[See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7342071.stm]
The BBC today reported that a "nude photograph of France's first lady, Carla Bruni, has been auctioned for $91,000 (L46,098)--more than 20 times the expected price." If one reads beyond the headline and the first paragraphs, we learn that "Christie's said money from the sale of the photograph will go to Swiss charity Sodis, which provides clean drinking water to developing countries."
It is all too easy to miss the message of this apparent bit of fluff, the universal message. There is so much to obscure our vision to see the meaningful.
Take the nudity of a well-recognized person now made public by an auction and an international news medium. Sex sells news and other things. Is this the message? that the BBC gains readership by reporting this news? It titillates us and tempts us to enter the world of who is doing what with whom and how many times? Too mundane.
Ms. Bruni participated in the occasion of taking the picture. She posed, perhaps was paid, consented implicitly or explicitly to the publication. All pretty straightforward. Are the model and her career and the industry of which she was a part the beneficiaries? and the lessons? Perhaps, but this is hardly noteworthy in the larger scheme of things. There are other models and other nudes in pictures and paint. Significance of who and what again do not seem to be the point.
Money. The root of all that is good and evil. The fact that a photo has sold for such a sum is a commentary on the values and affluence in our societies. Or is it? Surely photographs and photographers and subjects have commanded this and higher sums for fashion or art. And prices are always going up. We can't be surprised if a photo or a gallon or liter costs us more today that it did yesterday. For what purpose--money--does not seem to point to that which is meaningful.
The argument may be that we need gas/petrol more--we use it to get around. We don't use a photo in the normal course of things. Okay, let us make the comparison with a coffee-table book. High-end books to look at in plain view of self and guests are almost like the oeuvre of Carla au natural. Case closed? No lasting smack between the eyes about the meaning of life or some such thing in a book or its use.
Christie's. Do we live better or more meaningful lives knowing that it was Christie's and not the Akron Museum of Modern Art that sold, or bought, Carla's likeness? Fat chance. And is it giving to Sodis, a charity, that we can relate to? Another, with all due respect, charity. We need not proceed further. What can the message be, and is it in any sense universal?
Representing or presenting the female figure throughout history has been seen and understood as that part of us which is always and ever aspiring. We seek beauty. And the effect of giving with whatever motivation to a cause or someone is, unadorned by speculation, interpretation and such, an unselfish, good act. A truth.
THE True, the Beautiful, the Good — through all the ages of man's conscious evolution these words have expressed three great ideals: ideals which have instinctively been recognized as representing the sublime nature and lofty goal of all human endeavour. (From A lecture by Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, January 19, 1923, http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/TruGoo_index.html.)
Take the particulars away. The specific details--BBC, Christie's, Carla, money, charity-giving, etc.--are not the message of the fluff. The universal message without obscured vision is to see ourselves and others and the best that our humanity in all its facets, and foibles, are capable of. That we aspire--and aspire yet again--let there be more nudes and more auctions and more unselfish acts. We can take pride and comfort in the meaningful, and ourselves.
September 12, 2011
Invented truths?
In an article titled "Texas sect temple 'used for sex'," we read this from the BBC Web site on April 11, 2008.
Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Women are taught that their path to heaven depends on being subservient to their husband.
It is 2008. If ever there was an invented truth, this must (still) be it.
Not to cast stones at the sincerity of some character or others, this precept, or "revealed truth" is a prescription for God knows what, and only s/he can know. No man or woman today with a mentality beyond mythical can swallow this. But apparently some have. And they have allegedly included children in the mix, but to date it is unclear how children play a role in the "sect's" marriages and families.
Perhaps it is desperation or some strong sense of "I can beat this death-inevitability thing by sowing my seeds." It is unclear, except again in an omniscient's eye. We cannot know that even by the standards of the most devout, who acknowledge a better and brighter yet unknowable force in and through and all around us. That s/he has spoken audibly on this specific approach to marriage and male-female relations and not on other matters of great import yesterday and today seems highly suspect.
To be accurate, the quote refers to three wives at the same time, polygamy. Otherwise many of us are already guaranteed a place because of three or more legal, lifelong commitments, which may successively have found rocky shores.
The subservient-to-men piece is archaic by anything we can learn from the further reaches of human and social development, developments we can document by advances in knowledge, prosperity and consciousness. How is it that there is great want of awareness in this world of seeming plenty? Perhaps we are too full of ourselves and what we have accomplished, while at the same time losing our vigilance to what is reasonable and good.
Some would argue that the good is relative. In the context of faith, sex with minors and multiple wives (why not husbands?) is sanctioned. But is dominance over and exploitation of the young or naive ever justifiable in the face of what we know causes physical, mental and emotional (let alone spiritual) harm? Call this then stupidity, or more kindly, ignorance. But today, to be possessed of either is both a curse and the self-inflicted disability of religious and non-religious alike. Okay.
Maybe it is about Texas. After all, it is not the first sect to have been uncovered in that state. Perhaps it is in the soil or the water of the place? No, too simplistic. By that my own place could breed as much weirdness, and it does. So the idea of doctrine growing out of location seems fruitless, or it deserves much, much more careful thought and study. What then?
Some would have us see this as a male conspiracy and the brainwashing of women. These then attribute a level of consciousness and premeditation to promulgating the doctrine. Isn't this just a cover for coveting the other for pleasure or dominance, and taking what the ego or the devil says is there for the taking?
Some would claim that women and men in this sect believe. Although that has been dismissed above, perhaps there are some believers. Enticed or enrolled into a polygamous program before the opportunity to see and learn the world apart from one belief's lenses could account for this. If this is the case, do we need to save ourselves from ourselves, thus justifying state intervention?
