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The Study Society Newsletter

Spring 2012 Contact The Study Society Newsletter

What a criminal invention it is, that calendar! You live a little while and then you have to die because you are a hundred years old. I am the same as I always was. I could slip back into the skin of a sixty – or a thirty – or a twenty-year old any time I like. I have no sense of ‘time’. Time is an artificial construction. The experiences which count, for me, are the ones that wake me up and stick in my mind... When I say that I have no sense of time I mean that I don’t link my experiences in a straight line. They form a kind of net, a three-dimensional space that nourishes me from all sides. My awareness of that space is so strong that it could make me deny a whole world, the whole world. I’m a strict unbeliever in everything except what has got through my own skin . . . Not that I’m a reformer. Reformers are the wildest criminals, all of them. You can only reform yourself. You can never reform others. That was the Greek ideal, to get to know yourself. I’m an old Greek, so I stick to it. Oskar Kokoschka

Cover Illustration Languedoc Vertes—oil on canvas with gold leaf— © Henrietta Stuart see more at www.henriettastuart.com

CONTENTS 3. From Beatles to Brain Benefits Peter Fenwick 5. Neural Hermeneutics Chris Frith 8. Grammatically Speaking Wei Wu Wei 9. First Rule of the Game Gerald Beckwith 12. Consciousness in Art Caiger-Smith, Gregory, Simmons, Brignull 17. Non Duality Simplified Norman Alderton INSERT: Summer Diary & Information pages 19. Perfection of the Art Fiona Stuart 21. Why is Space Big? Martin Redfern 23. Sacred Space Clive Hicks 27. Books Kennedy, Nadler, Caiger-Smith 31. Short Story Competition 32. Three Questions Leo Tolstoy 34. Events

2 from BEATLES TO BRAIN BENEFITS

At the first Monday meeting of term, our Chairman, Peter Fenwick, reminded us that 2012 is a special year. It is 60 years since the Society was founded in its present form – this year’s AGM will be the 60th – and it is 50 years since we were given the Meditation and when Dr Roles met His Holiness Shantanand Saraswati. It is, he said, a year to remember, an important year when we come together to work on ourselves... an important year for the School. He has written this article for the first Contact of 2012.

Maharishi with the Beatles and their partners. Bangor, Wales, 1967

WHEN I FIRST JOINED COLET, OVER 40 YEARS AGO, the The situation now is very different. Take for example, esoteric world was very different. The Maharishi had PubMed. This is the international medical index of only just persuaded the Beatles to go to Rishikesh with refereed medical journals. As of today there are 2,293 him and learn to meditate. Colet, under Dr Roles, was a papers on meditation listed there. The first paper in † wonderful place to be. We had freedom to explore today’s index comes from Switzerland and shows ideas, but yet within a secure setting. I couldn’t talk through high tech analysis that meditation decouples about meditation to my colleagues, but the groups at one area of the brain from another. But more important, Colet were a lifeline as they allowed the unspeakable to this finding is common to meditators from five different be spoken. Dr Roles was forever stressing science but traditions. It’s worth taking a closer look at this paper, as science had very little to say. It was just coming out of it reports some very interesting findings. Most of the the phase when consciousness was always described as changes seen are in the slower electrical frequencies of ‘levels of alertness’. It seems unbelievable now that the brain – the delta band. These frequencies are physiologists should have thought that way, particularly important as they link large areas of the cortex together. as consciousness has such a long history in the But the authors note that it is when going into and out of philosophy of science. But it is worth remembering that meditation that this decoupling and recoupling occurs, back then the philosophy of science was seldom taught, and to quote them in their scientific speak, they say: and I don’t know any of my contemporaries who fully The globally reduced functional interdependence understood the important part that consciousness between brain regions in meditation suggests that played in the philosophical tradition.

