Brian Eno on Perspective

'i remember the first day i arrived in new york
not actually not the very first time i arrived but
the first time i feel i felt i saw new york
on that day i saw it as a great sort of city of hope
and a kind of optimistic chaos
and it was that way of looking at it
that became "mistaken memories"

i had a place on the thirteenth floor
and looking out of my window
i'd just see the tops of all the buildings
all those beautiful castle tops
and i thought "i'm sure people building this
were also feeling that they were making
a big impression in this brand-new culture"

i more and more feel america has been
a thrilling vibrant medieval culture
medieval for me means somewhere where
things are being worked out
where cultures have crossed
and are crashing together
and hybrids are constantly being thrown up
europeans are so ready to shoot it down
because it's so easy to see
all the bad sides of america
the world awash with coca-cola

i felt people's concept of what's real is
almost always that which is most convenient
for them to believe at the time
and the convenient picture of new york
at that time was of a street city
a city where you kept your vision down
what i did on that spring day
and what i did in "mistaken memories"
was i looked up and i saw this beautiful
city against a huge sky
it's a different picture altogether
as soon as you let the sky into the picture
the city is not so overwhelming anymore
there's space in there as well'

Brian Eno
from "Imaginary Landscapes"
released on VHS 1998

You Are the Truth in Every Moment

although reality is observable, what is observable isn't always reality. as our senses often fool us, just being personally open to observing doesn't help us as individuals understand the innermost workings of the universe which we are a part of.(1) being open to observing as individuals helps us to understand the innermost workings of ourselves. a by-product of this is being "at peace" -- of leaving behind what is useless to us and being able to identify our true natures, and the nature of the truth.

don't be fooled into thinking that truth must not be observable to be truth. this is the lie we hear every moment from our spiritual teachers, from our mystics and from our religions. this is the lie that undoubtably you were raised within. faith.

truth is life, not what one hears about life. you are the truth. every instant. observe it. see it (you) for what it is. not by what others tell you about it. not by the thoughts which you've catalogued and maintained in order to give yourself a self, an identity. leave your identity at the instant, and move into what is. be faithless.

do not live on the words of another. do not be a second-hand person. do not accept spiritual slavery. mental slavery.

observation without exerting influence can help us learn how to act with purpose and intent, and not react out of some other action outside ourself which we observe or take within. if we can give pause, not to thought, not to what is old, we can live each moment like it is, new, like we have died to our last moment, and leave behind the conditioning of our competitive lives.

but do not do this to find fulfillment. that is a lie. that is an end, a goal, and upon achieving this goal, what are we to do with ourselves then? reach for the next goal, indeed. no... do it to be free, and in turn you will give the greatest gift to the world you can. to be new every momement. to not be so quick to judge. to be open to every instant of time. to be timeless.

we can learn this by true meditation, awareness, whether in waking life, or in dreams. specifically dreams offer us the ability, if one is aware one is dreaming (lucid), of working on our reactive behaviors which we are reinforcing daily. tonight's dreams may be able, if you are willing and open, to teach you how to be as new every moment as every part of nature you see around you.

for humanity, let's take this one little step, and shed our conditioning, our religion, our saints, our sins, our notions of what is, to truly observe as a child. krishnamurti called for just this. lennon called for just this. it is soon time that we all should call for just this.

"imagine all the people,
living life in peace...
you may say i'm a dreamer,
but i'm not the only one.
someday you'll join us,
and the world could live as one."

(1) science is our tool, as humans, to help provide a structure to build a collective understanding of our natural observable universe.

+A