Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Spirituality and Philosophy
Learning at Warp Speed
I was reminded of the theme of “big history” recently. Collective leaning is a powerful force, and it’s not clear we’re learning. Big history shows us the broad sweep of evolution, physical, chemical, biological. We haven’t had the knowledge to tie all these together before the mid-late 20th century. We are the living residue of […]
“A World Too Wide For His Shrunk Shank”
This age-ist phrase was used by William Shakespeare in a little speech given by the character Jaques in the play, As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7), to describe the 6th of the “Seven Ages of Man.” This sixth age is older than the “Justice” (the 5th age), and senility, the seventh, age. The […]
“Another Lens on Reality”
That’s how the later Ursula LeGuin described her work. I don’t claim to know what sense she had of her line, but if we expand “reality” as a concept to include every-one, and then include everyone to include the sentient life forms such as the snake-people on the fifth planet circling the giant start Betelgeuse—don’t […]
“Being Yourself”—Some Thoughts
A contemplation on two poems from the early-mid 20th century poet, e. e. cummings: — "may I be I is the only prayer— not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong." – – "to be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody […]
“Focusing Agents”
The following is only a mytho-poetic exercise: So imagine the living cosmos requires at some point in its evolution the development of a layer of advancing consciousness that can become reflective, can recognize itself as conscious, and from that, move into recognizing the world and the universe as emerging into consciousness. (That’s me! and maybe […]
“Glory Be” Is God
I speculate philosophically and theologically with certain friends, so when my pal Anthony Skrovan asked at lunch, “So what do you think was going on before the Big Bang?”, it was fun to dare to imagine an answer. Before I share it with you, though, a disclaimer: Of course I don’t know to the tenth […]
“Rationally Coordinated”
One of my heroes, Alfred North Whitehead, has a definition of philosophy at the end of his Adventures of Ideas. He speaks of novel ideas, “rationally coordinated.” that’s somewhat ambiguous. What if the novel idea is that truth cannot be fully or even largely rationally coordinated, but yet this idea is rationally coordinated enough to […]
“Reality” as a Mind-Spectrum
I’ve elsewhere proposed that many dimensions of mind be viewed as a spectrum, and here I suggest that the experience of reality also be thus portrayed. Some things seem really, really, real, while other things seem pretty unreal. The key word is seem and what is at issue here is the illusion that something is […]
“Truth” in Psychotherapy
The idea that one theory for mind is true and the others less so is based on an idea that truth is one, whereas I think it likely that what’s true for one “level” may not be true for other levels or categories. What works for elementary arithmetic may not be true for psychology. It’s […]
“Ultimate Concern”
Paul Tillich, the theologian, uses this phrase to refer to his approach to theology. He attributes this to everyone, but I think people relate to religion at their own level of consciousness. Tillich is attributing to everyone an abstract resonance that he himself experiences. (I tend to do this also, because I take my thinking […]
“We Grow Too Soon Old…”
So begins an old German proverb; and finishes with: “… and too late, smart!” It’s okay, though. I’m discovering in the elder years that much can happen: First, we grow smarter, but discover waves and mountains that we yet don’t know—and some of these are things that (a) no human knows yet—and there’s two categories […]
“Wisdom-ing”
As I reflect on life and mind, I think that the word “wisdom” would better be appreciated as a verb: “wisdom-ing.” It is something you do, not are. One doesn’t “have” wisdom, or even “attain” wisdom, as if, once attained, is sustained by its own power. Rather, wisdom-ing is a doing, an activity. When and […]
"Other than That, He’s Perfectly Normal”
This line from a skit in the mid-1970s done by the British comedy troupe, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which was on public television at the time. The line would address the fallacy of normality —there are so many variables that no one could ever be “normal” —but rather everyone copes with the institutional requirements, and […]
0 Great Swami
I have much respect for many of the spiritual teachers, but I’m aware there’s a lot of flim-flam going on. This cartoon lay at my feet this morning and as I’ve opened to Grace (or coincidence?) it occurred to me to post it and free associate: These two characters pointedly comment on the verbiage that […]
A “True” Story (?)
A friend today sent me one of those touching stories about whatever—there are a number of them floating around in cyberspace. The email said: “(This is a true story.)” Oh, well, then, it must be so—I mean, if it weren’t so, why would someone say that? Sincerely, now, I really mean this. To be utterly […]
A Christmas Tree Contemplation
I’m singing again, for the 16th or so year, in our community chorus, getting ready to perform our Christmas Holiday conference. It’s pretty Christian, but also some Hanukkah melodies sometimes, and some secular melodies about the contemporary Holiday season, “kids jingle-bell-ing” and that sort of thing. I really like this, even though I’m more an […]
A Component “Next Step”
What is illustrated below is Task 4b: This shows how multi-contextual paradigms are affected by shifting aesthetic criteria. It was not really possible to reveal this task to any member of humanity until now, as the species as a whole was rather immature, and many of the concepts thus named in this task were really […]
A Confession of Faith
A personal myth: Which is to say, The older I get, I sort of think the following: Not that I believe any of this is literally true, of course. It is such a metaphor! But, seriously, I do live deeply into it: That God/Universe is Awakening In a billion galaxies […]
A Cosmic Compass
For those of you who lose your way, perhaps this may help. It is a cosmic compass. Actually, it may not help much, because “direction” is such as 3-dimensional… well, dimension? Realm? (But the true cosmos, you know, is very multi-dimensional and includes, for example, dreams.) But the point in the symbolism below is really, […]
A Graceful Goodbye: A Book Review
We’re reading together or apart a number of books, as I browse the local library and check out those that appeal to me. One was titled, A Graceful Goodbye: a New Outlook on Death,” by Susan B. Mercer. I’ve written about weddings as rites of passage, and she wr0te enlighteningly about dying. She asks many […]
A Jewish New Year Contemplation
It’s Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, one of the highest holy days, a time to contemplate the year past and the year forward. My wife went to the services, and I stayed home and contemplated events. I cultivate a deep spirituality of creativity, one that even as I settle into certain mythic theme keeps […]
A Kaddish Contemplation
Kaddish is the name of the Jewish prayer said for those in mourning for those who have passed on, also known as a prayer for the dead. But in fact it’s not a prayer for the person who has died, it’s a prayer to re-align the living. Kaddish re-focuses the one praying; its words implicitly […]
A Metaphysical Poetic Sort of Vision
(For what it’s worth: I’m just contemplating electronically “out loud.”) I envision God becoming in every dimension, and it’s sort of a meta-erotic joy! I hear God giggling, “Oooh, I can do this and I can do that!—and what’ll happen when I do this other? Oops, life ends. Game over. Start another game. I got […]
A Mythic Response to Feelings of Uncertainty
A friend asked me what I thought about two items and it occurred to me that what occurred to me to answer might also be worthy of being on my blog. First: How should we live with the uncertainty of knowing yet not-knowing? What an evocative question! Okay, try this on, just improvising: As I […]
A New Computer
For my 81st Birthday—heck, just because it was time—we (my darling wife and I) decided to purchase a new computer with MS Word instead of Wordperfect, the latter word processing system disappearing as a viable “force” in the field. That’s kinda funny, because I had assumed that it was a major competitor for the word-processing […]