† See, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22266174 3 interaction between the self-processed functions is Atman and filters it through our psychological minimised and that constraints on the self-process by structures. As HH has pointed out, when true other processes are minimised, thereby leading to the knowledge is given by a realized man, it is immediately subjective experience of non-involvement, detach- distorted by those of us in the ordinary level of ment and letting go, as well as of all oneness and consciousness, so that we can’t perceive the truth, but dissolution of ego boundaries during meditation. only our version of it. This again is another way of saying how pervasive the self is. This stress on changes in brain mechanisms which Dr Roles always stressed HH Shantanand process self and the ego is now central to our Saraswatis’s seminal advice that we should strive to understanding of spiritual growth. come out of what we were not into what we are. He had When I was first at Colet we attended groups, read A a wonderful description of the meditation leading us out New Model of the Universe, were given the meditation and of the small room of our limited self into the gap practised coming out of ourselves. You will recall that between that self and the full universal consciousness of Mr O said if you remember yourSelf for 20 minutes you the large room. This is, however, only for two half hours will reach a permanent state of higher awareness. a day. What science is telling us is that these two half Attempting to put this into practice very rapidly showed hours restructure the way our brain works and attenuate that the mind could not be led or dragooned so easily, the limitations of the ever-present self. It is only through and after a few minutes one was back in one’s turning continual practice every moment of the day that we can thoughts again. At that time we knew nothing about the attenuate the instinctive, selfish attributions of our systems in the brain which underpin the construction of ‘sleeping’ awareness and permit transient awakenings to self, and their linking to the fundamental structures of occur. This is done by letting circling thoughts go and the brain which continually alert them. This alerting never giving house room to negative thoughts, watching process is left over, it is argued by James Austin, a carefully to see how pervasive our self of limited ‘I’ is, prolific writer on the relationship of Zen practice, to how insistent it is in controlling and colouring what we changes in brain states from when we were in the earlier do, and how involved we are in controlling the moment stages of evolution and the preservation of the self was rather than letting the moment arise, and living just one of the primary aims of the central nervous system. there and not in the future or the past. Introspection during the day shows that the self Meditation, it has been shown, changes the brain, comes into play with almost every sensation that we and we are lucky to have it. But mindfulness throughout recognise. ‘I don’t like this.’ ‘That’s too hot.’ ‘Why does the day is also essential if we seriously want to progress she say that?’ It is there at very subtle levels and only on the path to losing the ego and achieving a state of accurate observation will reveal how pervasive it is. This wider consciousness. of course, as we all know, colours the light of the true Peter Fenwick

4 Neural Hermeneutics

Chris Frith is Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging at University College, London (UCL), Niels Bohr Visiting Professor in the Interacting Minds project at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Since completing his PhD in 1969, he was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust to study relationships between mind and brain. He is a pioneer in the application of brain imaging to the study of mental processes. He has contributed more than 400 papers to scientific journals and is known especially for his work on agency, social cognition, and understanding the minds of people with mental disorders such as schizophrenia. For this work he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the British Academy, and has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Salzburg and the University of York. He has published several books, including, (with Eve Johnstone) Schizophrenia: A Very Short Introduction (2003), and (edited with Daniel Wolpert) The Neuroscience of Social Interaction: Decoding, Imitating and Influencing the Actions of Others (2004). His latest book, Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World (Wiley-Blackwell 2007), was long-listed for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, 2008 and received the 2008 Book Award from the British Psychological Society. In 2009 he was awarded the Strömgren medal for work on Schizophrenia, the European Latsis Prize (jointly with U. Frith) for work on ‘Human mind, human brain’ and the International Prize from the Fyssen Foundation for work on Neuropsychology. On Sunday, 25th March at 12.00 pm, following the AGM at Colet House, Professor Frith will be giving a talk, entitled Statue of the Egyptian god Anubis (showing the attributes ‘What is Consciousness For?’ He has written the following of the Greek god Hermes, with whom he was identified). article especially for this edition of Contact. © The Vatican Museums

HERMENEUTICS IS NAMED AFTER HERMES, the Did it wait, this mood to mature with hindsight? messenger of the Gods. It is concerned with how we under- In a trance from the beginning, then as now. stand messages. Originally, Hermeneutics was applied to And a moment, that ought to have lasted forever, written texts such as Holy Scriptures. The problem of Has come and gone before I knew. understanding is especially clear when these texts have to be translated into other languages. For a successful This feeling might have become a thing to be remembered, translation we need to understand the original text, but Only, at the time you were already bewildered and lost. how can we be sure that we have understood it? And how It is hard to believe that these are all based on the can we be sure that our translation matches the original? same original text.

