whole is more than
the sum of its parts
Glad to know you had a similar experience that was blissful.
Thanks for your input.
“There was a moment when I was in Gombe National Park and it began to pour rain, and then the rain stopped and I could smell the smell of wet hair on the chimpanzees and I could hear the insects singing loudly, and I just felt absolutely at one and it was a sense of awe and wonder.
Out in the rainforest you learn how everything is interconnected and each little species, even though it may seem insignificant has a role to play in the tapestry of life.”
(courtesy of Google)
The path that leads past heaven
and far beyond the highest god-realms
runs straight from the spot
where we happen to be standing
It is mysterious and invisible
to minds befogged by concepts
such as good and evil
light and dark
going and arriving
self and other
is and is not
To perceive it requires
the seeing beyond sight
the hearing beyond sound
The truth is grasped
when the mind in its stillness
reaches the no-place beyond thought
Knowledge is discarded
Wisdom remains
God and no-god are found to be identical
No mental concept is involved
only experience
-a unique perception
joy-bestowing
that leads to imperturbable tranquillity
to recognition of the beauty
inherent in every flower
in every grain of dust
cement or dung
and to unqualified liberation
from the human state
The experience is nameless
being luminously perceptible
but utterly beyond description
This is the way of mysticism
Unfortunately
everything pertaining to mysticism
lies beyond definition and description
Transcending logic
it deals with truth
that is attainable only
by direct intuition
The Taoist Lao-tzu says of it:
He who knows does not speak
He who speaks does not know
WoW!!
Your experience reminds me very much of the account of the man I admire a lot, Sadhguru....
May I humbly ask a few minutes of your time, Socrates, to watch it?
Thank you
Thanks for your comment.
I viewed the video on Sadhguru that you mentioned. He seems to be the latest guru from India advocating some form of yoga meditation. There have been several others preceding him, including Osho.
I agree that such meditation can lead one to a deep unique spiritual experience.
However, my experiences are based on a direct immediate insight into the unity of all things in Nature. I consider such insight as supra-conceptual awareness.
As I mentioned in my comment to Molly:
One "becomes the flower" by becoming one with the living flower through experiencing a sense of unity with it and all things in Nature.
Take Care.