Man’s relationship with time is in the most literary sense of the term : ‘Skin Deep’.
For Time, wrinkles up, it seems on the body of Man, a reducing force, a keeper of accounts, a gushing, senseless, voice, capable of unconditionally impressing on the Skin of Man the irrevocable function of his experiences : Decay.
But what Is Time? What Is Man? And what is Superficial, and What is Not ? The statements above risk sounding foolish and appear as indictments, if these Vital Premises are not exposed of their conjurations. To Do So necessitates a Study of Relationships, rather than an examination in parts. How they relate and feel and form, rather than how they are divided from one another. More the Appreciation, and the less the mechanics ensures and insures a more Sublime and indeed, Complete Understanding – much as an analyses of cones and heights and cylinders, have never contributed on those mere grounds – to a Musician’s capacity to play the Organ better than he would not knowing its configured — one might say — ‘Superficial’ — intricacies.
The reason the premise of “Man versus Time” is in a holistic and observable sense, insofar as it is an ‘Objective Phenomena’, is technically superficial is on account of the fact, nothing literally or otherwise, – could be more profound to Man, than Man’s Relationship With Himself.
Just as the Less is not More, Man is not the Time he Spends. That Statement does not require an added study of ‘Expenditures and Balance Sheets’ to be any more Qualified than they appear in that Self-Evident Form above in the allegory. In fact, to present it in any other way would be a Nuisance to the Reader and an insult to his Consciousness.
But is the term ‘Superficial’ an Insult?
When Man relates beyond the Skin, and beyond “prophesies” of appearances, and brush strokes of “modern” Art, – he is electing to leapfrog his rudimentary and standard functions, if only by beginning to not take those “mere” functions for Granted.
Gratitude proves to be a Science to a Man who is capable and powerful enough to be a witness to the relationship he shares with himself. The deeper he enters into his own orifices of his Self-Notion, nothing seems trivial, accidental, or Decadent. That is as much a Fact, as it is a fact, Global Banking has reticulated into utter Fraudulence, and Religion has dealt more degradation, damage, and ruin on Man ( Including the “Religion of Freethinkers” ) – than the Silent and Observable Natural and Quantum Forces as are easily afforded to those that Listen Better and more Wholly than they Speak. Not an Easy Task.
Is the experience of Ease then related to the differentiation of the Superficial and the Profound?
It is Not Easy to Unite with One’s own Self. Yet, it is not Difficult to Desire It when clearly, it is an experience capable of unconditionally impressing on the Spirit/Substance of Man, rather than Skin, - the irrevocable function of his Eternal Form – the very ‘Idea of Man’ being that form – inseparable from what He Is at the paramount moment. Therein, no Decay, but a Great, unsullied, and transcendental propensity is discoverable, notable, and construable – and the Author would hypothesize, can even be granted Construction in the ‘Grand Scheme of Things’.
How then are Ease and Difficulty Differentiated, if they are both expressions of the Mind?
The Superficial Man – One who dwells on the Skin, however, blames. In Christian allegory, he is like the Character Job : Given to him are purely arbitrary passions of an argument – and each passion, its own Principle, and its own Will. If he should dwell on the Skin, he finds blemishes, sores, holes – the whole tapestry of physical pain and afflictions are transcribed on his premises. This is what he draws out and regards as the “Whole Past” – never mind, that had he not the surface of skin, as he has in Time the assistance of the surface of that Tool ‘Memory’, which alone empowers the Seeker to ask whichsoever inquiry that bodes and bears in his curiosity; how come would he have Gained the Profound Opportunity of Criticism?
The Superficial Man continues to confuse Means with Ends at no great advantage! Regarding “The Flaws of Histories”, – Castigating and dispatching his dubious “Venom” to the Seeds of Past, ‘As If’ it Still Applies, he empowers that which he criticizes- namely his own Actual Decay/Decadence, – failing to apprehend with either his Soul or his Intellect – that the premises of ‘Past’, ‘Present’ and ‘Future’ are cursory habits of Consciousness – nuanced particles of Man’s own Capacity to Be, or to Become.
The Man who freely Wills a Vision, regardless of mere habits and costumes, while liberally interpreting the Useful aspects Truthfully from the ‘Past’, gives notable credence to a Present and Gratitude to those that strived afore him, and enters into his own futurized Vehicle and transmits himself therein through the Same. Indeed, Time as a function of the Conscious Mind is it not – much like Skin – a Vehicle? A ‘Foe-Friend’ – in the sense, it may appear a combustible vehicle, requiring maintenance, attention, — A Source of Energy, ultimately, that could be termed But the ‘Soul’ or to those of the least metaphysical “bent” – the ‘Prime Substance’. The Question of Existence rests on that Will – that Energetic Animus that supplies the Q uest. To ameliorate the conditions within one’s own Person and the conditions and circumstances of all others go hand in hand, undistinguished, for one’s own Person Chooses It. And to enliven the Quest, one must summon Will and Vivacity – as Such.