THE PROBLEM OF TRANSLATION At the beginning of the 18th century practitioners of Consider these four translations from the Chinese of Hermeneutics realised that the problem of translation the last two lines of the poem ‘The Patterned Lute’ applies to any message, not just religious texts. At this time by Li Shang-Yin (812?–858). Schleiermacher, the founder of modern Hermeneutics, This feeling should last, making memory. suggested that an interpretation might be considered Only those days already lost. correct if it revealed the message intended by the author.

5 But how can this intention be checked if the author is dead? with our inference. For example, touch might reveal In this case all we have is the text and some knowledge of something smooth and cold. In other words our prediction the context in which that text was written. was in error. Perhaps this is not a living tree, but a cast iron Another problem with interpreting texts concerns the replica. Eventually the evidence we receive from exploring relation between the whole and its parts. This is referred to the object remains consistent with our inference and we as the problem of the Hermeneutic Circle. In order to can be confident that we are correctly perceiving what is understand the text as a whole, we need to understand the out there in the physical world. Remarkably, this complex words and sentences: the parts of which it consists. But we computational process occurs very rapidly and without can’t fully understand these parts without understanding any deliberation or awareness of the process on our part. the whole. For example, does the word ‘lead’ refer to a metal or to going in front? We can only know from the context in which the word occurs. If we can’t understand the parts without understanding the whole, how can our interpretation begin? Interpretation does not just apply to the texts left to us by dead authors. When I am talking to you face-to-face I still need to interpret what you are saying. And, even during such direct communication, I still have the problem of deciding whether or not I have understood you correctly. I cannot get inside your mind to discover what you really mean. It seems that we can never be confident of understanding each other. So how is it possible that, most of the time, we seem to understand each other very well? Neural Hermeneutics is a new discipline that is concerned with discovering the brain mechanisms that make it possible for us to understand each other. These mechanisms did not appear from nowhere. They have evolved from existing mechanisms that had other purposes. I believe that we can currently identify two such processes. The first mechanism is predictive coding. This is a very general mechanism through which brains perceive and understand the physical world. The second mechanism involves the brain’s mirror system. This simulates the behaviour of other people and aligns us with A cast iron tree the social world. L’arbre sec.The sign of a cloth merchant. Confronted with an object in the physical world, such Musée LeSecq desTournelles,Rouen as a tree, we perceive it (i.e. identify what it is) through the evidence of our senses: vision, touch, smell, etc. However, The mechanism for understanding objects in the as Helmholtz pointed out over a century ago, this is not a physical world can also be used when we try to direct, linear process, since sensation on its own can never understand other people. However, there is one big unambiguously reveal the presence of a tree or any other difference between people and trees. Unlike trees, when I object. Our senses simply provide the evidence on the basis am trying to understand you, you are also trying to of which we have to make inferences about what is out understand me. there in the world. When I interact with another person the evidence I use Perception depends upon a loop of computations going to reach my understanding is most likely to be the words I from inference to evidence and then back again. We infer hear and the facial expressions I see. If I believed that this the most likely cause of our sensations and then check person’s words implied that they were angry I might be whether or not this inference is right by collecting more surprised to see that they were smiling (a prediction error) evidence. For example, we might move our eyes to look at and decide that they were being ironic. I can also test my different parts of the tree and we might touch it. On the understanding of others’ intentions by predicting what basis of our inference so far we can predict what we are they will say next and also by predicting how they will likely to feel. We might find evidence that is not consistent respond to what I say. For example, we often repeat back

