29 May 2012
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Well, this chapter blew my mind so much that I had to go to sleep to
fully process it. One of the images I liked was the image of the
rainbow: light+moisture+observation. This is the first time I do not
agree with Watts. In order to have a rainbow, one does not need
observation, but then this goes against the fundamental truth espoused
earlier in this book: My reality is the conglomeration of my
experiences. I am reminded of the Buddha who had never seen hunger,
sickness or death, and therefore could not conceive of their existence
until he saw them. Let us take this example today: I know that hunger
exists eventhough I have not experienced its pangs before. But then
there is another question “what qualifies as observation?” How many
senses must be engaged? Must any senses be engaged? Which sense is the
imagination with which we paint a reality we cannot now see? And do
things imagined count as things observed? I guess there is no such thing
as imagination really as imagination is somehow based on things we have
seen before. For example, the Wright brothers may have built the first
known airplane, but they took their inspiration from the flight of birds
and other animals. Imagination, in other words, has the capacity to use
our experience to shape other realities which we can then put into
practice if we so chose.
On the subject of imagination and the creation of reality, let us turn
back to the rainbow. Can I make a rainbow come into being? Yes, I can. I
need only put the ingredients together, the formula being light+
moisture+ observation. If this is true, I can create anything I know to
be in existence if I know the proper way to bring it about. This was
what was so mindblowing about this chapter.
Lastly on the subject of observation, I believe the only way to truly
observe the present moment is to be completely absorbed in it to the
exclusion of all others.Unfortunately, I am not sure how to exercise
this truth.
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