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

We need to get out of our heads to understand ourselves.
For we are not brains in vats of skull, we are animals, dynamically entangled with the world around us. Where do you stop
and where does the world around you begin?
Not at the skull, and not even at the limits of the body.”
ALVA NOË

"Spider Labyrinth - 1 / Dust Landscapes"© (detail) 2010
Watercolor on Paper
Autumn Missed Subset

From the Editor:
Fairly fresh out of High School and oddly reticent to continue attending college, I left Academia with the intention of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail with two chums. We were heading South to Springer Mountain and hitched a ride in the family Circus Wagon that was conveniently going in the same direction. Arriving at our destination, I piled out with my pack and high spirits: ready (yet ill prepared) for Adventure. We all said our brave goodbyes. I stole a glance back and saw the most abject look of loss, pain and worry on my Mother's face. I had never seen that look before. As I turned and headed into the Draw, I swore that if I had kids, I would never let them see that face on me. So much for plans and intentions. I walked the entire Trail alright. But not the one I planned. And not the one I intended. No. It has been ever more marvelous and mysterious than anything I could have Imagined.

"Trouble in Space"© 2008
Acrylic Gouache, Metallic Spray Paint on Paper
From the "Spidey Hole Series"

“Trouble in Space ”

“Let The Universe just suppose”, supposed The Universe, “that a Structured Society, You know, Society like a group of Entities, has reached a State of Satisfaction. Then is it complete? If it isn’t complete, then what does that Society do - get more complex? Where is the stability?”
“God considers that the Satisfaction of a Society, especially a Diverse and therefore Healthy Society, can only be as Satisfied on the whole as the Smallest subset is satisfied”, replied God. This allows for the Process of Complexity to avoid the Extremes of Complication.”

“Yeah, cause there’d sure be trouble in space, then. Wouldn’t there, God?”

"Angel Oak Study #11" © 2011
Polymer Stains on Canvas
From the "Revisiting My Nature Series"

“Extensive Connections ”

“OK, let’s see if The Universe has this straight”, erupted The Universe. “Physicality is a type of relatedness that is at once measurable and discernible, given certain properties and assumptions regarding extensive connections. So, taking a family of straight lines, we can express a system of congruent society. Presto! Order!” Oh, The Universe was pleased to the point of smugness.
“Lovely logic, The Universe”, said God. “But what of competing families of loci with equal claim to a societal system? One set of realities tumbling into another set of possibilities?”

“Well, The Universe will spend some time considering that likelihood”, grunted a disgruntled The Universe.

"The Wind Whispered My Name"© 2011
Video Sketch

Talk as much philosophy as you like,
worship as many gods as you please,
observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns,
but liberation will never come,
even after a hundred aeons,
without realizing the Oneness.
Sankara, from "The Wisdom of the Hindu Gurus", edited by Timothy Freke

This concludes Week Fifteen 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.

The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Twelve

"That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights."
Rumi

From the Editor: One of the first rules of navigation required that one keep in sight of familiar landmarks. Early seafarers kept to the shore. The Phoenicians and the Polynesians turned their gaze to the heavens and made the stars their fixed points. Currents, trade winds, Astrolabes and Sextants. The compass and its mystical attractions. Lodestone, maps and now, the GPS. All giving us greater points of focus. But as Helen Keller said, "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." As such we must let loose the moorings that tie us to the shores of our familiar lands. We must run the risk of sailing off the edge of our known worlds. In every moment.

"Just One Particle" (detail) 2008
From "The Spidey-Hole Series"

“Interferometer”

“Oh, does God remember back in the day when God was the Judgmental God, but still liked a good joke and would be all like, “Order in The Universe!” and “Tighten that Asteroid Belt there, Mister”, reminisced The Universe. “Good times. But really, God. There must be Order in The Universe or The Universe would implode into Chaos, right?”
“God recalls when a young The Universe feared even the concept of Chaos”, said God. “But Order is a generic term. Vague. A specific order aspires to a full Ideal, which then, must include Disorder. The attainment of a generic Order that does not include Disorder is, of course, only partial and there we are galaxy deep in Disorder.”

“God is Out of Order!” bellowed The Universe. Then laughed timidly and said, “Yeah, good times.

"Angel Oak Study #5" 2010
Digital Photograph

“The Essence of Concrescence”

“The Universe is curious if God is satisfied”, said The Universe, fishing. "The Universe means this is a spectacular circumstance in which to be an Entity!”
“God comprehends the question”, answered God. “But in this moment, God is aware that if an Entity is aware of the Entity’s own satisfaction, then the satisfaction would become a component in the process of being satisfied, thus altering the satisfaction.”

“WOWZA!’ exclaimed The Universe. “That’s some crazy data embedded in God’s proclamation!”

"Things to Forget" (Detail) 2008
From "The Spidey-Hole Series"

“Ontological Mapping - for Joe Spencer”

“So, The Universe”, queried God, “The Universe stated a belief that movement was a type of progress - heading ever forward. Is that still the case?”
“Oh yeah, totally”, responded The Universe quickly. “Isn’t that the way of things? A trajectory of understandable causal events.”
“But doesn’t that leave out the ebb and flow of Becoming and Collapsing?” asked God, politely.
“Got it, God. Events transpire like a sine curve - regarding not an overarching mediating agency……..right?” replied an immediately tentative The Universe.

“More like a sign curve, to God”, laughed God.

Sly & the Family Stone Public Rehearsal 1973
"Everybody is a Star"


“Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration:
it is inherent in the very texture of human life.”
Alfred North Whitehead



Source: Hubblesite.org



This concludes Week Twelve 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.