6 what someone has just said in different words to see if this has to take into account the context and culture in which paraphrase is acceptable. At the same time they will be the original text was written, while the original author took testing their understanding of us in the same way.At some all this for granted. In the same way the listener has a better point in the dialogue the prediction errors for both understanding of the intentions of the speaker than the conversation partners will be sufficiently low to conclude speaker. The listener will understand the message the that they have understood each other. I have no direct speaker intends to convey, but will also take account of access to your mind, but if my belief about your mind body language and emotional expressions which convey makes sufficiently accurate predictions about your speech intentions that the speaker was probably unaware of. This and behaviour, then my belief about your mind probably added understanding is fed back to the speaker in the corresponds to your mental state and I have understood course of the conversation. This is why, through you. interactions with others, we get a better understanding of The problem of the Hermeneutic Circle, where the parts ourselves. cannot be understood without reference to the whole, and Chris Frith the whole cannot be understood without reference to the Further reading: parts, is nicely solved by the use of predictive coding. In the Predictive coding Yuille, A. & Kersten, D. (2006). Vision as Bayesian inference: analysis computation loop of predictive coding, as applied to by synthesis? Trends Cogn Sci, 10(7), 301-308. human communication, the evidence (the words, the parts) The mirror system modifies the inferred cause, while, simultaneously, the Gallese, V.& Goldman, A. (1998). Mirror neurons and the simulation inferred cause (the idea, the whole) predicts the evidence. theory of mind-reading. Trends Cogn Sci, 2(12), 493-501. But how does this looping process start? How can I Predicting the movements of others have any idea about what your mental states or intentions Kilner, J. M., Friston, K. J. & Frith, C. D. (2007). The mirror system: a are before I have any evidence? How do I make my Bayesian perspective. Neuroreport, 18(6), 619-623. Wilson, M. & Knoblich, G. (2005). The case for motor involvement in starting prediction? One idea is that I can imagine myself in perceiving conspecifics. Psychol Bull, 131(3), 460-473. your shoes and think what I would do and say in your How do I simulate someone different from me? situation. This is a form of simulation that we know Wolpert, D. M., Doya, K. & Kawato, M. (2003). A unifying happens in relation to movements. There is now plenty of computational framework for motor control and social interaction. evidence that we predict the movements of others on the Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 358(1431), 593-602. basis of how we would move in the same situation. A The chameleon effect Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: the problem with simulating the behaviour of other people is perception-behaviour link and social interaction. J Pers Soc Psychol, that it only works well if we are sufficiently similar to the 76(6), 893-910. person we are trying to simulate. If I am much older and Alignment in language stiffer than you are I will move in a different way. In the Garrod, S., & Pickering, M. J. (2009). Joint Action, Interactive same way understanding will be more difficult to achieve if Alignment, and Dialog. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1(2), 292-304. I am very different from the person I am trying to Imitating improves communication Adank, P., Hagoort, P., & Bekkering, H. (2010). Imitation improves understand. We can overcome this problem through language comprehension. Psychol Sci, 21(12), 1903-1909. automatic mirroring or alignment. By the author In the absence of any awareness, during conversations Making Up The Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World. and other social interactions, we all tend to imitate each Oxford (2007), Wiley-Blackwell. other. This is known as the chameleon effect. We imitate What is Consciousness For? gestures, emotions and even speech, including accent and Pragmatics & Cognition, (2010) 18(3) SI 497-551. vocabulary. This imitation makes us more similar to the people we are with. As a result both motor and mental My words don’t obey me simulation work better. For example, there is evidence from experiments that we can understand people better if I hardly even hear them my skies we covertly imitate their accents. Are expanding trying to touch yours As I said above, when two people talk together, each is Soon the skies will burst open already I am trying to understand the other so that their understanding is a collaborative process. We learn more about what we Short of breath my heartbeat really think by interacting with other people. This relates Increased sevenfold forever sending out back to the suggestion of Schleiermacher that it is possible Barely coded messages for a translator to gain a better understanding of the text Sarah Kirsch than even the original author. This is because the translator

7 Grammatically Speaking ‘Every spiritual truth, however simple, is at once distorted when it reaches an unrealized person.’

