Spirituality

Eternity in slow-motion

Whilst the Title could easily cover one of my marathons it actually hints to the linked video of the legend conductor Celibidache and the Berliner Philharmonics performing the 7th Symphonie of Anton Bruckner. Do open the video in a new window (music starts at 1.40 minutes), sit back, close your eyes and listen. Listen ! (and ps: the recording is amazing, the 2. satz being the most beautiful… another interpretation is by Furtwängler below).

Both Celibidache, Furtwängler and Brucnker are long gone. Dead. One day we will be too… and all our efforts, experiences, feelings, memories and stories will come to an end, perhaps remembered for a while by a handful of people and then with them turn into forever dust. Gone and absorbed into the great cycle of time and matter. We only pay a short visit, really. But it is a delight to think that this music and these tunes will continue to exist, continue to thrill and enlighten new generations to come, to inspire and to guide.

With the flux of these tunes through the body and out of my arms and hands, I lift my entire life and snapshot every memorable moment against a blue sky and relive eons and eaons again, compressed and contained in a second or two. I dissolve into light and shine so brightly that all History blinds. I become Atlas, carrier of the World, I become the creator and vitness of all times and destinies from birth to grave, lifting villages to Empires and see the rise and fall of Civilizations. All this bursts into one übermoment in Time.

Then all is black.

The Vulgar Flux of Biomass

hydrophobic
hydrophilic
electrostatic attraction
electrostatic repulsion
Repeat

grow
duplicate
grow duplicate grow
drift duplicate drift
Repeat

grow
duplicate
grow munch duplicate grow
swim duplicate munch swim
Repeat

stimulance
response
reproduce eat defend kill
trick kill eat grow
Repeat

eat grow
reproduce hatch
grow defend attack kill
run fly reproduce organize
Repeat

kill
communicate give birth
fear hope socialize love
reproduce repeat reproduce repeat
Repeat

Repeat. For Generations.

The Eternity of Bruckner

So it seems that I have at last passed my two-year long “Bach-phase” and is entering a Bruckner (and perhaps Mahler ?) phase. The Bruckner Symphonies are SO haunting, so powerful and so majestetic that only the tunes themselves justify such words. Listen up !

The long-draggged crescendoes have been snugged into many a motion-picture soundtrack, Avatar being one of the latest on the list, and you could say that these symphonies emulate all big stories in life or each of our lifestories, ups and downs, loveaffairs, tragedies. The beauty and struggles of a marathon could also be told by each of the pieces.. well.. I guess we could make whatever context befitting.

My favorites just now would be Bruckner no. 4, 7 and 8, the latter the by far loudest and perhaps most well-written of all the Symphonies of Bruckner. Go explore yourself !

Why ?

“Why are we here ?”

A small quote, actually, from the great movie Gladiator, the question asked by the eternal Emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Why are we here ?

When I look around me, now and I guess my entire life, few people actually seem to address this question. That has always been a puzzle to me… because I find all other questions pretty irrelevant if this one is not attacked or at least attempted. It could be that it’s a kind of tabu or something… but sadly, I think not. Rather, I think we live in the reign of the Idiots, in the media-Internet brainwashing era in which the fundamental philosophical questions have no appeal and no guardian Engels, we live in a Time in which ‘Reality’ is equal to the latest often either distorted or, even worse, undigested, broadcast. As if ! It’s becoming provocative !

So, why are we here ?  Do people not most often answer with  “What …” or “When …” answers… making collections of their career accomplishments or pinning out a few important moments of their lives or in History. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these things are unimportant… it’s just that… they are hardly answers to the original “Why” question ! Having a nice little career in company X is far from an answer to anything in my book, and having seen City Y or being the proud owner of car Z or blonde XXX is still rather far from the target, isn’t it ? Still, most people live by “What” and “When” and are lured by the illusion of Vanity that these targets actually represent real answers to “Why”. They do not !

How about Science, then, you could say. Don’t we get answers here ? Not really. We choose if Science gives an answer. I guess most people have just ignored the original Why-question and gone into the comfy Science-tells-us-all sleep thinking that all will be fine by that. I think not ! Basically, Science is a “What”-thingy and can fundamentally, at best, tell us things about stuff. Stuff ! Stuff is stuff… and far from the much more complex issues of human feelings, love, hate, memories, social and religeous communities, nationalistic prides etc. not to mention, and mind you this, the spiritual experiences available, and recorded thoughout all times, to Mankind. In these contexts Science is merely a set of toys. Religion, too, is a choose-yourself thingy and even though the drive for “a religion” is universal (Science is a kind of Religion too…), the net outcome of “Religion” on a global and historical timeframe is, at best, ambigueous and far from setting the peace of mind, say answering the Why-question. To rephrase Marx, Religion and Science is opium for the people !

So,  Why are we here ? Do I have an answer ? Absolutely not ! But I’m really frightened by the fact that I can count the number of people even hinting the presence of the question “Why are we here ?”  to less than a handful… yes, it really worries me. Furthermore, I feel very isolated, actually, with the wisdom that Death brings… namely, the deep hinsight of the irrelevance and short-termed ignorance connected to the “What”-life that everyone, including myself not to forget, is living.

It is a pain !

Why – why- are we here ?

Illusion-bogey by Tiger Woods

Poor Tiger Woods ! Not only is he – seemingly – facing problems in his marriage (who isn’t ?) and rumors about adultry (who isn’t ?), he must live with the entire World reading in on this… including this note as well. Bad stuff, Tiger, bad stuff !

Or maybe not !

Maybe Tiger is a good example on how prone we humans tend to be towards ‘nice’ illusions and our pathetic tendency to ignore REALITY. Like for example the illusion of life-long fidelity and the happy everafter for man & woman. Why do we buy in on that, still, in the 21th century ? Do we want to feel secure ? Wake up, kids… there is no such thing as certainty… just as little as the lust of the human bodies can be controlled over a lifespan. So why pretend ?

We all know this.. the question is how we choose to deal with it and react. Do we confront life as it really is – IMPERPECT – or do we keep still in our neurotic lifelies to feel warm and comfy ? I believe most people do. Personally, these days, I prefer to freeze, metaphorically speaking, and I will rather run screaming away than getting tied to arrangements that really don’t support my true Nature, lifestyle, goals and values. Life has become too short for that kind of illusions.

Not that I don’t like being tied up 😉 I guess I’m just one of the few guys admitting that I prefer the freedom to choose by whom from time to time. So hell, who cares about Tiger and all that… he has a life to live too… give him peace… and remember, that noone should ever become half-Gods to steer the lifestyle for anyone… and that would include your garden-fascistic neighbours, your friends, your colleagues or whatever. Perfect is an abstraction.. and don’t let anyone tell you anything else. Not even Tiger Woods !