Meet Cordelia Rose---a lovely, friendly British/American who lives high upon White Mesa and has gone to considerable effort to express her fascination for Labyrinths----constructing lots of them on her land. Laurie, Peg and I made our way up on this mysterious plateau and introduced ourselves. Want the full story:
She gave us a tour---explained a bit of labyrinth history--distinguished them from mazes-- then let us walk as many of them as we wanted---in whatever meditative fashion we chose.
Each has an entrance and when fully walked brings one out at the same place one entered.
This is not a labyrinth----it is a maze---she constructed it to show the difference. Labyrinths are an effortless experience----a guided path requiring no decisions. The maze is a puzzle--a challenge---it is possible to go wrong--to get frustrated even---it has a prize---a right answer---it calls forth our reason.
Of course I accepted the challenge----and eventually worked my way to the center---the prize.
Laurie is lost in meditative bliss as she follows the path ---in full confidence it will lead wherever it should. Unlike the maze---each step is as significant as any other---there is no challenge or failure---just experience.
Likewise Peg ---also a meditator seems lost in a pleasant--going nowhere--journey. I gave the meditative journey a shot also. Enjoyed it! Certainly a sharp contrast to the maze experience.
Laurie contemplates a very imaginative labyrinth---a blank one--of soft--carefully raked earth. The idea is to walk a path of pure intuition---eyes opened or closed---just letting yourself be gently guided by? Whatever. When you finish, you may look at your tracks to see what your wanderings suggest to you. Then you take the provided rake, walk a circular route outward and restore the earth for the next walker.
An unlikely labyrinth made of horse turds---I walked it.
close up shot
RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES: I believe life is more like a maze than a labyrinth---more like a puzzle than a path; that creative responsiveness is better than obedience. If there is a God I don't think He writes (or inspires) authoritative books or has a divine will---a path--for us to follow. I prefer the notion that He made us co-creators ---responsible for creating our ethics, art and purpose. That He winces at the misguided millions who merely wish to obey.
God is a He??? Oh, come on Randy - we all know it is a She!!! Life a maze - why - why would life be a puzzle - something you have to figure out? I don't think so. We have so little free will - if any - that there is no puzzle to life - you just live it - enjoy it - it is not about figuring out the "maze of life" it is instead about following the path - the labyrinth. Isn't God/god just energy or love as some say? Aren't we all god? So who/what is doing all the wincing?
ReplyDeleteLabyrinth or Maze? Maybe it is both.
ReplyDeleteWhile it appears that I walk through a maze and have many choices in life, I can only take, like the labyrinth, one step at a time---one path through it.
I don't think God has a penis or a vagina. IMHO, assigning a gender to an infinite God is simply a product of the limited thinking of human beings. Many people want to relate to God as they would another person and so they anthropomorphize God. "...Made man in His own image", Yin/Yang, Shiva/Shakti, etc. All variations on the same theme - just more or less metaphoric. Because life on earth is created by male/female union, therefore we assume God must also work the same way. Earth is just a speck in the universe, but since it's all we know we mistakenly think that we are the center of the universe. Sometimes I think the spiritual philosophies that have the fewest assertions about how the universe/God operates are the most likely to be the closest to "Truth".
ReplyDelete-Dan
Mazes are games. Labyrinths were historically representative of religious ideas, hence the single path. You are supposed to meditate on the ideas as you walk through the labyrinth. God(ess) are all made in the image of humans. As symbolic representations, they have their uses. As clubs to control the populace, nothing is better when coupled with actual clubs (Machiavelli, anyone?).
ReplyDeleteLife is a series of choices and consequences. Mazes are games of that. Not making a choice and letting other events/people make the choice for you IS making a choice - similar to the single path of the labyrinth. The choice is always yours to make and ultimately you chose whether to follow or to lead. Regardless of whether you choose to take the responsibility of your choices or not.
As Wayne said... maybe it's both.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I'd submit that it IS both and if you're not incorporating both reason and intuition you're missing out on the full experience of life.
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ReplyDeleteI have to throw my lot in with George Carlin. IF there is a God (a huge *IF*), he MUST be a man because no woman could -- or WOULD -- screw things up this bad.
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I prefer to conclude our purpose in life is NOT wondering and withering about whether God exists or not (Do imaginary entities even have gender? How could it matter?), whether life is a path or a maze . . . it's more about contemplating what it is that makes you absolutely unique in all the universe and then -- the most important part -- giving yourself permission to BE that which you already are.
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I dont understand why we debate mysteries that we have NO way of ever knowing the answers to...kinda like the labyrinth, we always arrive at exactly the same conclusion..
ReplyDeleteI think its very cool that this lady has found a way to express her spiritual side as this is something we CAN explain and know for sure if WE DO OR DONT have, and the awesome reality that we MAY express that side in many ways that we DO KNOW! Love the one made of horse apples, guess it will stay forever in an arid climate. Here one good rain would wash it away.
WHAT IS LIFE??---A MAZE OR A LABYRINTH??
ReplyDeleteA MYSTERY TO BE SOLVED WITH REASON OR A PATH TO BE WALKED BY INTUITION?
Yes
I used to disdain labyrinths as new age superstitious foolishness, but on reading Pesic's (a tutor at St. John's with a Phd in physics from Stanford) book - Labyrinth - on the hidden laws of nature and their hard won discoveries from Frances Bacon up to Einstein, I've changed my mind a little...
ReplyDeleteHe didn't use it literally, but metaphorically.
My gratitude overflowed when he situated the impossible quantum mechanics at the end making it a bit more understandable in the historic development of Western science.
But nobody reads these things.
Bushman
How many people in your caravan now?
ReplyDelete