Why are you unhappy? Even so, the expression is necessarily imperfect, for Because 99.9 per cent it is axiomatic that any truth, including truth itself, Of everything you think, cannot be expressed at all, but can only be suggested And of everything you do, or indicated, for conceptually there can be no truth. The Is for yourself — essential fact is that the use of nouns points directly in And there isn't one. the opposite direction to that which could suggest or indicate, and thereby nullifies the teaching being FROM A PRACTICAL POINT OF VIEW one of the chief presented, and makes sheer nonsense of it, whereas hindrances to our understanding of the message of the the use of adverbial and verbal parts-of-speech admits Masters lies simply in the parts-of-speech used in suggestion and indication as directly as can ever be delivering their teaching. In brief, nouns are used possible. With nominal expression misunderstanding where the meaning can only be suggested by verbs. is inevitable, and at best readers persuade themselves Modern translators are not by any means entirely to that they have glimpsed a technically impossible blame, though ultimately the fault lies in lack of amalgamation of contradictions-in-terms, whereas understanding on the part of all the intermediaries with verbal expression non-objective cognition concerned. The Buddha himself spoke in Maghadi, and immediately becomes feasible. his teaching was recorded many years later in Pali and from The Open Secret by Wei Wu Wei in Sanskrit. Few of our authorities left anything in writing, and what we have of theirs has passed through many hands before reaching us. Indian Mahayana (Buddhism) moved out of India long centuries ago, and it is the development and practice of it in China which we can study, and in the written language of China parts-of-speech are practically non-existent. Finally, modern languages, particularly French with its Cartesian tradition, are deeply rooted in objective forms, so that it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to express any thought otherwise than in a purely objective manner. But the essence of the message of the Masters is precisely that what is objectivised is not true as such, and that what we are can only be apprehended by ceasing to ‘apperceive’ like that. As long as nouns are used for the expression of a teaching, that teaching is dealing with objects as such, whether the objects be physical or mental, but the burden of the teaching can only be conveyed by the Wei Wu Wei was the pen name of Terence Stannus use of adverbial forms and by verbs, for the teaching is Gray. Born into an eminent Irish family he was concerned with functioning rather than with anything educated at Eton and Oxford. Deeply involved in the nominal that functions, or with anything nominal that arts in Britain in the 1920s and 30s he was a major results from functioning, both of which are purely influence on many leading dramatists, poets and inferential. This applies to every aspect of the teaching. dancers of the day. He was a cousin of Dame Ninette For instance, Time and Space are not to be thought of de Valois, and her creation of the Royal Ballet as ‘things’; as nouns we misunderstand them at once, originated from Gray’s dance company at the for they are at most adjectival—that is, dependent on Cambridge Festival Theatre. He travelled extensively in the functioning that makes use of them as concepts. Asia including a long stay at Ramana Maharshi’s And the ‘skandha’, the senses, the various ashram. In 1957 his horse Zarathustra won the Ascot conceptualised sorts or degrees of consciousness, are Gold Cup. He died in 1986 aged 90. all functioning—and can only be expressed as verbs, or A good read: Paul Cornwell, Only by Failure: as dependent, adverbially. As objects, the teaching is The Many Faces of the Impossible Life of Terence Gray that they have no existence whatever. Salt Publishing (2004) Reprinted by permission of Sentient Publications, www.sentientpublications.com, © 2004.

8 First Rule of the Game Say what you feel, do what you say… sounds easy!

A good man who wants to go on the Spiritual path assumes that words acquire their meaning from the speaks what he feels, and does what he speaks. That is, objects they describe. Language creates a map of reality, he speaks from pure feeling. When he has impure and ‘truth’ depends on the accuracy of the map. feelings he tries not to speak, or rush into action or Language is ‘laid across reality like a ruler’. The statement express them. A bad man does the reverse: he feels one ‘there is a rat hiding behind the curtain’ arouses instant thing and says something else; he says one thing but agreement about the present reality. does something else. If one really does speak what one This approach may appear good enough for most of feels, and does exactly what one says, then this builds us until we encounter newer ideas about language. Since up the inner strength – and because of this clarity and the late 18th century when Emmanuel Kant proved the unity of mind and sincerity of heart the way will impossibility of knowing the true, objective, nature of become fairly clear. Shantanand Saraswati. reality and that it is possible only to know a subjective world created by our particular means of perception, the HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND and communicate with human brain, philosophers have been struggling with this each other? What are the possibilities? Professor Frith’s seemingly insurmountable barrier to ‘true’ knowledge. article (p.5) elegantly presents current perceptions of In his later work, Ludwig Wittgenstein suggested that how the brain produces communication and words and language acquire their meaning from use and understanding in ordinary life and yet, looking at the context, rather than from objects themselves. Language, general state of the world, the system might appear to he says, is a tool used to create many different things and demand some radical improvement. Perhaps there do it is usage that creates meaning. To cut a long argument exist more subtle forms of communication unseen by a very short, this idea suggests that meaning arises not from rational and reductive science that could challenge some the intrinsic nature of things themselves but from basic assumptions of the scientific point of view. common experience arising in a social context. There can In this instance the most obvious assumption is (as be no ‘private’ language and no absolute meaning without Professor Frith puts it) that ‘I cannot get inside your mind context and so the reassuringly fixed nature of things to discover what you really mean’. Is this always true? usually taken for granted begins to shimmer uncertainly Someone once remarked to HH Shantanand behind a haze of language. Saraswati that it seemed his questions were understood even before they were voiced. HH replied:

Yes, of course. We sit close together and I know your mind. But don't think it is only when we are close. Distance has nothing to do with it. If you put me in your mind you will get your answer. If I wish to contact you, I can do so. (This was very casually said, as if taken for granted.) Duck or Rabbit?

