 011 Seven In One Out
We glance at our face many times a day, thanks to mirrors. When you count the openings in our head, we find that we have two of many inputs: eyes, ears, and nostrils. Our mouth does a double duty: input for nutrition and hydration, and output for speech. (Yes, sometimes our nutrition does not wish to stay in place and exits the input door.) While our eyes do show emotion and our nostrils bring air in and out, our one mouth is the primary output in our head. Redundancy, efficiency, location, depth perception, and nostrils changing duty every so many minutes are many of the items that our input duality achieves. Visible nutrition and not visible air enter the mouth. They are separated efficiently: nutrition one direction, and air rushing to the lungs for exchanging oxygen into the bloodstream in the other direction. Thrive or survive: one input type we see and the other type we don’t. However, each provides the necessary ingredients for life. Pretty good system if you ask me. Our bodies have many sensory inputs. However, they only function as messengers to the brain, that gooey, watery, chemical habitat that seems to be the epicenter of us, the processing of outside signals into a reality that most of us seem to agree upon. It’s a good thing we can agree on most things. One exception for sure is that when I see a grey-green color, there is at least one other opinion that the color is really light blue. Oh well, maybe we don’t agree on all things. So while we are ‘surviving,’ what part does our mouth’s output play? Output? We process this information and work out how to survive. Keeping in mind that our speech, sounds, songs, verbalized thoughts, discussions of dreams, repeating of historical events, placing communications in hand signs, on paper, woodwork, metal, magnetic material, and countless forms of directional, educational efforts are emanations of output - So? I see a car. A thousand years ago, I saw a plate from oven-heated clay. 2 thousand years ago, I saw a separation of soil into copper and elements. 4 thousand years ago, I saw a candle burn from olive oil. Yes, I see differently today. I comprehend the accumulation of knowledge and how it has been used. Investigative, uplifting, sacrificial, loving words moving our planet’s inhabitants in one direction. Yet, at the same time, I see prejudice, hatred, war, selfishness, and division of species on every possible criterion at each of these time periods, items which follow our spoken words. It seems to me that if our speech is uplifting, we progress. If our speech is spiteful and divisive, we remain a species not much different from our ancestors. Is speech the final frontier? ============ A person once said that if one’s eye is clear, then that person’s whole being is full of light. Is it possible to restrict our audible output? Are we helplessly trapped into a frequently changing ‘on’ and ‘off’ mode, demonstrated by our exiting words? Is it possible to have an internal light that guides our external pathways of life?  Some people say that seeing is believing. Others add their version: you must believe before you can see. Sometimes seeing with our physical optical equipment does not do the job of ‘seeing’ as in ‘comprehending’. We might define 3 levels of seeing in this manner.
Physical: seeing: wavelengths of light enter the pupil, onto the rods and cones, converts to electro-chemical signals, speeds along a chemical trail to the thalamus and eventually the visual cortex where these signals are compared to stored pathways and we ‘see’ the object in front of us. Lots going on, even more behind the scenes. Intellectual: comprehension is sometimes referred to as seeing the light. There are principles, understandings, revelations, comparisons, juxtapositions, logic transforms, hidden meanings suddenly quite clear. A person can associate one thing with another in many ways and when those associations occur, it’s as if some part of the brain finally gets together with another part and voila, eureka, so easy to comprehend a new view of something. Perhaps this revelation came via physical light, yet, more than likely physical vision was not required. Intuitive: perception is having an insight that things, ideas, discussions, writings and more have multiple meanings depending upon ones background, experiences, and abilities to leave one frame of reference and enter another. Perception has a certain degree of conclusion from evidence or observation of multiple viewpoints. Many of us fall short in this regard: especially if their new perception alienates them culturally, scientifically, religiously, or simply is ‘hard to explain’ to others. Next let’s talk about a physical example of how we can see beyond two dimensions. So, what is the lead graphic for this blog all about? You are going to be required to ‘believe before you can see’. There is more than colorful repeating patterns to this graphic. You are being introduced to a ‘single image random dot stereogram’, most often shortened to SIRDS. With some coaching you will see a three dimensional image emerge in the seemingly jumble of color and patterns. There are SIRDS commercial books printed with many wonderful pop out pictures. There are several methods of ‘seeing’ the SIRDS