Believing things to be true because one wishes them to be true is a prime malady of the human condition. It is an opposite of objectivity, reflecting a shortfall of intellectual honesty. It has led to wars, famines and other guarantors of human suffering.
Meditation for Saturday of Week 48 in the season of Harvest and Celebration
Living in Eternity’s Sunrise
He who binds himself to a Joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the Joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.
[William Blake, The Argument: Eternity]
Every moment is eternity’s sunrise. To live like this is to live creatively, with hope and without regret; to forgive and let go not only of the past but of the present moment as it flies, and then to live fully in the next moment as it arrives. It is to be centered in the only time and place where we ever are, the here and now, yet it is also to be mindful of our place in time, which marches inexorably forward.
Real
True Narratives
- Delia Ephron, Life on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life (Little, Brown & Company, 2022), “. . . though it opens with Jerry’s death — is less the story of a woman losing a husband than it is that of a woman falling in love again at age 72.”
Imaginary
Visual Arts
- Paul Jenkins, Phenomena Lasting Dawn (1977)
- Paul Klee, Rising Sun (1907)
- Claude Monet, Lilacs in the Sun (1872)
- Claude Monet, Autumn at Argenteuil (1873)
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Daybreak and early morning ragas:
- Ahir Bhairav (performances by Chaurasia & Hussain, Madhusudan and Amir Khan)
- Bhatiyar (performances by Banerjee, Gundharava and Rajan/Mishra)
- Bibhas (performances by Amonkar, Shankar and Faiyaz Khan)
- Jogiya (performances by Vilayat Khan, Joshi and Joshi)
The pianist Mikhael has produced two albums of improvisational classical music, which the program notes describe as follows: “Improvisation is the art of the sound of the present. . . . Each note and melody, phrase and rhythm, are born and develop following rules which are consonant with music that is lived more than it is thought. When such a situation is recreated, the instrument, the music and the musician become one, finding completion in the conscious listener.”
- The Blue Flame
- Rays of Harmony
David Binney is a jazz saxophonist, many of whose albums are themed around time:
- “Tomorrow’s Journey” (2022)
- “Where Infinity Begins” (2022)
- “A Glimpse of the Eternal” (2022)
- “Here and Now” (2019)
- “The Time Verses” (2017)
Compositions:
- Kenessey, Magic Forest Dances, for oboe and piano, “take place in a fantastical, other-worldly realm.” The music “takes us through a series of encounters with mysterious spirits and playful sprites, then ends on a joyous note with the bright, upbeat dance of the Finale.” (Per the composer.)
Poetry
He who binds to himself a joy / Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies / Lives in eternity's sunrise.
[William Blake, “Eternity”]
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Cat Stephens, Morning Has Broken
- Franz Schubert (composer), Pensa, che questo istante (Consider That This Moment), D. 76 (1813) (lyrics)
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