Whether or not we accept it, how can this mystery be To a wary traveller a discarded rope suddenly seen approached rationally, without lapsing into sentiment or upon a shadowed path is undoubtedly a snake and all superstition? One method might be to see that the the human endowment of nerves, hormones and neuro- problem starts with language, the means of communi- transmitters conspires to produce an immediate physical cation most usually taken for granted. reaction in response to this ‘snake’ reality. But if the The suggestion that culture, language and society are headlong rush into the bushes is interrupted by a less intimately connected is unlikely to raise much argument nervy companion shouting ‘Rope!’ the whole experience but exactly how they are connected, which comes first, dissolves. and exactly how they interact remains open to many Wittgenstein’s successors such as Derrida and different views. Again, no one argues that language and Foucault have developed his understanding of language meaning are not reflections of one another, but here too and meaning with such linguistic convolution that they their precise relationship and precedence continue to be often appear impenetrable to any ordinary reader. The debated. general drift seems to be that meaning, even in the most St Augustine’s understanding of language which simple sense, is regarded as essentially subjective and that prevailed for centuries – and still does for many – language shapes us just as much as the other way around.

9 Our use of language creates a space we accept as reality. The word His Holiness refers to is OM, or AUM, the Some extreme Post-modernists, wrestling with the ‘seed syllable’ manifesting the Holy Trinity as One. The paradoxes of quantum physics, even assert that no Upanishads describe this as the primal vibration ‘sounded’ objective or ultimate reality can exist at all. by the Absolute to convey the forces from which the All this is an extremely superficial look at language whole of creation appears. From this single fundamental theory (as Marilyn Monroe once said, ‘Deep down, I’m note there arises an infinite scale of ‘matter’ in ‘time’ and really superficial!’) but these ideas may help to see how it ‘space’ – the whole gigantic illusion of Maya, the seen and is we all contrive to experience the same world and how unseen Universe. In this view, both the physical elements also, sometimes, that we don’t. and the subtle meaning exist as latent in the consciousness Even one’s private inner world is only experienced in held by the original ethereal word or vibration. (A Great the context of the great world of the human species. Hum rather than a Big Bang?) Fears, hopes, desires and thoughts all arise from the The Vedas allow that words may be special or context of what it is to be human in general and it is only ordinary. Ordinary words are limited and often require a their particular flavour, combination and cyclical activity context to define them, like the Sanskrit word ‘saindhava’ that is individual. As P. D. Ouspensky points out, we can which can mean either ‘salt’ or ‘horse’ depending on never invent a genuinely new animal, we can only whether one is at dinner or in a stable. Wider context assemble a hybrid from parts we already know. (It’s adds further confusion. Ask for ‘burro’ in an Italian worth noting that Ouspensky’s response to the Kantian restaurant and the waiter kindly supplies more butter. problem was to suggest the answer lay in heightening Thinking all Latin based languages must be similar and emotion rather than intellect as a potentially superior requesting ‘burro’ in a Spanish Tapas bar the waiter may means of understanding.) be confused by one’s request for a donkey. In a sense, all these theories (except perhaps Special words, ‘mantras’, on the other hand, are Ouspensky’s) provide a view of language from below, universal and with the realization of their meaning the from an evolutionary point of view – this is what is object they name arises spontaneously (as in the observed and this is how it came about – and their Absolute’s sounding of the primal vibration). In the proponents have unhesitatingly to accept, like other ordinary world this would appear to be ‘supernatural’. scientists, certain basic assumptions as to the nature of (My great-grandfather, serving as a high court judge ‘reality’. The ‘fact’ of time and space is the fundamental in Allahabad, was once asked to prosecute a magician assumption upholding the conviction that what is for trickery. The man asked for a pot, some earth and a perceived actually exists. Although both these words – pumpkin seed, which were supplied. Under the court’s cornerstones of an incontrovertibly ‘real’ world – have gaze the magician ‘hummed a little chant’ and within 15 been modified, stretched a little, by 20th century theories minutes a plant sprouted, grew to full size and bore fruit. of relativity, they retain an unassailable practical reality After chewing a piece to make sure it was real the judge questionable only in the context of philosophy or had no choice but to allow the ‘magician’ his freedom.) mystical experience. (The physicists, although having In meditation, when the mantra is ‘realized’, Atman pretty well demolished finite space and time at the becomes manifest. atomic level, have yet no generally agreed explanation as Dr Roles said to HH Shantanand Saraswati in 1962, to how this might relate to ordinary human existence.) ‘I've been noticing very much how different the tones of voice Nevertheless, there are other, older descriptions of and the quality of the actions of the Realized man are from language that could be described as views from above, other people's’. And the reply was: views that align and unify the two apparently conflicting An example is the mantra. A man who does not concepts that language either describes things more or know what the mantra is, or who has not less as they actually exist or that language itself creates a accustomed himself to speak the word – this word subjective reality which has only a limited existence. is very light on his tongue. But in a Realized person Elevating to the highest level the idea that words are or one who has pronounced such a word again causal, as in St John, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and and again and has realized its essence, the word the Word was with God, and the Word was God, …’ we find acquires weight in him, it gets a different tone, and HH Shantanand Saraswati saying: the tone becomes rich (with overtones and The word is the Absolute, Absolute gives the Word. undertones). That gives the difference between two The Word is a sound and an idea – both. It kinds of people saying the same word. manifests in different stages… The substance is the The timbre of the voice demonstrates the level of Absolute, sound is the word and world is the being at that moment. Common speech issues lightly meaning. from the mouth with only superficial meaning. Speaking