image. While focusing at some distance away from yourself, bring the photo slowly into your field of view. Don’t look at the photo, you must look ‘through’ the photo to a place beyond the image. Slowly, an image will form. Another method is to hold the picture very near your face and slowly move the image away from your face, again, keeping your eyes looking far away from the image. The internet will help you with several methods of seeing the SIRDS. This link may help you get started viewing. Did you see the ??? in the SIRDS image? ============== Old adage: you can’t sweep the floor where you are standing. So many times we don’t ‘get something’ or ‘can’t understand’. Usually this occurs because we hold a previous way of seeing a subject or view, and don’t wish to change or understand that it can be seen differently. Is there a topic that causes you some confusion or misunderstanding? Time for a new perception? Click for larger SIRDS image!  “Imagine with me that we are going to a play. Yes, it’s outdoors and in our local amphitheater. So many people today, another good tragedy I so enjoy.” Of course this is speaking of an ancient Greek theater that had no lighting or sound system. People would take their places and fill the many levels. One of the largest theaters allowed 14,000 people to listen intently to the performance even though they were at the top most levels. The acoustics and physics of the design were perfect for the speaking actors and the eager listeners throughout the bowl shaped auditorium. The stage was flat and quite wide. The actors wore highly decorated masks that conveyed their character they were portraying. Most actors played several parts of the play by going off stage and reentering with a different mask. They projected their voices towards the focus of the parabolic shaped seating area. The play was performed in the daytime for all to enjoy, no going home after dark! By the way, the play we saw today was tragically great.
When the actors placed on their masks they became an actor under a mask. The Greek word that describes this is ὑποκριτής, pronounced “hupo - creetays”, essentially an ‘under actor’. This word for the Greek actor has had a long journey through cultures and time. Passing through the middle ages, France, and England, it has taken a place in our dictionary as ‘hypocrite’. (A mask on the outside, a different person underneath pretending to be someone or something that they are not). ===================== Most of the time we are not aware of our own hypocrisy. On the outside we broadcast a belief or image of one thing but deep inside we do not hold to that image. We sometimes are critical of others and claim we would never engage in that kind of thinking or behavior. Often we become disturbed when a fellow traveler mentions that our walk does not match our talk. It’s cathartic to ask a fellow traveler how they perceive us. Hopefully in our personal reflection and thoughts of others we reduce our mixed identity.  Numbers are all around us, describing our environment, our distances, our height, and our universe. These unique symbols have not recently arrived in our cultures. While so much of our earth was separated into clans, towns, kingdoms, states, and continents the need for communicating quantities, values, and agreed upon trades was low. As we gradually shared ideas and competed for ‘the best’ way to describe our planet, numbers came into being: so many characters and ways of communicating the same things.
Yet, one of the most subtle and powerful additions to our host of math symbols was the concept of ‘nothing’. How could one show the fact that there was ‘nothing’ in the storehouse, or that after payment for services there was ‘nothing’ owed. What about when you had 5 apples and they all were eaten? How do you show that ‘nothing’ was left. For several hundred years in the BC timeframe many cultures in the Indian/Middle East/Mediterranean were attempting to describe ‘nothingness’. The Mayans in South America had the need for ‘nothingness’ as well. However, the concept of ‘nothing’ was strongly tied to the beliefs and religions of the time. They questioned the idea of taking the invisible (‘the nothing’) and making it visible. Many forms of idols, totems, special rocks, chants came to symbolize the gods that were such a powerful determinant in each culture. They asked, “Is it permissible to create a symbol for “nothing” thereby making it visible? If so, what value would be this ‘nothingness’? At this same time our counting systems of the world were emerging as well. We went from a non positional system of numbers (like using tallies, or roman numerals) to a positional one. This means that the numbers 5 and 1 in that order meant ’51’. Since we have positional numbers, the order of ’15’ is different than ’51’, each position representing certain quantities of values. (5 tens and 1 unit; or 1 ten and 5 units). But what if you had the temperature of 102 degrees? If you represented it as ’12’ if would mean 1 ten and 2 units. Hey, what is that zero doing? It is moving the 1 and the 2 apart into their new values of (1 one hundred and zero tens and 2 units). The zero became a place holder to separate the two numbers so that the actual meaning would be correct. So in math