from BARDO

The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way our umbilicus.

Is it a consolation that the stuff of which we’re made

is star-stuff too?


– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –

dispersal only: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.


Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.


Roselle Angwin

Saturday 12 July 2014

The Dharma of Beenleigh

Delighted to say they're trickling in now. Here's one drafted last Saturday by one of the workshop participants – he who wrote his own questions a la original starting point (sorry; I don't know where the accent is for that 'a'); I love the way he dips in and out of right and left brain, we could say. Some of the responses – eg the 'makes your wits sharper' phrases, and the response to the 'exome' q (what's an exome? No really?) – are truly wonderful. Some really make me smile.

Thanks, DR.


~


The Dharma of Beenleigh

What is sanity? Remembering enough but not too much.

What is science? The differential calculus of the mind

What is art? The integral calculus of the mind.

What does the right brain do? See the wood from the trees.

What is attention? Selflessness.

What is attunement? Going with the grain.

What is acknowledgment? Living in, not on, the universe.

Why have we come today? To reap.

Who were our ancestors? Lovers. Chatters. Daubers. Flint knappers. Hunters. Mourners.

What does the left brain do? Break down complex stimuli into patterns to predict causal regularities.

What is the exome? The world putting its hand on our shoulders.

What is science ? Our bread and butter.

How do you avoid a hangover? Drink milk before bed, the insulin alerts your liver.

What does Brian do? Whatever the fuck he wants.

Who was the King of Svalbard?

A clam-eater, a horse-whale, a beast with bad breath, a tusker.

How do we forget? Digging the soil.

What is soil? The tablecloth beneath our banquet.

What is that smell? Ash has been walking in the rain. Good dog Ash.

What is science? Waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

What is poetry? Waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

What are your favourite birds? Redshanks, no, on second thoughts, snow buntings, wait a minute, blackbirds...gannets.... how could I live without gannets.....I give up.

Why don't you eat birds? Because it ruins them.

What is insanity? Can't you remember?

What must I say? Thank you for returning me to myself.



© D Racey July 2014

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