10 with conviction emanates from lower in the throat, below the larynx, is heavier and more powerful. Heartfelt speech is deeper still and yet tender and full of light. The Vedas say that when our sound, our speech, originates from the solar plexus (navel) and which may be felt as coming from some unknown source, this then is truth itself issuing from the source of creativity. One demonstration of this, arising in everyday Western life, was expressed as follows:

When I was 18 years old I happened upon a meeting held by Sri Chinmoy at the Friends Meeting House in the Euston Road. I sat quite close to him as he played a small harmonium and sang bhajans in front of a bright candle. After a little while he stopped and there was silence. Into this stillness he intoned the mantra AUM in the most extraordinary deep and extended way. Gradually, I, and my whole world dissolved into a complete The Tower of Babel, Hendrik III van Cleve (1525–1589) emptiness filled with Love itself. This timeless, (© Kröller Müller Museum) spaceless moment still exists for me, often more real than anything else they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may So here is a clear distinction between the coarse not understand one another's speech.’ So the Lord language of the world, and the ethereal language of the scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of spirit. Perhaps it is possible to conceive of these as two all the earth: and they left off to build the city. streams, one of ‘evolution’, the continual growth of (Genesis 11: 4–8) diversity from unity and the other stream as a ‘return to the source’, the refinement of diversity into unity. It is Perhaps the eternal confusion of tongues is necessary tempting, but probably too simplistic to align these two to maintain the great game of humanity, the search for streams directly with the hemispheres of the brain but it unity within diversity without which human life would might be said that there is a perpetual game going on, lack its greater meaning. Wittgenstein developed the each side informing and competing with the other for concept of ‘language games’ consisting of language and precedence. The left hemisphere generally narrows, the actions into which it is woven. (Grammar being like defines and solidifies the context of experience, using a game having many rules by which the moves of language to create ever more separation of the ego from language are played out.) The Vedas go the whole way the perceived world, while the right hemisphere uses and describe the entire Universe as the play of a divine language quite differently to relate and merge both language game. experience and the ego into a much wider context. In the context of the Nyaya ladder of Self-realization it In Genesis, God seems determined to maintain the may be seen that the sixth, penultimate, step evolutionary stream, whether to uphold His own (padharyabhavani), describes the transcendence of this exclusive power as some commentators have suggested divine language game. The entire creation is made from or possibly with some less jealous intent. words and meanings and the relations between them on In the biblical account, following the great flood, ‘the all three levels, causal, subtle and physical. At this sixth whole earth was of one language, and of one speech’. Coming step of the ladder the very deepest elements of creation to the land of Shinar the people resolved: begin to lose their power and attraction. The primary importance of words, forms and meanings – everything … let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may which seduces the mind to cling to its self-sustaining reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest conviction of subject and object, me and mine, this and we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole that – is replaced by the Self alone. The game is won and earth.’And the Lord came down to see the city and the players can take a well-earned rest and leave the field. the tower, which the children of men builded. And To join in and play the game for real, the first the Lord said, ‘Behold, the people is one, and they immutable rule is to learn to be aware and transparent have all one language; and this they begin to do: and enough to ‘say what one feels and do what one says’. now nothing will be restrained from them, which Gerald Beckwith