Difficulty is the highest Ease, and the Highest Ease is always Difficult!
( Therein ) The Profound Man – One who dwells on Substance, and shuns hypocrisy and vagaries of illogic, un-reason, and tiresome ineptitude, and even avoids the accumulated lives of the illogic, un-reason, ineptitudes, torpitudes of others more Superificial than He, — Avoids all principles that detract from Candidness, and Dwells on the conditions and Premises of his highest Substantive Self – and in this regard, initiating himself through his 1) Mind – Reason 2 ) Body – Passions 3 ) Soul – Prime Substance , such that the Unity created by the Three are Greater than even the Whole. And in that there is contained – the Grammar – the Principle – the Mysteries of Man.
In the Year Two Thousand and Nine, as pronounced by the Christian Logbook and interpretation of Time, – it appears, there is a great deal of chaos, suffrage, blame, and anger arising out of Man. Everyone is at Blame, but not He. Every Foreign Element to his Consciousness is depraved and not He. The Justice is Unjust, but he presumes he is himself Just in stating that Concept.
But the Angry Man, the Chaotic, and the Irascible. Who is that Man? Is he a Superficial Man? Or is he Man Profound? Moreover, if he is a Superficial Man, will he learn Gratitude, so that his depth may increase towards himself, and so that he comes closer in proximity to the Man Profound? And per the Man Profound, in reaching the higher orifices of his awareness – Will he find it Satisfactory to be overwhelmed by the deplorable “Noise” – the noisy and pitiful vagaries of the Superficial Man, whom he cannot escape within or outside himself, so long as the Man Profound is Obliged to admit to his Humanity, which he Must at all times, unless he departs from its premise, – What of him? Perhaps, it is Love?
Is there an allegorical inflection that is perceptible? ‘Lion and Sheep drinking from the same Pond’ is a beautiful phrase – one that easily comes to the author’s mind when he raises up his eyes to the stars, probing for nebulous Relevance to Clarify itself. Is that not which some call ‘Kingdom of Heaven on Earth’ — That is a Space of such Profound Mutual Understanding and Investment, that it mutually assures Evolution, rather than “Cold War like Mutually Assured Destruction”?
An Investment that leaves both parties Wealthier than they were before and Conscious of the Fact, – if they prove Inevitable in their Reason, their Passions guided by Substance, and their Substance guided by the Whole than is greater than the Sum of the Parts?
The Whole may just be what is contained in the word ‘Love’.
“Amor Omnia Vincit”- as a Spanish friend of mine has been invoking of late with a Steady frequency. Meaning, ‘Love Conquers All’.
Going beyond Superficialities, and giving a Living Flame to Profundity, will be tantamount to transcribe the Equinoxes and Solstices of what is meant by that one word.
Love.
. . .
Alexander K. Rai, MSMA is the author of ‘Reader’s Indigest’. He ( personally ) believes in 2009, the most important aspect of existence is to readily admit one’s Humanity, so long as one is complicit in the Human Nature . Adding moreover that, while it is ‘Human to Err’, to ‘Err Honestly, is to find Truth’. Believing in his own Humanity, while at the same time, regarding the Whole that is more than the Collection of Parts, as the premise of what some may call the basis of his “Personal Faith”, he is giddy, that at any given time he is impersonating Only Himself, and all that is done by his Humanity, is easily Surpassed by the volition of the Same, and what is prevented, is prevented by the same. The Author asides from being a ‘Real Person’ may in that vein, be also for the disinterested Reader, be a purely ‘Symbolic Speculation’, and shall not be disserved from the profit of Gainful Readership, whatsoever. The Author, therein, as Stated, does not take Credit for either Comprehension or Incomprehension of any of his Creative Works, offered in Honor of him Self and Despite Himself, freely to all that may elect to invest their ‘Time’ – and thereby moisten a bit of their Skin, in the Author’s peculiar unsolicited brand of mental – perhaps – also Spiritual – moisturizer. The Photography Displayed in this Journal are not the Author’s, but rather transcriptions of images of Vintage Books, whose creative attributions are too many, too vague, or both – To List.
