{"id":14505,"date":"2013-08-23T11:28:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=14505"},"modified":"2013-08-23T11:28:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T15:28:00","slug":"a-skin-of-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/a-skin-of-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"A Skin of Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name=\"top\"><\/a><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ONZcjs1Pjmk\" height=\"338\" width=\"601\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: &#8220;Eulerian Video Magnification,&#8221; by a team of researchers at MIT. For more information, see <a href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/a-skin-of-mirror#note\">the note<\/a> at the foot of this post.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<a title=\"whiskey river: Zen tale of vision turned inside-out\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2013\/08\/keiji-long-time-zen-studentapproached.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Keiji, a long-time Zen student, approached his master and said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t see how there can be any enlightenment that sets you free once and for all. I think we just get ever greater glimpses of Buddha-nature, the vastness that is our true Reality. It&#8217;s an ever-expanding process.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The master replied, &#8220;That may be what you think. But what is your experience, your experience right now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Keiji was confused, &#8220;My experience right now, Master?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes. Do you know yourself as Keiji, having ever-expanding experiences of Buddha-nature? Or do you know yourself as Buddha-nature, having the experience of Keiji?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(unsourced)<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: Annie Dillard, on the essential invisibility of fish\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2013\/08\/no-one-has-ever-seen-fish.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>No one has ever seen fish.<br \/>\nFish secrete highly reflective compounds<br \/>\nThat act as a skin of mirror.<br \/>\nIt is thought the fishes&#8217; sides<br \/>\nare painted in landscapes,<br \/>\nmountainous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Annie Dillard [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Tickets for a Prayer Wheel,' by Annie Dillard\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=teelPbxA8tcC&amp;pg=PA15v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from\u00a0<em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Erasers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As punishment, my father said, the nuns<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">would send him and the others<\/span><br \/>\nout to the schoolyard with the day&#8217;s erasers.<\/p>\n<p>Punishment? The pounding symphony<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">of padded cymbals clapped<\/span><br \/>\ntogether at arm&#8217;s length overhead<\/p>\n<p>(a snow of vanished alphabets and numbers<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">powdering their noses<\/span><br \/>\nuntil they sneezed and laughed out loud at last)<\/p>\n<p>was more than remedy, it was reward<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">for all the hours they&#8217;d sat<\/span><br \/>\nwithout a word (except for passing notes)<\/p>\n<p>and straight (or near enough) in front of starched<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">black-and-white Sister Martha,<\/span><br \/>\nlike a conductor raising high her chalk<\/p>\n<p>baton, the only one who got to talk.<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">Whatever did she teach them?<\/span><br \/>\nAnd what became of all those other boys,<\/p>\n<p>poor sinners, who had made a joyful noise?<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">My father likes to think,<\/span><br \/>\nat seventy-five, not of the white-on-black<\/p>\n<p>chalkboard from whose crumbled negative<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">those days were never printed,<\/span><br \/>\nbut of word-clouds where unrecorded voices<\/p>\n<p>gladly forgot themselves. And that he still<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">can say so, though all the lessons,<\/span><br \/>\nmost of the names, and (he doesn&#8217;t spell<\/p>\n<p>this out) it must be half the boys themselves,<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 1em;\">who grew up and dispersed<\/span><br \/>\nas soldiers, husbands, fathers, now are dust.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Mary Jo Salter [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Open Shutters,' by Mary Jo Salter\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=h-VxeZ2EZ7oC&amp;pg=PA15#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you&#8217;d think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise. We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics, infinitely outnumbered by all the alternates who might, except for luck, be in our places.