Pinchbeck And Klein In Toronto
Daniel Pinchbeck and Alice Klein discusses consciousness, ecology, and time in this video. Recorded on June 16th, 2007 at the opening of Divine Light in Toronto, Canada, the talk explores planetary changes and the practical means individuals can engage in to develop a stronger, healthier world.
Alice Klein is co-founder, editor and CEO of Toronto's NOW Magazine, a free alternative news and entertainment weekly. As an accomplished writer and passionate observer of social movements, Klein has covered a breadth of subjects ranging from Canada and the global economy, to behind-the-scenes at the Dalai Lama's Kalachakra initiation. As an original thinker, her comfort zone is writing on the connections between politics, economics, and the archetypal. Her film "Call of the Hummingbird" was screened prior to the discussion.
Divine Light is a composition by Scott Peterson. It is an abstraction of the harmony of the spheres, a musical universe expanding infinity possibilities and interactions; a labyrinth. A fun and futuristic sound-sculpture celebrating illumination and the human spirit.
The event was part of a weekend celebrating the launch of Reality Sandwich at Jivamukti Yoga Toronto, June 15 and 16, organized by Yumee Chung. Watch it here:
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- 7-23-07
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materialism
In the novel, _Island_, Aldous Huxley presents a similar notion to what Daniel Pinchbeck relates from Alan Watts. Essentially, I see this as the distinction between consumerism and what Huxley styles, concrete materialism.
Consumerism is an obsession with abstraction that is little more than tangentially concerned with the object itself. Few people are even remotely interested in the composition of a given commodity, much less its significance. Indeed, once a given widget falls out of fashion, it is disposed of and forgotten.
Concrete materialism is more along the lines of quantum physics, chaos theory, and eastern mysticism. What is the essence of the presence of a substance? Such exploration and observation takes place within the context of a relativistic, transitory, elastic, and mutable understanding of reality. Relationships depend on objects which depend on relationships.
There are still states of matter, but we see them as interdependent, interpenetrating, inextricably intertwined. Solids are seen as having a permeable and impermanent nature, whereas the gasses of our atmosphere posses a kind of paradoxical stability.
Often, it is my opinion that misunderstandings in relation to this subject largely stem from mistaken associations and connotations. For instance, some people would say that solid is no longer solid. This simply is not true. We are not really dealing with solid as one state of matter, we are dealing with matter in general.
The composition of concrete on a sidewalk is primarily empty space, but if I fall down on it I will still get a bruise. However, many of those same elements in the form of sand will comfortably cushion my fall. These two reactions depend on the organization involved in the relationships of similar elements.
I can cup a handful of water with no resistance whatsoever, yet if it is in the form of a wave and rushes at me with sufficient force, it will knock me right over, as well as perhaps most of a city--if it is a tsunami.
The air I breathe puts up such little resistance, I hardly notice it, yet if the wind blows with enough force, it makes the birds fly backwards. As a hurricane, it flings the tides with such strength, it presses the ocean up miles onto the land. The wind god's blustery gusto makes Poseidon's stallions gallop to the mountains.
This comment is getting silly. Any moment now I shall be reprimanded by a general in a tutu.