2016.01.29 13:00 - Imaginationary deep space and black walnuts

The Guardian for this meeting was Aphrodite Macbain. The comments are by Aphrodite Macbain.

Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Aph.
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi
Aphrodite Macbain: sorry to be late
Bruce Mowbray: np
Bruce Mowbray: I was playing (working) with my train, np.
Aphrodite Macbain: How was the meeting yesterday?
Bruce Mowbray: It was really excellent.
Aphrodite Macbain: I haven't had a moment to read the minutes
Bruce Mowbray: We went in deep.
Aphrodite Macbain: Deep into what?
Bruce Mowbray: Everyone had a say -- or at least all those who wished to.
Bruce Mowbray: Deep into the "space" thing.
Aphrodite Macbain: oh. interesting
Bruce Mowbray: we've just gotten into Chapter 2.
Aphrodite Macbain: did you find any black holes?
Bruce Mowbray: and will finish that this week.
Bruce Mowbray: Well, we didn't mention black holes, but I was thinking about them in terms of "space."
Bruce Mowbray: and the paradoxes....
Aphrodite Macbain: deeper space...
Aphrodite Macbain: which paradoxes?
Bruce Mowbray: shallower space is presenting enough challenges as it is - without the black holes for now.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Bruce Mowbray: kk, here is a paradox that i presented to the group:
Bruce Mowbray: "Space" as the book presents it -
Bruce Mowbray: is infinite,
Bruce Mowbray: and as such,
Bruce Mowbray: it includes everything within itself and part of what it includes within itself is my perceptual "focus setting" - which, by definition is finite. So, how can something that is infinite have within it something that is limited? Or, maybe that's just how it is with everything... As Blake said, "If our perception were cleansed, we would see everything as it is - infinite."
Bruce Mowbray: Well, from the viewpoint of the author, space includes absolutely everything.
Aphrodite Macbain: Does it include everything that isn't space too?
Aphrodite Macbain: cannot finity get included within infinity?
Bruce Mowbray: but he makes a distinction between "space" and "great space."
Bruce Mowbray: Well, the finite can be included,
Bruce Mowbray: but I don't think it works with the author's definition of space.
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Aphrodite Macbain: It's hard to get the mind around...
Bruce Mowbray: I think one would need to read the book a few times to understand.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, even for those of us who have read the book more than half a dozen times.
Aphrodite Macbain: Hmmm
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe it doesn't make sense....
Bruce Mowbray: I have to hold back from translating the author's images into more familiar concepts from Buddhism.
Bruce Mowbray: Oh, I'm sure it makes sense...
Bruce Mowbray: one kind of sense.

Aphrodite Macbain: maybe it's one big koan
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, that's what I said yesterday -- that it felt like a koan, a paradox.
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Bruce Mowbray: heavily spiced with imaginationary bits.
Aphrodite Macbain: there is a book entitled Koans: a way to Enlightenment
Aphrodite Macbain: something like that
Bruce Mowbray: "Imaginationary" is my own imaginationary word, you see.
Aphrodite Macbain: nice word :-)
Bruce Mowbray: Is that the book with all the "answers" ?
Aphrodite Macbain: is it different from imaginary?
Bruce Mowbray: It is imaginary on steroids, and infinite.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)

Bruce Mowbray: (There is a VERY loud squirrel on my roof right now.)
Bruce Mowbray: grrrr.
Aphrodite Macbain: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe he's hiding a very large nut
Bruce Mowbray: For sure.
Bruce Mowbray: I just wish he'd be a bit quieter about it.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Aphrodite Macbain: think of it as a squirrel orchestra
Bruce Mowbray: I put a trap up there yesterday with lots of nuts in it.
Bruce Mowbray: It is a live trap, of course.
Bruce Mowbray: So if he goes into it, I will transport him to a new home down the road.
Aphrodite Macbain: obviously he is not caught in the trap or has learned to get a nut safely from it
Bruce Mowbray: Well he's far more intelligent than I am, that's for sure.
Aphrodite Macbain: Maybe he'll come back
Bruce Mowbray: I've been trying to catch him for two years - with no success.
Aphrodite Macbain: same one?
Bruce Mowbray: That would be a long journey -- about two miles, across creek and farms with dogs.
Bruce Mowbray: yeppers, same one.
Aphrodite Macbain: If it is the same one he will definitely find his way back to your roof!
Bruce Mowbray: He is enormous.
Aphrodite Macbain: You need to take him much further away
Bruce Mowbray: The biggest squirrel I have EVER seen in my life.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, I would probably take him into town, maybe - five miles.
Aphrodite Macbain: good idea
Bruce Mowbray nods.
Aphrodite Macbain: to a place with lots of nut bearing trees
Bruce Mowbray: I really enjoy the wildlife here, except for when they get onto the roof.
Aphrodite Macbain: raccoons?
Bruce Mowbray: I have black walnut trees in the yard.
Aphrodite Macbain: ah
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, raccoons, too.
Aphrodite Macbain: I guess s/he likes black walnuts
Bruce Mowbray: I have transported several raccoons also.
Bruce Mowbray: But the raccoons are nocturnal - not in the daytime.
Aphrodite Macbain: Druth has a black walnut tree over her house and they crash down on the roof and make lots of noise
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, I empathize.
Bruce Mowbray: I cut off all the nearby branches for that very reason.
Aphrodite Macbain: smart
Aphrodite Macbain: so it's not just the squirrels, the trees drop things too
Bruce Mowbray: Yep.
Bruce Mowbray: Blame gravity.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Bruce Mowbray: Did they ever make Gravity a god - in ancient times?
Bruce Mowbray: Seems that they made everything else a god.
Aphrodite Macbain: not that I know of. Isaac Newton discovered gravity
Bruce Mowbray: Yep, but wasn't gravity around a little while before Newton?
Aphrodite Macbain: Yes- but I don't think anyone before Newton identified it as an entity let alone a god
Bruce Mowbray: nods.
Bruce Mowbray: I just they just assumed that whatever went up came back down.
Aphrodite Macbain: I guess
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe no one else sat under an apple tree
Bruce Mowbray: Maybe not.
Aphrodite Macbain: with anyone else but me....
Bruce Mowbray: no no no no no! Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me...
Bruce Mowbray: anyone else but me.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Bruce Mowbray: Isn't that what Steve Jobs said to Steve Wozniack? -- "Don't make Apples with anyone else but me."
Bruce Mowbray: (That was intended to be "mindful."
Bruce Mowbray: )
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Bruce Mowbray: a very mindful smiley face, to be sure.
Aphrodite Macbain: I am afraid I should go
Aphrodite Macbain: Bye for now
Bruce Mowbray: BFN.