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Dear LO,
one among us asked,
>>>What is mastery?
>>Only a master knows.
>Greetings dear Fred,
>It is just as sharp as the answer of Ray.
>I could have sworn master(y) came from the Saxon word "maest"=most. But
>the dictionary says it comes from the Latin "magister"=boss. Yet there is
>stil hope because "magis"=more in Latin. Check the spelling because
>"magos"=wizard.
>In Greek "magikos"=magic.
>Conclusion?
>Mastery is magic.
>With care and best wishes
>-- At de Lange
"Laetus in Praesens"
Florentine Academy
I chose those words by Ficino, because they say in English translation
"Joy in the Present"
I have always simplistically enjoyed that the 'present' is also a 'gift'
Many people mortgage the 'gift' that is the 'present'.
Listen, please let me share;-) something I learned this morning while the
sun shone:
"Ironically, at a time when much is made of "the future", for increasing
numbers of people there is "no future". They have no sense of having any
future. The future has been removed. For many there is a similar loss of the
past, as traditional communities are destroyed. They have "no past". Much has
been made of this sense of rootlessness and loss of history. The past has
thus also been removed. Curiously however people are encouraged to take up
mortgages, acquire obligations, or are forced into some form of bonded labour
(in certain societies). In the word mortgage, the 'mort'- derives from
'death' (as in mort ician) and -'gage' is from the sense of pledge to forfeit
something of value if a debt is not repaid. So 'mortgage' is literally a
'dead pledge'. It was dead for two reasons, the property was forfeit or
"dead" to the borrower if the loan were not repaid and the pledge itself was
dead if the loan was repaid. For many their future has been heavily
mortgaged. In this sense both past and future have been devastated and people
have been alienated from the present."
I am currently co-creatively engaged in the creativity of the 'present'. It
requires of me a lot of what At calls 'creative collapse'.
One aspect of 'creative collapse' is to become open of one's inner-private
self. This can be terrifying. My heart is always with the terrified. Listen
again at what else I learned this morning while the sun was shining,
streaming down :
"Much has been achieved through industrialization -- but much has also been
lost. Nevertheless industrialization, like globalization, is still
recommended as a panacea. The point to make here however is not a stress on
"back to the land" or romanticizing the wild, rather it is the patterns of
thinking that have been lost to many through this disconnection. Industrial
environments rarely offer reminders of patterns in nature -- with the ironic
exception of the atria of expensive hotels. Traditional farming offers,
metaphorically, patterns of sensitivity to an individual's immediate
environment that are absent in an industrialized environment.
This paper raises the question as to whether individuals can "farm the
present" for themselves. Is it possible to engage in patterns of relationship
with the present moment that nourish in significant ways -- whether or not
material foods are adequate? Are there "fields" to be ploughed and irrigated,
"crops" to be cultivated, "animals" to be husbanded -- in the microseconds of
attention that characterize the present moment, rather than the grosser
temporal preoccupations of the day? Are such patterns vital to engendering a
more fruitful future?"
In the light of certain 'mastery' prevailing hereabouts recently I found that
quite profound;-), well;-) in fact doubly profound;-) like two desert
wanderers bumping fortuitously into each other like ships in the night;-)
So, let's proceed with the morning's learning apace;-) :
"Much has necessarily been made of the rights of individuals to tangibles
(food, health, etc) and to intangibles manifest over time (freedom of
information, freedom of religion, etc). Little attention has focused on the
rights to what Christopher Alexander has discussed as the "quality without a
name" (Timeless Way of Building, 1979) as manifested in the moment.
Industrialized society has however come to recognize aspects of its
importance under the term "quality time" or in the increasing difficulty for
top corporations to retain valuable executives. But the point was made long
ago by the realization that "man cannot live by bread alone".
The question raised here is whether a future of quality in the moment can be
continually postponed to provide tangibles for some, and promises of
tangibles to others -- with little attention to the quality of experience in
the moment."
I am continually in awe at the mastery of the poor, the poorest of the poor.
To practice the deferment of gratification well beyond that expected of the
post-graduate of this, that or t'other Academy (sic). Lets go on to the
temporary end of my learning particle;
"A focus for such explorations is the significance in many cultures of the
natural spring -- stylized and enhanced in fountains. It is the upwelling of
the spring, which beautifully epitomizes the emergence of the present moment
-- defining the future and its transition into the past. In the brief moment
of emergence it holds imaginative magical qualities that have made it a focus
for human architecture down the ages. Unfortunately, in practice it is
surrounded by material accretions that deny the quality of that moment whilst
claiming to enhance it. It is in the world of these accretions that
industrialized culture encourages people to live. Spring water is commodifed
as bottled water imported from afar -- and the qualities of the present
moment are commodified in media moments."
"Time past and time future, What might have been and what has been, point to
one end, which is always present."
(T. S. Eliot)
"To master attention is to hold consciousness like a paintbrush and transform
one's life into living art."
(Vivian Wright)
"Mastery" alone;-) is just a word.
Lord, -- quae possit sibi omnia subjicere?
"Master&Friend", are you "alone"?
"Love",
Andrew
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