Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The quest for Arcadia

I want to learn how to “contemplate silence”. Maybe I should lean how to meditate! Cam anyone give an obsessive compulsive overindulged lunatic a few practical guidelines?

I wish to learn how to block out certain impulses… “…things that tantalise and infuriate the mind and which also blot out of perception things subsequently seen.

Because for something to be seen requires consciousness and if the mind is dwelling on a previous detail, it sees nothing afterwards but its own thoughts and reactions.


And so much remains always unseen where there is much that fascinates the mind and eye….


..A whole philosophy lies in the paradox, a life lived at speed, with many gaps in perceived reality, many things and events not looked at properly or deeply, which would later haunt one as fragments of dreams. A life viewed all mixed up with, with dreams unclear.

Life tending towards dream.

Like the swift mysterious life of Alexander the Great. A life, which, because of so many mental puzzles, so many incidents to report, to perplex, leads the mind towards a preference for stillness.

Preference for a life where things are given time to unfold, to reveal their hidden wonders or terrors.

Preference for a life where seeing is just as difficult, because it requires such stillness of heart, such patience, such concentration, such quietness of mind, such motionlessness of spirit”. Ben Okri in In Arcadia.

I can sense that there is something I must discover, in order to set my mind at ease – a message – a revelation of some sort… and much needed tolerance for major and minor annoyances…

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