Replying to LO27478 --
Dear At,
you asked me about imagination the other day...and by a strange
co-incidence this morning I was reading around LO27478...and you'll
appreciate my inter-est ;-) in smaller things of the world...
LO27487
>Brown observed in biology through a microscope that tiny pollen grains on
>the surface of water were actually moving erratically around. Up to that
>time a lot of theoretical physics under the name "statistical mechanics"
>was done on the atomic-molecular level of matter. But little of its
>outcomes could be observed directly on the macroscopic level of matter.
>Einstein immediately IMAGINED that the collisions of the unobservable
>small water molecules might be responsible for the observable erratic
>motion of the pollen grains on water. From the unobservable molecular side
>he then IMAGINED just how much and in what manner they would kick the
>pollen grains around. He then made calculations to predict properties of
>the observable motion of the pollen grains, for example how far a pollen
>would travel before changing the direction of its motion. These
>predictions were amazingly correct.
AROUND THAT TIME I wrote this that I re-found also a few days ago...
(Long passage appearing here)
P e a c e a n d S t o r m
'Cat Devouring a Bird', Picasso 1939
Integration
"In the calm of Yeravda jail Gandhi sat at his spinning wheel, reading
voluminously and, in the absence of any external restrictions, wrote a
stream of letters."
Just before this, "-The Sikh leader was like a gladiator in Rome, a
Herculean man, with his beard tied to his ears. He was being struck on the
head. I stood about six feet from him and watched. He was hit until his
turban came undone and fell down and his topknot was exposed. A few more
blows and his hair came undone and fell down on his face. A few more and
blood began to drip off his dangling black hair. He stood there with his
hands at his sides. Then a particularly heavy blow and he fell forward on
his face. I could hardly hold myself back. I wanted to grab that white
sergeant's lathi. I stood next to him. He was so sweaty from his exertions
that his tunic was stained with sweat. I watched him with my heart in my
mouth. He drew back his arm for a final swing, and then he too dropped his
hands down by his side. 'It is no use,' he said turning to me with a half
apologetic grin,' you can't hit a bugger when he stands up to you like
that.' He gave the Sikh a mock salute and walked off.
No other Sikhs tried to shield him, but now, shouting their defiance and
determination to die rather than move they rushed at him with cakes of ice
to rub the contusions over his eyes and wiped away the blood from his
mouth. The Sikh gave me a bloody smile, and stood up for more."
[I have been reflecting on the relationships between dissipation and
congregation. Between a letting go and a gathering up - Between a
conservation and a creation - Between an integration and a disintegration.
North Moreton, 8th October 2001]
"The Government of India has imprisoned Gandhi and they have been sitting
at his cell door, begging him to help them out of their difficulties."
Winston Churchill 1930
Inside-out and Outside-in: A Lesson in Perspective
"I sank within me, my grief consisted in the doubt about my own ability to
lead those who would not follow... I felt that God was speaking to me
through them and seemed to say, 'Thou fool, knowest not thou that thou art
impossible? Thy time is up.' I saw that I was utterly defeated and
humbled. But defeat cannot dishearten me. It can only chasten me. My
faith in my creed stands immovable. I know that God will guide me. Truth
is superior to man's wisdom." Gandhi, 'Young India' 1924
Lord Reading, the Viceroy wrote, " Gandhi is now attached to the tail of
Das and Nehru, although they try their utmost to make him and his
supporters think that he is one of the heads, if not the head. It is
pathetic to observe a rapid decline in the power of Gandhi and the frantic
attempts he now makes to cling to his position of leader at the expense of
practically every principle he has hitherto advocated. I have always
believed in the sincerity of his devotion to high ideals, but I have
always doubted the wisdom of his political leadership and have felt that
personality played far too important a part in his mental equipment." 1924
The Roundness of Tables and Truth-Force ~ Satyagraha
"Tell us," asked Pierre Ceresole of Gandhi, "what qualities you think a
leader needs?" Gandhi said, "Realization of God every minute of the twenty
four hours." We are now in 1938-9. At the Conference convened in London
Rolland and Gandhi resume a duologue on, "- The state of Europe and art
and nonviolence and God - an Eternal principle, Gandhi said, not a person
in a anthropomorphic sense. On the subject of art he expressed the view
that art and truth ought to be synonyms, "I am against the formula 'art
for arts sake.' For me all art must be based on truth. I reject beautiful
things if, instead of expressing truth, they express untruth." He agreed
with Rolland that "Art brings joy and is good." But he would only accept
this on the condition he mentioned, "To achieve truth in art, I do not
need an exact reproduction of external things. Only living things bring
joy to the soul and must elevate the soul." Later Rolland reflected on all
this and wrote, "-I have a feeling today that Gandhi's path is sharply
marked out, and in many things so distinct from mine, that we have little
to discuss with each other. Each knows exactly where he is going, and
Gandhi's path is perfect for himself and his people, I would not wish it
were different, I admire and love him like that." And upon a further
inner-recursion he reflected, " His mind proceeds through successive
experiments into action and he follows a straight line, but he never
stops, and one would risk error in attempting to judge him by what he said
ten years ago because his thought is in constant revolution."
