"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Sixteen.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, not knowing what is next and not concerned with what was or what may be next, a new mind is operating that is not connected with the conditioned past and yet perceives and understands the whole mechanism of conditioning. It is the unmasking of the self that is nothing but masks — images, memories of past experiences, fears, hopes, and the ceaseless demand to be something or become somebody. This new mind that is no-mind is
free of duality — there is no doer in it and nothing to be done.
Toni Packer


"I-77, Exit 30 / Dust Landscapes"© (detail) 2010
Watercolor on Paper
Autumn Missed Subset

FROM THE EDITOR

14.) And finally: Use all your oil. This of course refers to the parable of ‘The Wise and Foolish Maidens. The idea is that the maidens that burned their oil in preparation for the coming of the Prince were perhaps optimistic, but should not be used as a foible for the other maidens (as if waiting around and shining no light would be the better action). We thought it might be just right somehow to ‘use all your oil’. Since then Tom has been thinking about the idea of the ‘fool’. And thinks that this level of foolishness –this enthusiasm if you will - may be illustrating not an opposite but an equal and perhaps viable ‘way’. After all it is the wise AND the foolish. The and here may be seen as an equivalency. After all, if we are exhorted to fully participate in life why sit around in the dark. Also, did not the wise maidens allow themselves the free illumination in the light of others?"

from "THE PORCH TRANSCRIPTS - CONVERSATIONS IN THE DARK WITH MY BABY" Compiled 10/23/03. Note: these recordings were originally written on a Harper’s Magazine in ballpoint pen. Conversants include Sheila Ennis in her current position of Goddess, and her adoring husband (Tom Schulz) working in his capacity of SAA (Supreme Administrative Assistant).

"Serenade" (detail). From "The Mockingbird Triptych"© 2011
watercolor and gouache on paper

“Appetition”

“In terms of an Entities personal life-history, where does Desire become a motivating initiative?” asked The Universe of God. “Is Desire an aspect of the Creative Process?”
“Oh”, that’s tricky for an Entity - desire”, responded God. “An Entity can be consumed by a Desire to create and fall under the thrall of the Desire. Maybe it would better serve if the Entity were to discover the underlying novelty of a situation or set of circumstances and match the novelty of the surrounding environment.”

“Like that Autumn thing we got going on the planet Earth!” declared an enthusiastic The Universe.

“Process and Reality - The Interview”©
Video Sketch 2010

Both God and The Universe liked this:

“It is easy to overlook this thought that life just is. As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of the intoxicating existence we’ve been endowed with.

But what’s life to a lichen? Yet its impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours-arguably even stronger. If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Lichens don’t. Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment’s additions existence. Life, in short just wants to be.”
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Black Swan, 2003

In a Stolen Boat,
push off what seemed safe: The fishing dock,
pitch pines, children glazed to sheen
by ruthless summers. Past

the jetty, past the past, to open sea—
all violet and green, that choppy path between doom and luck—
Put your back into it, and row.
April Bernard, "Romanticism" 2009

This concludes Week Sixteen of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.