Freedom

I read this article on sparrowrose's journal and felt like sharing it...

-ken-

( Article... )

The fifth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Beit is Heh.  Heh means Window and Behold!, but symbolically means to Take, and mystically, is the first Breathe.  As the Window, Heh reveals what is hidden.  Through the Window of Heh, we can see clearly.  As Behold!, Heh is revelation, which is also a reflection of seeing what is hidden.  As the number five, Heh represents the five books of the Torah, hence, G-d's Word comes from the revelation of Heh.  As Take, Heh represents known giving.  Gimel gave to Daleth without knowing Daleth; it was purely an act of charity.  When Heh gives, Heh says, as Joseph did to his brothers, "Take for yourself seed."  It also isn't a giving without effort.  Gimel made the effort for Daleth, running after him, but Heh sits and tells his brothers to take it themselves.  They make the effort.  As Breathe, Heh is G-d breathing life into the universe.  It is shown in Adam, for G-d fashioned him from clay, then breathed life into him.  As such, Heh is the beginning of life within creation.  The form of Heh is a Daleth above with a Yod below.  In the space between, is the form of Vev, so Heh is pregnant with Vev.  These three letters, Yod, Vev, Daleth, YVD, spell Yod, the seed from which all else comes.  This is the seed Heh says to take.

On the Tree of Life, in all Hebrew versions, Heh connects Kether and Chokmah.  This is why Chokmah is called Breathe from Breathe.  Kether is the life of G-d in creation.  Through Heh, Breathed out of Kether, Chokmah comes.  Wisdom comes from the Breathe of the Crown.  It is in Wisdom, not Understanding, that we truly see what is hidden.  Understanding is too dependant on language, so can never understand the indescribable.  Heh connects Kether to the Pillar of Mercy.  It tells creation to take of the seed, Yod, which G-d has given, since the Pillar of Mercy is about unrestrained giving.  As the five books of the Torah, we see that the first emanation, Heh, contains the Torah.  The Torah was before words, before language, for the essence of G-d's Word isn't the words we read, but the meaning behind them, the thoughts of G-d.  The form of Heh has a second meaning.  The top line of the Daleth represents Thought.  This flows down in the leg as Speech.  The Yod within represents Action.  As such, Heh thinks about the needs around him, speaks to tell those who need to take, and causes them to take action.  The Thought is passive, but both Speech and Action are active.

What are you missing around you?  Look through the Window of Heh today, and, Behold!, you will see.  It is in the passive, in Thought, that the revelation comes.  In the stillness and quiet before Speech, sit and think, let the Revelation come to you.  Take time for the silence, and from it will come Speech.  Speak what you are told to speak, tell of the Revelation.  As long as it is contained within and not spoken, it will be passive and nothing will change.  Speak change.  When you speak, Yod will impregnate you, as Yesod does Malkuth.  From that action, from that pregnancy, will come forth change.  That seed will sprout and bring forth true Understanding, true Binah, just as Vev brings forth Binah.  Be still, be silent, and let G-d Breath Wisdom into your Thoughts.  And look around you.  Who can you help by telling them to "take for yourself seed"?  Out of the Thoughts comes the speech.  You can help those around you.  This it the secret of change.

-ken-

A friend on my friends list posted the following paragraph out of Wikipedia:

Cat intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Cats learn by trial and error, observation and imitation. Cats' learning abilities are aided by their good memory, recalling certain information much longer than dogs. In one study, it was found that cats possess visual memory ability comparable to that of monkeys. However, for short term working memory, at least one study showed that dogs outperformed cats for periods of time up to 60 seconds.

This got me thinking. I've been thinking about my memory lately. I'm very visual, and can remember details from before the age of two in pictures and the pictures never fade with time. I also seem to immediately put images into long-term memory, but sound, smell, touch, and taste seem to never make it into my long term memory. My short-term memory is very poor and my long term memory is excellent. So, I think I use long term for images and emotions, which is my base thoughts, and that is part of why I'm slow at translating them into speech, but I lose everything else quickly. If that makes sense. That seems very much like the cat description. Good visual memory, good long term memory, poor short term memory.

-ken-

I have come to the conclusion that time is inherently liminal. Time itself is undefinable and unknowable, because it's the change, the movement between singularities, that define it. We live from moment to moment, singularity to singularity, not a continuous timeline.

To discuss this subject in a way that can be understood, I need a language to use to do so. I will use my Social Dynamics to do so, so I will define the terms from it that I will use.

( Social Dynamics Definitions... )

In addition, I am using two words that also need to be defined.

( Additional Definitions... )

If something is liminal, it means it is in the process of changing. It's at an in between stage, where it isn't the thing it was, but isn't quite what it's becoming yet. It's fluid, undefinable, hard to perceive. Time is like that. It's not the passage of time that matters, but the series of events that hold importance. These events can be seen many different ways, depending on the population of the culture involved.

To understand time, I will first look at a population of one. What is the past for this culture? The person's memory. And what is that memory? Memory is a series of events the mind finds important enough to latch onto. These events are the singularities. In our lives, events occur that we, or our mind, deem important. There are what are remembered, not what happened between these events. As more time passes, some events, the less important ones, fade, until we remember them no more. But what happened between these events? We don't know. What happened outside these events? We don't know. There are an infinite number of paths that could have got us from singularity A to singularity B. These are the many pasts I've talked about before. Which past we followed is irrelevant. All could have happened. None might have happened. Nothing might have happened. Our memory, and hence our past, is made up of finite singularities.

For this population of one, what's it's future? The person's thoughts. The future hasn't been determined yet. There are infinite possible futures, but the thoughts are relevant in two different ways. First, barring a miracle like a vision or a dream, thoughts are the only way we see the future. The future to us is the possibilities we think of. We think of specific moments that could happen, singularities in the future. The second significance of thoughts is how it effects the future. We limit the possibilities for the future because we only act in relationship to what we can think of. The singularities we arrive at seldom come to pass, because our actions aren't the only things involved. However, taking a population of one, not including miracles or accidents, the only possible future singularities are the ones the person can think of.

( Expansion... )

Every morning the two ravens Huginn and Muninn, are loosed and fly over Midgard; I always fear that Thought may not wing his way home, but my fear for Memory is greater.

-ken-