<\/p>\n<p>Even more astounding is our statistical improbability in physical terms. The normal, predictable state of matter throughout the universe is randomness, a relaxed sort of equilibrium, with atoms and their particles scattered around in an amorphous muddle. We, in brilliant contrast, are completely organized structures, squirming with information at every covalent bond. We make our living by catching electrons at the moment of their excitement by solar photons, swiping the energy released at the instant of each jump and storing it up in intricate loops for ourselves. We violate probability, by our nature. To be able to do this systematically, and in such wild varieties of form, from viruses to whales is extremely unlikely; to have sustained the effort successfully for the several billion years of our existence, without drifting back into randomness, was nearly a mathematical impossibility.<\/p>\n<p>Add to this the biological improbability that makes each member of our own species unique. Everyone is one in 3 billion at the moment, which describes the odds. Each of us is a self-contained, free-standing individual, labeled by specific protein configurations at the surfaces of cells, identifiable by whorls of fingertip skin, maybe even by special medleys of fragrance. You&#8217;d think we&#8217;d never stop dancing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Lewis Thomas [<a title=\"Amazon.com: 'Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher,' by Lewis Thomas\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lives-Cell-Notes-Biology-Watcher\/dp\/0140047433\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Living in the Body<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Body is something you need in order to stay<br \/>\non this planet and you only get one.<br \/>\nAnd no matter which one you get, it will not<br \/>\nbe satisfactory. It will not be beautiful<br \/>\nenough, it will not be fast enough, it will<br \/>\nnot keep on for days at a time, but will<br \/>\npull you down into a sleepy swamp and<br \/>\ndemand apples and coffee and chocolate cake.<\/p>\n<p>Body is a thing you have to carry<br \/>\nfrom one day into the next. Always the<br \/>\nsame eyebrows over the same eyes in the same<br \/>\nskin when you look in the mirror, and the<br \/>\nsame creaky knee when you get up from the<br \/>\nfloor and the same wrist under the watchband.<br \/>\nThe changes you can make are small and<br \/>\ncostly&#8212;better to leave it as it is.<\/p>\n<p>Body is a thing that you have to leave<br \/>\neventually. You know that because you have<br \/>\nseen others do it, others who were once like you,<br \/>\nliving inside their pile of bones and<br \/>\nflesh, smiling at you, loving you,<br \/>\nleaning in the doorway, talking to you<br \/>\nfor hours and then one day they<br \/>\nare gone. No forwarding address.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Joyce Sutphen [<a title=\"Amazon.com: 'Straight Out of View,' by Joyce Sutphen\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Straight-Out-View-Joyce-Sutphen\/dp\/093010028X\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"note\"><\/a>_____________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the video:<\/strong>\u00a0Let&#8217;s say you take a video of something which is barely moving, maybe not even moving at all. For instance &#8212; to use one example cited by somebody involved with the project &#8212; suppose there&#8217;s a person, immobile, lying on a ledge on a sheer rock face, or even a building. Without actually being present, can you tell if the person&#8217;s breathing?<\/p>\n<p>The researchers who produced this video have developed tools for altering individual pixels to\u00a0<em>exaggerate<\/em> minute changes (in an object&#8217;s position and\/or color) to make it immediately obvious whether something is moving or has changed color at all. The effects are striking, even surreal. The pulsing &#8212; writhing &#8212;\u00a0of the veins beneath the surface of\u00a0someone&#8217;s wrist gave me the willies, but thankfully did not go on too long.<\/p>\n<p>(<a title=\"MIT: 'Eulelrian Video Magnification'\" href=\"http:\/\/people.csail.mit.edu\/mrub\/vidmag\/\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s the site<\/a> of a paper presented by the research team at the 2012 SIGGRAPH conference, with links to other videos and media coverage.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>[<a href=\"#top\">back to top<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: &#8220;Eulerian Video Magnification,&#8221; by a team of researchers at MIT. For more information, see the note at the foot of this post.] From\u00a0whiskey river: Keiji, a long-time Zen student, approached his master and said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t see how there can be any enlightenment that sets you free once and for all. I think we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,95,5,36,251],"tags":[295,1017,2023,2631,2929,3593,3594],"class_list":{"0":"post-14505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-science-medicine","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-reading","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"tag-annie-dillard","13":"tag-mary-jo-salter","14":"tag-lewis-thomas","15":"tag-joyce-sutphen","16":"tag-zen","17":"tag-eulerian-video-magnification","18":"tag-mit","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3LX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14505"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14520,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions\/14520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}