POSTCARD #258: New Delhi: I perceive the world as a solid tangible thing, I see, hear, smell, taste, touch and in the mind’s eye I believe this to be so. But it’s a hologram – outer and inner, subject/object split as One; all of it is holographic. Therefore, the planet Earth seen from outer space, shining with color, is holographic. If that is so, all neighboring worlds, seen to be dead planets, could be teeming with life and we can’t see it because our sensory mechanisms are not compatible with their operating system, so to speak. In the same way, those other world populations are seeing their holographic extension of themselves, and can’t see our world for the same reason.
An idea for an SF story… the way it is, so clear to me now, waking up after a short snooze on the sofa and the headache almost gone. Birds twittering in the trees outside, they react to the drop in temperature as the heat of the day turns towards cool. Let’s see, it must be around 4 pm, raise the remains of my headache up from the sofa, legs over the side and stand up, feet into slippers: flip, flop, flip… over to the window and look out.
Trees standing around here and there, pointing at the sky and contemplating the situation: if a tree falls in the middle of nowhere, it makes no sound – it’s nowhere so, nobody’s there to hear it. But if you split the word into two parts: ‘now’ and ‘here’, somebody’ll hear the sound of it, because it is ‘now here’, and that’s a time/space location in the hologram which makes it real in this context. You could say, because this is so, I am. You are. We are ‘here’ in our world and out there is just ‘out there’, the abstract realm where: you are what you is, and you is what you am…[Frank Zappa].
There was a time when I wasn’t here, not born yet. The world just going on without that person called ‘me’ in it – there’s an anonymity about this that’s quite liberating. The day before I was born, everything was just going on, birds twittering in the trees as they are doing now, and all the other random events taking place as I was birthed. And all those I was to be connected with, one way or another, arrived from what I’d call the past, dissolving into circumstances of present time as it falls away into the future, encapsulated in the timeless moment we are in, always. Nothing out of place, as I see it now, and here at the open window on the second floor of the house where the treetops are level with the window and higher… birds twittering more and more, as the day turns towards evening.
“The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind. From this voyage no one returns poor or weary.” [Agnes de Mille]
Photo source
dhamma footsteps 
‘The Bird of Time has but a little way. To flutter–and the Bird is on the Wing.’ Our physical presnce is such a small thing… before and after it, we are not, at least as far as the world is concerned..and as far as the ‘I’. There is beauty in that, once past the clinging to the illusive known.
Mind you, I’ll bet your mother would have had something to say about your presence not being felt until the day you were born 😉
The world experienced for a moment without the ‘me’ in it, is like a burden lifted. And the experience of birthing, both for mother and baby, something to be avoided next time around we might consider, and my own mother might have too – I was a large baby so I’m told, so carrying me around, and the delivery must have been extraordinary.
Mine were large babies…and I’m a small woman. Your mother has my sympathies.
As to another ride on the wheel… whatever my physical ‘me’ may think, hope or choose, what is goes where it is sent.
You must mean, ‘what goes is where it is sent’ and you’re right about whatever the ‘me’ may think hope or choose. The ‘me’ is always doing that of course and it’s a case of whether one really sees what it’s doing or what’s actually going on or the bigger picture and whatever spiritual hat it’s wearing because they’re all doing the same thing in a manner of speaking…
In truth, nothing goes anywhere as All Is 🙂
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Sorry I missed the meaning in what you said: ‘What is goes where it is sent’. I see it now, thanks
🙂
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
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A lovely post, as always… Of course, it’s merely speculation that all this “stuff” was around before I was born and will continue after I’ve died… Dependent Origination indeed. So nice to hear that you’re managing despite the chronic headaches.
Thank you JW again, it’s good to know you’re there/here in the blogosphere. Speculation abounds, I heard one of the monks say ‘speculative conjecture’ and the way he said it really sounded like the clash of sharpened steel of blades in a sword fight. Vipassana extremists you could say, me I only got as far as step 7 or 8, upadana-tanha. The headaches are worst in the late afternoon and at the end of the day, mornings are okay.
I make and collect 3D glass holograms. I used to partake in one on one conversations with Professor David Bohm when i was young. Later, after becoming interested in holography, I learned that it was Bohm who came up with the idea of a holographic universe. We never discussed holograms during our talks. Kind of weird, it seems! Now top physicists are saying that our universe is, indeed, holographic in nature!
What a wonderful heritage of holograms within holograms, and thought holograms for you as a young person. David Bohm arrived on my bookshelf about twenty years ago I still have Unfolding Meaning, the only one I read. I watched every video of David Bohm that’s available, and was surprised to note the presence of the shy understated English person he was. Do you happen to recall this quality? Tell me more.
Loved this post and an amazing finishing paragraph. Bravo.
Thanks David, it was a combination of notes brought together in that instant, as it so often is…
An interesting adventure–you might be interested in a recent blog post of mine, referencing a series of conversations in the NY Review of Books. The link is embedded in the post:
https://spontaneouspresence.net/2017/03/28/as-it-is/
cheers, G.
Thanks for the link, also an interesting detailed intro which I note and the book: A Brief History of Tomorrow, compelling title, I see it’s available on Kindle, and that means it’s possible for me to buy it. So I’m interested also Wow, the conversations and dialogue, question answer – right on the spot. It could be Chomsky all over again.
Beautiful post, evokes so many themes I am interested in: from holograms to impermanence to sci-fi! Not to mention Bohm. He has two books you will enjoy I think (apart from Unfolding Meaning): Thought as a System and On Dialogue. I can send these to you via email. Best wishes.
Thanks, so good to know these David Bohm books are on pdf. It could be an interesting future for kids like my young niece M. I’ve written so many posts about M when she was little. It was her I was thinking about when I wrote the post.
Just realised I missed what you were saying. Yes, please send me the David Bohm pdf books: dhammafootsteps@gmail.com Thank you!
I will send very soon!
“From this voyage no one returns poor or weary.”
Thanks for that.
Seek peace,
Paz