All of this to say if not strongly suggest: The end of the world is at hand and in the hands of those who would have us believe invented truths and the exploitation of the poorly informed. They are killing us with their words and fervor for their own, not God's, pleasure.
_____
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7341077.stm
Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Women are taught that their path to heaven depends on being subservient to their husband.
It is 2008. If ever there was an invented truth, this must (still) be it.
Not to cast stones at the sincerity of some character or others, this precept, or "revealed truth" is a prescription for God knows what, and only s/he can know. No man or woman today with a mentality beyond mythical can swallow this. But apparently some have. And they have allegedly included children in the mix, but to date it is unclear how children play a role in the "sect's" marriages and families.
Perhaps it is desperation or some strong sense of "I can beat this death-inevitability thing by sowing my seeds." It is unclear, except again in an omniscient's eye. We cannot know that even by the standards of the most devout, who acknowledge a better and brighter yet unknowable force in and through and all around us. That s/he has spoken audibly on this specific approach to marriage and male-female relations and not on other matters of great import yesterday and today seems highly suspect.
To be accurate, the quote refers to three wives at the same time, polygamy. Otherwise many of us are already guaranteed a place because of three or more legal, lifelong commitments, which may successively have found rocky shores.
The subservient-to-men piece is archaic by anything we can learn from the further reaches of human and social development, developments we can document by advances in knowledge, prosperity and consciousness. How is it that there is great want of awareness in this world of seeming plenty? Perhaps we are too full of ourselves and what we have accomplished, while at the same time losing our vigilance to what is reasonable and good.
Some would argue that the good is relative. In the context of faith, sex with minors and multiple wives (why not husbands?) is sanctioned. But is dominance over and exploitation of the young or naive ever justifiable in the face of what we know causes physical, mental and emotional (let alone spiritual) harm? Call this then stupidity, or more kindly, ignorance. But today, to be possessed of either is both a curse and the self-inflicted disability of religious and non-religious alike. Okay.
Maybe it is about Texas. After all, it is not the first sect to have been uncovered in that state. Perhaps it is in the soil or the water of the place? No, too simplistic. By that my own place could breed as much weirdness, and it does. So the idea of doctrine growing out of location seems fruitless, or it deserves much, much more careful thought and study. What then?
Some would have us see this as a male conspiracy and the brainwashing of women. These then attribute a level of consciousness and premeditation to promulgating the doctrine. Isn't this just a cover for coveting the other for pleasure or dominance, and taking what the ego or the devil says is there for the taking?
Some would claim that women and men in this sect believe. Although that has been dismissed above, perhaps there are some believers. Enticed or enrolled into a polygamous program before the opportunity to see and learn the world apart from one belief's lenses could account for this. If this is the case, do we need to save ourselves from ourselves, thus justifying state intervention?
All of this to say if not strongly suggest: The end of the world is at hand and in the hands of those who would have us believe invented truths and the exploitation of the poorly informed. They are killing us with their words and fervor for their own, not God's, pleasure.
_____
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7341077.stm
Step One*
for Maggie
Find a quiet place,
aside the human race.
You will need little care,
just a straight-backed chair.
Settle comfortably in, realizing
Realizing Self is no sin.
Breathe in and out,
and all else rout.
Let your body go.
So there you are . . . just so.
Close now your eyes not to see.
NOW--ready? Just be.
Recite your words
till they end.
Ever, so, slow.
Then again. Go.
No one's perfect.
Ego's mind will wander.
Stay awake for best effect.
Work is hard there--beyond yonder.
Demons may appear.
Watch them, do not fear.
Let them also go.
Slow. Again.
For twenty min!
(You can afford the time.
Where you're going--
No need for silly rhymes!)
There you did it.
And on the morrow,
You will come and sit.
Same time and place,
to let ego go a pace.
Not self but Self,
the safest, treasured space.
Rewards aplenty,
those minutes twenty.
Peace and One--
The goal that is no goal.
What better spent to awaken?
yours and my and our immortal soul.
_____
* Refer to the works of Eknath Easwaran.
[Not so obvious. You have to experience it, not read or talk about it. Or bother yourself with silly rhymes like this one. What you are after but not after (the goal that is no goal) is more important and powerful than words can express. The ineffable.]
Find a quiet place,
aside the human race.
You will need little care,
just a straight-backed chair.
Settle comfortably in, realizing
Realizing Self is no sin.
Breathe in and out,
and all else rout.
Let your body go.
So there you are . . . just so.
Close now your eyes not to see.
NOW--ready? Just be.
Recite your words
till they end.
Ever, so, slow.
Then again. Go.
No one's perfect.
Ego's mind will wander.
Stay awake for best effect.
Work is hard there--beyond yonder.
Demons may appear.
Watch them, do not fear.
Let them also go.
Slow. Again.
For twenty min!
(You can afford the time.
Where you're going--
No need for silly rhymes!)
There you did it.
And on the morrow,
You will come and sit.
Same time and place,
to let ego go a pace.
Not self but Self,
the safest, treasured space.
Rewards aplenty,
those minutes twenty.
Peace and One--
The goal that is no goal.
What better spent to awaken?
yours and my and our immortal soul.
_____
* Refer to the works of Eknath Easwaran.
[Not so obvious. You have to experience it, not read or talk about it. Or bother yourself with silly rhymes like this one. What you are after but not after (the goal that is no goal) is more important and powerful than words can express. The ineffable.]
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