{"id":20021,"date":"2018-02-09T06:24:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T11:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=20021"},"modified":"2018-02-09T06:24:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T11:24:10","slug":"seeing-the-waterfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/seeing-the-waterfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Waterfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image:<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “New York Movie,” by Edward Hopper (1939, oil on canvas; in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. (Found this image at WikiArt<\/a>.)]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river’s commonplace book<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

What’s Not Here<\/strong><\/p>\n

I start out on this road, call it
\nlove<\/em> or emptiness<\/em>. I only know what’s<\/p>\n

not here: resentment seeds, back-
\nscratching greed, worrying about out-<\/p>\n

come, fear of people. When a bird gets
\nfree, it doesn’t go back for remnants<\/p>\n

left on the bottom of the cage! Close
\nby, I’m rain. Far off, a cloud of fire.<\/p>\n

I seem restless, but I am deeply at ease.
\nBranches tremble; the roots are still.<\/p>\n

I am a universe in a handful of dirt,
\nwhole when totally demolished. Talk<\/p>\n

about choices<\/em> does not apply to me.
\nWhile intelligence considers options,<\/p>\n

I am somewhere lost in the wind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jalaloddin Rumi [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

While we usually think of it as our mind<\/em>, when we look honestly, we see that the mind follows its own nature, conditions, and laws. Your mind is like a puppy. You put the puppy down and say “Stay<\/em>.” Does the puppy listen? It gets up and it runs away. You sit the puppy back down again. “Stay<\/em>.” And the puppy runs away over and over again. Sometimes the puppy runs over and pees in the corner or makes some other mess. This is how our minds behave, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind, like training a puppy, we have to start over and over again. Frustration comes with the territory. Nothing in our culture or our schooling has taught us how to transcend ordinary consciousness and reach for the dizzying heights of cosmic truths. You simply pick up the puppy again and return to reconnect with the here and now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Helen Palmer [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

What do we see when we look at the mind? Constant change. In the traditional scriptures the untrained and unconcentrated mind is referred to as a mad monkey. As we look for ourselves, we see that it is like a circus or a zoo in there. The parrot, the sloth, the mouse, the tiger, the bear, and the silent owl are all represented. It is like a flywheel of spinning thoughts, emotions, images, stories, likes, dislikes, and so forth. There is ceaseless movement, filled with plans, ideas, and memories. Seeing this previously unconscious stream of inner dialogue is for many people the first insight in practice. It is called seeing the waterfall. Already we begin to learn about the nature of mind. Its constant changes are like the weather; today it rains, tonight it may snow, earlier the sun was out. Sometimes it’s muddy in the spring, and then the summer comes and the winds come. In the fall the leaves go; in winter the ice forms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jack Kornfield [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

riddle:<\/strong>
\nWhat is the last thing that a fish would ever discover?<\/p>\n

answer:<\/strong>
\nwater<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river’s commonplace book<\/em> (nor from whiskey river<\/em> itself):<\/p>\n

Edward Hopper’s New York Movie<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We can have our pick of seats.
\nThough the movie’s already moving,
\nthe theater’s almost an empty shell.
\nAll we can see on our side<\/span>
\nof the room is one man and one woman—
\nas neat, respectable, and distinct
\nas the empty chairs that come<\/span>
\nbetween them. But distinctions do not surprise,
\nfresh as we are from sullen street and subway
\nwhere lonelinesses crowded<\/span>
\nabout us like unquiet memories
\nthat may have loved us once or known our love.
\nHere we are an accidental<\/span>
\nfellowship, sheltering from the city’s
\nobscure bereavements to face a screened,
\nimaginary living,<\/span>
\nas if it were a destination
\nwe were moving toward. Leaning to our right
\nand suspended before us<\/span>
\nis a bored, smartly uniformed usherette.
\nStaring beyond her lighted corner, she finds
\na reverie that moves through<\/span>
\nand beyond the shine of the silver screening.
\nBut we can see what she will never see—
\nthat she’s the star of Hopper’s scene.<\/span>
\nFor the artist she’s a play of light,
\nand a play of light is all about her.
\nWhether the future she is<\/span>
\ndreaming is the future she will have
\nwe have no way of knowing. Whatever
\nit will prove to be<\/span>
\nit has already been. The usherette
\nHopper saw might now be seventy,
\nhunched before a Hitachi<\/span>
\nin an old home or a home for the old.
\nShe might be dreaming now a New York movie,
\nFred Astaire dancing and kissing<\/span>
\nGinger Rogers, who high kicks across New York
\nCity skylines, raising possibilities
\nthat time has served to lower.<\/span>
\nWe are watching the usherette, and the subtle
\nshadows her boredom makes across her not-quite-
\nimpassive face beneath<\/span>
\nthe three red-shaded lamps and beside
\nthe stairs that lead, somehow, to dark streets
\nthat go on and on and on.<\/span>
\nBut we are no safer here than she.
\nDespite the semblance of luxury—
\ngilt edges, red plush,<\/span>
\nand patterned carpet—this is no palace,
\nand we do not reign here, except in dreams.
\nThis picture tells us much<\/span>
\nabout various textures of lighted air,
\nbut at the center Hopper has placed
\na slab of darkness and an empty chair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Joseph Stanton [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Right now, all this dashing and searching you’re doing—do you know what it is you’re looking for? It is vibrantly alive, yet has no root or stem. You can’t gather it up, you can’t scatter it to the winds. The more you search for it the farther away it gets. But don’t search for it and it’s right before your eyes, its miraculous sound always in your ears.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Lin-Chi [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “New York Movie,” by Edward Hopper (1939, oil on canvas; in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. (Found this image at WikiArt.)] From whiskey river’s commonplace book: What’s Not Here I start out on this road, call it love or emptiness. I only know what’s not here: resentment seeds, back- scratching greed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20027,"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":"Jack Kornfield, Lin-Chi, et al.: 'Seeing the Waterfall'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,50,251,4159],"tags":[3367,3474,4626,4684,4685],"class_list":{"0":"post-20021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-art","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-language-writing_cat","12":"category-poetry-writing_cat","13":"category-essays","14":"tag-rumi","15":"tag-jack-kornfield","16":"tag-joseph-stanton","17":"tag-lin-chi","18":"tag-helen-palmer","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/newyorkmovie_edwardhopper_thumb.jpg?fit=600%2C485&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-5cV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021","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=20021"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20028,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021\/revisions\/20028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}