classes today we look at the character (0) in unique ways. It still represents ‘nothing’ and is a place holder to help values be correct. And yet, we still are taught that (0 times 3 = 0). Does it really make sense to ask a student ‘what is 3 quantities of nothing'? It really stretches the imagination to ask if you take the character (0) and divide it into 5 pieces what do you get? Really? Nothing divided into 5 pieces? Why ask the question or insist that students understand this seemingly obtuse axiom. Nothing is simply nothing. Zero is a character that provides usefulness for sure, yet soon looks and begins to act like a number and we don’t question it. Zero (nothing) is truly an exceptional character having both limited visible meaning and usefulness as well as extraordinary invisible presence. =================== Are there invisible items that we have placed into our vernacular to provide meaning and definition for us? We have words such as love, patience, kindness, tolerance, joy and many others. We see the effects of these emotions and outcomes in our human experience. And at the same time could we have reduced their extraordinary value and understanding? Is it conceivable that we possess these placeholder words in order to assist us in pointing to their non visible source or our non visible nature?  I didn’t realize that I needed to give myself permission to change. It should have been obvious that change comes from the inside and slowly emerges into view for all of life as well including others on their journey. I used to hope for acceptance of others and blend in. I also thought that studying, praying, hoping for positive change in my habits and perceptions would make my change possible.
However, I had overlooked the simple fact that changing on the outside, seeking acceptance from the outside required external conformity. Wow, this was a shock since there were many things which I did not wish to accept or believe. I have many secrets hidden in my journey some of which I consciously perceive and certainly there are others not quite in view. So conformity does not free me by silencing my thoughts. So, let’s start again. Here is my journey’s mantra From this day I give myself permission to change. Permission to notice small beams of light beckoning me to rethink my views. Permission to no longer criticize my changing Permission to view my previous memory of behavior and thoughts as completed history with no hooks piercing my present moment These views include the perceptible world and that of the invisible realm as well. I choose to engage my powers in a loving and caring manner so that I do not become my own prosecutor. I wish to proceed on this journey with small, careful steps. I wish the evolving effect of my change to be one towards a blessing for myself and others. I believe that deep within each human being is kindness and caring, regardless of the outside circumstances. This viewpoint includes the essence of me as well. ‘I am’, ‘they are', and the concept of ‘we’ do not exist. We are separate eyes of a large amorphous being called humanity. Using ‘I’ is only my limited perspective; Using ‘they are’ creates conformity and uniformity that does not allow individual expression; “We” is a trap of inclusivity, leaving out some body, some thing, some thought for sure. Following the path of light and self awareness, I realize that explanations of my changes and new behavior may not be resolvable. After all, it is my journey towards awareness; how could I assume that my journey would be clearly viewed or understood? I realize that there is an exponential aspect to internal change: Large, easy pieces of crumbling ego and narrow minded views falling by the wayside at first. Then followed by subtle viewpoints and patterned behaviors stepping aside. Then, challenges along the journey to continue when seemingly trivial thoughts and behaviors come into light that impede the way. And continuously wrestling with the tug and pull of future and past moving one from the present moment. Forever, the fine tuning of the strings of our instrument from use Upon these seemingly contradictory thoughts I realize that it is necessary to journey alone, with others as companions only To perceive and not just see To comprehend the distinction of dead and living To realize that our physical senses have proscribed a prison of turbulent and contradictory views To seek the innermost awareness from which we came To live in the ‘I am’ awareness and not the ‘I was’ or ‘I will be’ =============== Is there anything or impeding your journey? Or is just your own permission? Why would anyone wish to journey to an unknown destination? Are you listening to a whisper that encourages you forward? Are you learning the subtle lessons our soul teaches?  Monarch Mystery