Later that same year he met the Fascist dictator Mussolini. He asked for
Gandhi's opinion of his fascist state. "You are building a house of
cards." He told him. When Gandhi was asked what impression Il Duce made
upon him he said, " He has the eyes of a cat... they move about in every
direction as if in constant rotation... he looks so menacing even when he
smiles."
Gandhi had another 'private' name, Moniya.
"Moniya could be said to have grown up on my lap," His sister wrote "- I
used to carry him in my arms when I went out for a walk or for recreation.
Mother used to be worried lest I drop him or lose sight of him. Moniya was
restless as mercury, could not sit still even for a little while. He must
either be playing or roaming about. I used to take him out with me and
show him the familiar sights and the street - cows, buffaloes and horses,
cats and dogs. He was full of curiosity. At the first opportunity, he
would go up to the animals and try to make friends with them. One of his
favourite pastimes was twisting dog's ears."
"Children, look upward with your beclouded eyes, and a world full of love
and joy will disclose itself to you, a rational world made by my wisdom,
the only real world. Then you would know what Love has done with you, what
Love has bestowed upon you, and what Love demands of you. "
'Where there is suffering, there is duty.'
20th January2001
"An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities that
make a superb nation. The soul of the largest and wealthiest and proudest
nation may well go half way to meet that of its poets. The signs are
effectual. There is no fear of mistake. If the one is true the other is
true. The proof of the poet is that his country absorbs him as
affectionately as he has absorbed it." Walt Whitman
Gandhi. A Post Script...."I have always believed in his personal sincerity
and devotion to high ideals, but I have always doubted the wisdom of his
political leadership and have felt that personality played far too
important a part in his mental equipment."
Another furcation...
-In fact, Gandhi resumed traveling around the vast nation. He continued
the campaign against 'untouchability'. The manifestation of this faith
brought him much ridicule. He went about similarly industrializing India
through nothing bigger than the humble spinning wheel. He said,
" It is my certain conviction that every thread that I draw I am spinning
the destiny of India."
"One day about this time in a small town called Bogura, Bengal he came
upon a small seven-year-old Muslim girl pulling away yarn at great speed.
He stood before her, but she would not look up. He pulled her ear and
asked: 'Do you know Mahatma Gandhi?' "
[It is now late evening and let us follow this little girl into her modest
house, let us watch as she lays down her head upon some stone for a
pillow;-) and pulling her shawl over her face she falls into a dream. She
dreams a dream of a fiery wheel.] "-I see a wheel, and it is rolling down
a road and it burns me." It seems to be a sun symbol. "This is a
manifestation of a sympathetic nature --" (CG Jung, Tavistock Lectures)
Her father tells that she is, 'very fond of animals'. Of this Jung
wrote..."The most cautious statement one could make would be to say that
there is a certain accumulation of energy in the sympathetic system that
causes slight disturbances." The image of the revolving wheel, "- reminds
us of the wheel upon which Ixion was crucified."
"I am become a question unto myself." St Augustine.
"What would it be like if all people were integrated/adapted? It would be
boring beyond endurance. There must be some people who behave in the wrong
way; they act as scapegoats and objects of interest for normal ones. Think
how grateful you are for detective novels and newspapers, so that you can
say, 'Thank heaven I am not that fellow who has committed that crime, I am
a perfectly innocent creature.' You feel satisfaction because the evil
people have done it for you. This is the deeper meaning of the fact that
Christ as the Redeemer was crucified between two thieves. The thieves in
their way were also redeemers of mankind, they were the scapegoats." (CG
Jung)
"- to die at the hands of a brother rather than by disease or in some
other way cannot be for me a matter of sorrow...I would deserve praise
only if I fell as a result of such an attack and yet remained with a smile
on my face and no malice against the doer...All perpetrators should be won
over through love."
Love,
Andrew Campbell
Easter 2003
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