my conversation with matt has brought to mind a book i am reading called
culture and horticulture by wolf storl. it draws heavily on the work of steiner
and goethe in relation to gardening.
i think the following extract illustrates a point at least tangential to the
exchange twisxt matt and me:
"theories are usually the impetuousness of an impatient intellect which would
like to rid itself of the phenomena and replace them with images, concepts or
just words....instead one must let the facts [phenomena], the contents of the
careful empirical observation speak for themselves and let them draw out of the
observer's mind the appropriate idea."
this method is labelled goetheanistic science by the author. conceptually it
seems MoQ ish. that is, the meditative observation goes beyond the static
patterns of knowledge already acquired, using them perhaps as a bridge to
reaching a point of identification with the phenomena which then yields, of
itself, a corresponding and original idea... a new analogy through which to
illuminate the mystery.
i would have enjoyed reading something like the above during my 6 years of
university science, i always felt what i would label now as an epistemological
gap or vagueness. the real meat of the whole enterprise - the practice, the art
of science - was left practically untouched....
of course to fully assimilate the above passages presupposes a certain openness
of mind - a certain tolerance, at least, for 'exotic' conceptions - for the
idea that there is something that 'speaks through' the phenomena, albeit gently
and softly.
but if we return to experience as our faithful touchstone we see that there is
nothing unusual about such an idea, indeed the converse is true. just as jung
reminded us that synchronicity was natural time, so it is, for the keen
observer, that the truth of 'phenomena speaking for themselves' is obvious and
normal.
listening to jeremiah abrams, an american mythologist and author, i was
reminded of this point. he is an editor as well as being a writer and has
noticed that many great writers actually identify their true talent as
listening. they are simply excellent and sensitive scribes: the true writer
*hears* the story told to him through the phenomena he beholds...as henry
miller said, 'not me but the father within me'.
and if writing is reduced to the art of focus and listening..see how all
activity and creation can be likewise reduced to a similar fluidity of
transmission - very zen ya? wu wei, undo...and then the words get in the ...
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