Daily Quote, Monday April 20, 2009

Good morning everyone,

This morning's quote is on meditation again. It sems to go a bit further than the last few. What he seems to be saying is that anything that is useful cannot be an opening to the immeasurable. My reading of this is that to be useful, to have utility as he puts it, something must be compared. To this extent, to say that something is useful presupposes that something else is useless. So in true meditation there is no experience, no process of recognition in observation. Instead, the idea is to commune, which means to be close to, very close so that there is no separation of space and time. In communion there is the disolution of the self.

I thought our study group discussion of violence was incredible last night.

Next meeting is Sunday May 3. We'll be starting our discussion of The Ending of Time then. I will probably start to post quotes from this book on the blog as I'm reading it and would invite everyone to do the same with things they find of interest. If you're not sure how to post vs. leaving a comment, just ask me.

There is no meaning; there is no utility.

Perception without the word, that is without thought, is one of the strangest phenomena. Then the perception is much more acute, not only with the brain, but with all the senses. Such perception is not the fragmentary perception of the intellect nor the affair of the emotions. It can be called a total perception, and it is part of meditation. Perception without the perceiver in meditation is to commune with the height and depth of the immense. This perception is entirely different from seeing an object without an observer, because in the perception of meditation there is no object and therefore no experience. Meditation can take place when the eyes are open and one is surrounded by objects of every kind, but then these objects have no importance at all. One sees them but there is no process of recognition, which means there is no experiencing.

What meaning has such meditation? There is no meaning; there is no utility. But in that meditation there is a movement of great ecstasy, which is not to be confounded with pleasure. It is the ecstasy, which gives to the eye, to the brain, and to the heart the quality of innocence. Without seeing life as something totally new, it is a routine, boredom, and a meaningless affair. So meditation is of the greatest importance. It opens the door to the incalculable, the measureless.

Meditations 1969 - 3