Imagine a Monarch butterfly as it dances along the wind and flowers (Danaus plexippus). It is an iconic and effective pollinator, recognizable from its black, orange, and white pattern. It seems to go up, down, sideways with ease. One reason that allows this sudden change of movement possible is that it weighs almost nothing. Here are some visual thoughts for you describing the mass of the Monarch. Comprehend the mass of this marvelous creature. 1 Monarch Butterfly = 1/2 raisin 10 sunflower kernels 7 large raindrops Got it? Hardly any weight compared to our outstretched hand. Consider that on the southbound migration these beautiful creatures migrate approximately 3000 miles. Rain, wind, food, predators, insecticides all present obstacles. Let’s start at the southernmost point of their ‘winter’ hibernation in the upper mountains of Mexico where millions of Monarchs cover the branches of trees. They have their wings folded with almost no space between butterflies. Imagine a tree that seems to have variegated color which is created by their under wing color. They wait. As the temperature increases so does their activity. These Monarchs have survived the 3000 mile journey, huddled in the trees throughout the winter and they are the ones who will begin the next generation. They move to lower altitudes, mate, and the females begin the journey northward laying their eggs on milkweed plants, their primary food. These next generation monarchs on their northward journey, however, have a completely different life span, lasting only weeks. The distance that each of these butterflies accomplishes is only a portion of the 3000 mile journey. Each next generation that hatches continues northward carrying on the migration to the north, seeking as far north as the Canadian border. 3-4 generations are required to go to the northern most part of the USA and southern Canada. Even these smaller journeys are impressive. How does each generation pass along the guidance and destination? This is only a part of the mystery. When the temperatures begin to drop as the last generation Monarch reaches the northern parts, it does something even more incredible. As winter approaches with cooler temperatures and a lower angle of light the Monarch ceases mating, and begins the solitary, long distance journey back to the highlands of Mexico. And now the cycle continues. How can it know where to go in a single journey that it has never flown before? There are basically 2 migratory paths of the Monarch. It seems that the Rocky Mountains of Western USA keep some Monarchs on the west side. They migrate north, and turn around like the eastern Monarchs and head south. These, however, don’t go to Mexico, they winter in the warmer portions of Southern California. Meditate on this Mystery. Explore this incomprehensible creature. There is a wealth of information, history, tracking efforts, and descriptions of the Monarch on the web. ============================== Is it possible that we humans sometimes feel a pull to do something? Maybe forgive a relative or friend for something. Perhaps to begin a long journey that has been sidelined? To strive to ‘see the other side of the coin’ for once? We seem to be good at mental promises and thoughts that sometimes go awry. Time to begin the journey?  While driving an automobile we are encouraged to check our ‘blind spot’, the area to the back of the car on each side. This area is hard to see and objects can be hidden from our view.
The design of the eye is one of nature’s highest accomplishments. However, one of the difficulties in the design was how to get the information from the eye to the brain. The channel of information from the eye to the brain is the optic nerve. It attaches to the back of the retina and processes the information from the receptors. The place on the retina upon which it attaches creates a ‘blind spot’ of information sent to the brain. So what does that mean? In each eye there is a place in our field of vision that does not contain any visual information, nothing. It’s a real estate issue of design. The back of the retina is only so large, the data needs to be sent to the brain for interpretation, the optic nerve is the vehicle for that transport. As the eye moves this attachment moves as well. Hey, this is only the beginning of the miracle of vision, the eye is way more complex. How do I find that ‘blind spot’? A simple exercise will help demonstrate this ‘blind spot’. Take a reasonably firm piece of white paper and make a small, black dot about 1/4”. To the side of dot put a second mark like a ‘+’ sign’ Cover your right eye and hold the paper about 20 inches away with the dot on the left of the plus sign Focus your left eye on the plus sign and slowly bring the paper towards your face. Keep looking at only the plus sign, but note that you can peripherally see the dot. The dot will vanish at some point, approximately 15 degrees toward the outside of your straight forward vision. As you move the paper further from your face the dot still will remain invisible.(Do the reverse of this exercise for the other eye - each eye has a blind spot) Fortunately, each blind spot is on the outside of our forward vision. One eye will always see in this ‘blind spot’ area so the brain can create a seamless experience for us. If each spot was on the inside of our forward vision would not see in front of us in certain situations. ============================== Have you ever had a friend say something that augments your viewpoint on a situation? Can we trust only ourselves for an accurate surmise of any situation? Does it seem that some ideas and concepts remain hidden in our journey for a long time?  Scientists go to great lengths to measure the physical universe. An item that comes into scrutiny is the measure of the ‘order’ of a system. A measure of order can be observed using an energy ruler: how much energy does a system have?, is the energy of the system increasing or decreasing?, how fast is it changing?, and similar thoughts. Our natural, observable systems leads us to the conclusion that things seem to run down, mountains tend to crumble, rot eats the side of the house, glasses break when they hit the floor, rooms and paperwork take effort to keep in a certain order, the lack of effort into a task seldom accomplishes the desired result, fire destroys…
