I consider her book Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry one of my spiritual texts. I haven't even read the whole danged thing. I just re-read and re-visit what I have read. (Maybe this particular blog/journey will get me all the way through it). The title of this post is from the introduction.
While at the Ojai Crib, Eric Schiffman said, "Whatever I pay attention to changes its quality."
Ravi Ravindra said "If we see the way it is, it changes the way it is." Ravi spent quite a bit of time on the kinds of attention and transcending the mind. Here's another excerpt from his Introduction to The Wisdom of Patanjali's Sutras:
"In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali emphasizes that Purusha knows not with the mind but through the mind, a realization echoed by William Blake when he said, 'I see not with the eyes but through the eyes.' The mind, the instrument of perception, interferes less and less as it becomes freer and freer of subjectivity. The progressive freedom to be attained in yoga is an increasing freedom not for myself but from myself. Then the mind can become a proper instrument of perception and can act in the service of the Real."
Purusha is by Ravi's definition: transcendent person, supreme being.
As to "freedom not for myself but from myself," my old friend Don Smith used to say, "If I could find the zipper on this monkey suit, I'd climb out of it." Certainly a sentiment I have many times echoed.
Back when we were young things in our twenties, my dear friend Martha and I used to describe "having bees" in our heads, when we were so caught up in our confused emotions, desires, and who knows what else to know what (WTF) to do. We got the bees from the Firesign Theater's I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus, ""Living in today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But, there they are." When we were (and still are, from time to time) in that state of noise and turmoil, we were miserable, indecisive, and unlikely to do the right thing.
Happily, I rarely have bees in my head anymore. (I think the dementors* kicked them out.)
But one thing you cannot do with bees in your head is be(e) attentive. I am all for bees, for sure. But your head is not a good place for a hive.
In the first essay from Nine Gates, Hirschfield, speaking of poetry says, "It begins...in the body and mind of concentration. By concentration, I mean a particular state of awareness: penetrating, unified, and focused, yet also permeable and open."
That sure sounds like yoga to me. And a perfect state from which to write.
More on this to follow.
Click here for a nice interview with Jane Hirschfield.
*Dementors
- For other meanings see Dementor (disambiguation).
The Dementors are soulless creatures[7] considered to be among the foulest beings on Earth. They are soul-sucking fiends who, as their name suggests, dement people who encounter them for too long. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban, until after the return of Lord Voldemort. In the books, Dementors appear to have a generally human shape, approximately 3 metres (10 feet) in height, but covered in dark, hooded cloaks that reveal only gray, decayed hands. The wraith-like creatures have no eyes, and there is a large hole where the mouth should be. According to the author, they grow like fungi in the darkest, dankest places, creating a dense, chilly fog. They appear to possess a few traits of magic, such as unlocking doors (one unlocks and opens the door separating itself from Harry by a gesture of its hand) and notably, their ability to glide (fly, in the film adaptations) unsupported in either world. The Dementors' intelligence is also seldom hinted at, but they are presumed sentient as they have been seen leading revolts and know how to use their abilities.
Being blind, Dementors hunt their prey by sensing emotions. They feed on the positive emotions, happiness and good memories of human beings, forcing them to relive their worst memories. The very presence of a Dementor makes the surrounding atmosphere grow cold and dark, and the effects are cumulative with the number of Dementors present. Despite their attachment to human emotion, Dementors seem to have difficulty distinguishing one human from another, as demonstrated by Barty Crouch Jr's escape from Azkaban, wherein they could detect no emotional difference between the younger Crouch and his mother. They also have difficulty sensing animals because their feelings are more primitive than human emotions; this particular weakness enabled Sirius Black to escape from Azkaban in Animagus form.
Besides feeding on positive emotions, Dementors can perform the Dementor's Kiss, where the Dementor latches its mouth onto a victim's lips and sucks out the person's soul. One such Dementor nearly succeeded in defeating Harry Potter using this method. The victim is left as an empty shell, incapable of thought and with no possibility of recovery. It is believed that existing after a Dementor's Kiss is worse than death.
Because they are immortal, very few methods exist to repel a Dementor; one way to shield oneself from Dementors is to use the Patronus Charm to drive them away. Chocolate is an effective first aid against the effects of mild cases of contact, which may suggest a non-magical, physiological effect on a person's endorphin count. Dementors are invisible to Muggles, but affect them in the same way.
Harry first encounters Dementors during the beginning of his third year of school, when they are sent to guard Hogwarts against Sirius Black, who has recently escaped Azkaban. Harry, whenever he gets near one, is forced to relive his worst memory: hearing the last moments of his parents' lives before they are murdered by Voldemort, which begins with Harry hearing his mother screaming. To overcome the Dementors, Harry asks Remus Lupin for assistance. Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus Charm, albeit with some difficulty.
At the end of Order of the Phoenix, the Dementors of Azkaban stage a mass revolt against their employers to join Voldemort, as he can provide them with more humans to feast upon; in Deathly Hallows, the Ministry, under the control of Voldemort, uses Dementors to punish Muggle-borns due to Voldemort's hatred of Muggles and Muggle-borns. The Dementors also take Voldemort's side during the Battle of Hogwarts, mainly since they knew that he would be much more lenient on their choice of victims. After the appointment of Kingsley Shacklebolt to the position of Minister for Magic, Dementors are removed from Azkaban, and the Ministry contains them by limiting their numbers.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is explained that dementors breeding create excessive amounts of fog, noticeable to wizards and Muggles alike.
J.K. Rowling created the Dementors after a time in her life in which she, in her own words, "was clinically depressed."
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