~Undivided Wholeness In Flowing Movement~

"We are all thieves pretending to be policemen trying to catch ourselves." -Alain Naude

They ask us why we mutilate each other like we do. They wonder why we hold such little worth on human life. To ask us why we turned from bad to worse is to ignore from which we came. You see, you wouldn’t ask why the rose that grew from the concrete had damaged petals; on the contrary, we would all celebrate its tenacity. We would all love it’s will to reach the sun. Well, we are the roses. This is the concrete. And these are my damaged petals. Don’t ask me why; thank God. Ask me how.

—Tupac Shakur

Qualities and characteristics are categorized based on qualities and characteristics of the classifier; many of those classifiers bear close resemblance. With classification comes certainty and concepts of permanency which fuse with social frameworks. Marilyn Manson shatters these illusory superficial suppositions with levels of eloquence and posh sophistication uncommonly ascribed to those composed of similar appearances while also instantaneously gaining a new fan. Enlightenment has no form; the word is not the thing.

“For most of us, passion is employed only with regard to one thing, sex; or you suffer passionately and try to resolve that suffering. But I am using the word passion in the sense of a state of mind, a state of being, a state of your inward core, if there is such a thing, that feels very strongly, that is highly sensitive - sensitive alike to dirt, to squalor, to poverty, and to enormous riches and corruption, to the beauty of a tree, of a bird, to the flow of water, and to a pond that has the evening sky reflected upon it. To feel all this intensely, strongly, is necessary. Because without passion life becomes empty, shallow, and without much meaning. If you cannot see the beauty of a tree and love that tree, if you cannot care for it intensely, you are not living.”

“For most of us, passion is employed only with regard to one thing, sex; or you suffer passionately and try to resolve that suffering. But I am using the word passion in the sense of a state of mind, a state of being, a state of your inward core, if there is such a thing, that feels very strongly, that is highly sensitive - sensitive alike to dirt, to squalor, to poverty, and to enormous riches and corruption, to the beauty of a tree, of a bird, to the flow of water, and to a pond that has the evening sky reflected upon it. To feel all this intensely, strongly, is necessary. Because without passion life becomes empty, shallow, and without much meaning. If you cannot see the beauty of a tree and love that tree, if you cannot care for it intensely, you are not living.”

     “Love is the unknowable. It can be realized only when the known is understood and transcended. Only when the mind is free from the known, then only there will be love. So, we must approach love negatively, not positively.      What is love to most of us? With us, when we love, in it there is possessiveness, dominance, or subservience. From this possession arises jealousy, fear of loss, and we legalize this possessive instinct. From this possessiveness arise jealousy and the innumerable conflicts with which one is familiar. Possessiveness, then, is not love. Nor is love sentimental. To be sentimental, to be emotional, excludes love. Sensitivity and emotions are merely sensations.      … Love alone can transform insanity, confusion, and strife. No system, no theory of the left or of the right can bring peace and happiness to man. Where there is love, there is no possessiveness, no envy; there is mercy and compassion, not in theory, but actually - for your wife and for your children, for your neighbor and for your servant… Love alone can bring about mercy and beauty, order and peace. There is love with its blessing when ‘you’ cease to be.”

     “Love is the unknowable. It can be realized only when the known is understood and transcended. Only when the mind is free from the known, then only there will be love. So, we must approach love negatively, not positively.

     What is love to most of us? With us, when we love, in it there is possessiveness, dominance, or subservience. From this possession arises jealousy, fear of loss, and we legalize this possessive instinct. From this possessiveness arise jealousy and the innumerable conflicts with which one is familiar. Possessiveness, then, is not love. Nor is love sentimental. To be sentimental, to be emotional, excludes love. Sensitivity and emotions are merely sensations.

     … Love alone can transform insanity, confusion, and strife. No system, no theory of the left or of the right can bring peace and happiness to man. Where there is love, there is no possessiveness, no envy; there is mercy and compassion, not in theory, but actually - for your wife and for your children, for your neighbor and for your servant… Love alone can bring about mercy and beauty, order and peace. There is love with its blessing when ‘you’ cease to be.”

“I never think about an audience. I just think about the band. And if the bad is alright, I know the audience is pleased. I don’t have to hold the audience’s hand. I think audiences are hipper than musicians think they are.”      - Miles Davis to drummer Arthur Taylor, 1968 ‘The music of Miles Davis defied definition. All except for one: Cool.’

“I never think about an audience. I just think about the band. And if the bad is alright, I know the audience is pleased. I don’t have to hold the audience’s hand. I think audiences are hipper than musicians think they are.”     

- Miles Davis to drummer Arthur Taylor, 1968

‘The music of Miles Davis defied definition. All except for one: Cool.’

“The world is not something separate from you and me; the world, society, is the relationship we seek to establish between each other. So you and I are the problem, and not the world, because the world is a projection of ourselves, and to understand the world we must understand ourselves. That world is not separate from us; we are the world, and our problems are the world’s problems.”

“The world is not something separate from you and me; the world, society, is the relationship we seek to establish between each other. So you and I are the problem, and not the world, because the world is a projection of ourselves, and to understand the world we must understand ourselves. That world is not separate from us; we are the world, and our problems are the world’s problems.”

“The image you have about a person, the image you have about your politicians, the prime minister, your god, your wife, your children - that image is being looked at. And that image has been created through your relationship, or through your fears, or through your hopes… With that image you look.. So the relationship between you and your wife or husband, between you and the politician is really the relationship between these two images. Right? That is a fact. How can two images which are the result of thought, of pleasure and so on, have any affection or love? So the relationship between two individuals, very close together or very far, is a relationship of images, symbols, memories. And in that, how can there be real love?”

“The image you have about a person, the image you have about your politicians, the prime minister, your god, your wife, your children - that image is being looked at. And that image has been created through your relationship, or through your fears, or through your hopes… With that image you look.. So the relationship between you and your wife or husband, between you and the politician is really the relationship between these two images. Right? That is a fact. How can two images which are the result of thought, of pleasure and so on, have any affection or love?

So the relationship between two individuals, very close together or very far, is a relationship of images, symbols, memories. And in that, how can there be real love?”