So what do we call this overall concept of order or disorder? Entropy! Perhaps the simplest definition of entropy is that it measures the disorder of a system. Examples: a cooked meal has more order than the ingredients from which it was created: essentially less disorder, lower entropy a chemical reaction that gives off heat energy arrives at a more disorderly condition, higher entropy businesses that create a clear communication system between employees have higher order, lower entropy leaving a car to rust away in a field brings disorder, higher entropy Sometimes ‘higher order’ and ‘lower entropy’ seems a bit confusing. The entire universe is essentially in a highly disordered condition. Yet, as we live our lives each day we see the myriad of examples of order: pencils, clothing, gasoline, living organisms creating higher order products, passing on life itself. Inanimate items don’t create something of order by themselves. It takes an increasing level of order to change disorder, which then reduces the entropy of that system. So is the universe headed to an ‘entropic’ ending? By all means of observation, the answer is yes. Systems and order degrade over time. Yet, this conclusion seems to contain a single exception to the rule: life as we know it. Toss a coin, heads or tails. Imagine tossing the coin and after 5 successive tosses of ‘heads’ one suspects that a ‘tails’ should appear soon. Another another 10 tosses and ‘heads’ keeps occurring. Something is not correct, not natural, not right. The results around us indicate that order has been created out of disorder. How long will this continue? ============================ Could life be the highly improbable exception of the universe? How long will our existence reduce entropy? Is it possible that our very existence is a series of successive reductions in entropy? Look around. Take in the entropy of any situation. Order (lower entropy) or Disorder (higher entropy) What part does our will play in our personal measure of orderliness? Do each of us add or subtract from the entropy of our global situation?  Sending messages to someone or someplace has always been a challenge. There are obstacles along the way: lack of light to read the message, poor weather that threatens the destruction of the message (or letter), loss of the medium that contained the message (my dog ate my homework!), scribbled and possibly unreadable handwriting, not enough ink in the printer, my captors don’t want me to contact anyone, certainly if the enemy read this message there would be dire consequences for my compatriots….
When sending, transmitting, delivering, or passing the information on to the next station, there is always the anticipation of “did the message arrive as intended?” Over thousands of years humans have developed many systems for passing messages that have a message inside the message. One can only understand the intended message if one knows the method of how the original message was hidden within the ‘clutter, metaphors, extraneous words, letters, numbers, or mechanical means’ that may have created or surround the message. For this short introduction, we will call this encryption. 1h12e123l1234l1o12 123w1234o1r12l123d This message was created by taking the first letter of the message (1) and then counting (2) more letters and keeping the next letter and then counting (3) more letters and keeping the next letter and then counting (4) more letters and keeping the next letter and then repeating the sequence. You should end of with hello world To complicate this procedure, if the numbers used were replaced with random letters and symbols you would have shfveefglgmbzljo5k k%zwo93}osrx&lV$ad Pretty indecipherable! (shorter messages are harder to decode, not enough patterns) PLUS you might have to guess in what language is the message! ================= Sometimes we overlook hidden messages in life’s journey because we are traveling too fast to ‘see’ or ‘hear’ the metaphors, analogies and guideposts that life provides. Sometimes we haven’t had the opportunity of someone helping us with this concept. Poetry is ostensibly terrible to some. Paintings contain messages or maybe they don’t. Someone once said, “Truth is like a hidden stone in one’s path that causes us to fall. Most people get back up and never look at the viewpoint that raised its head.” How is the growth of a tree like a human’s quest for maturity? Do we ever enter a dark or light period of our growth? A seed falls by the wayside. What are the obstacles the this seed will face in its attempt for maturity? Is nature rewardingly encrypted for those who have ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’? |