11 CONSCIOUSNESS IN ART

Contact asked four members of the Study Society, each and the figure opposite him appears to be another professional in his and her own discipline, to chose a female consort. They are drawn as if on their sides only work of art that, for them, could be said to transcend in order to include them in the ruler’s entourage. The time and space, a work of art that brings us to the swirling stems and leaves are not simply decorative: Stillness. Here are their eloquent and informed they show that these people are in a fertile garden or responses: ‘paradise’ – a word of Persian origin. At the very top of the composition the sun shows its face and sends out Alan Caiger-Smith, Ceramicist rays of light. The dish appears to depict a scene of perfect contentment. I believe that there is more to it: by A Persian lustre dish, about 42 cm wide, made in means of a conventional image it is gently reinterpreting Kashan in the early 13th century and now in the the nature of the ruler’s authority. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Lustre pottery was made only for courts and for This dish has intrigued and delighted me for many people of high status. Golden lustre was considered years. Numerous versions of this scene exist in medieval especially appropriate for the court because it art, especially in Persia: in ceramics, in metalwork, in symbolised both the glory of a ruler and the light of the stone and in manuscript illumination. Professor Robert sun. Abu’l Qasim, who came from a family of lustre Hillenbrand, a lifelong authority on Islamic art, says that potters, wrote in his famous treatise (1301), ‘When this the ruler-figure symbolises a concept, never a specific colour is good it shines like the sun’. Nevertheless, as he person. well knew, it is not gold and it is only a reflection of The ruler wears a crown; the back of the throne can golden light, not light itself. The painter of this dish be seen behind his head and there are cushions to either seems to be applying the same principle to the ruler and side of him. To his left is his female consort, identifiable to rulers in general. The life force, symbolised by the sun, by a bud-shaped jewel attached to the circular band has brought the ruler power and prosperity but it is not round her headdress. To his right is a young man of high really his own; his proper role is to reflect the gift, to importance, indicated by the armlets on his gown. The share his well-being with his subjects. The lustre dish smaller figure below, on the ruler’s left, also has armlets symbolises the ancient ideal that the deeds of the good

12 ruler should be a reflection on earth of the true, timeless Angela Gregory, Musician good. But perhaps there is more to it. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major K 364 In other versions of this theme the ruler is shown looking out commandingly at all he surveys. Here, as Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major K 364, Hillenbrand comments, ‘the glance of the prince is not scored for violin, viola and orchestra, may be appraised, frontal but turned to one side; introspection, not dominance, is dissected, quantified, analysed and assessed from the the keynote’. The positions of his hands are also outside or it may be responded to intuitively. significant. One hand is just below his heart (this part of As Marsilio Ficino said in his letter to Antonio the dish has been repaired and the hand has been Serafico (The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, Number 20, Vol.1, clumsily repainted, but its location cannot have been pub. Shepheard-Walwyn), ‘He tastes nothing, Serafico, who changed), and the other is upturned by his left knee. In has not tasted for himself’. no way do the hands suggest dominance; they seem Listening to this work for oneself may prove to be the instead to symbolise receiving and giving, like the hands opposite of reading any musical analysis. The appraisal of dervishes in the Mukabeleh. This, then, is a very offered below is borne out of years of listening to and unusual kind of ruler. The way he is portrayed suggests affectionately delving into its essential qualities. The not so much a worldly potentate as one who is awake, capacity of some art to transcend time and space is one who rules himself. ‘Perhaps this dish refers to meetings apparent. between some teacher, sheikh or Sufi master and his disciples, Musical analysis may provide one route to coming to pupils or associates,’ suggests Hillenbrand. It need not or possibly understanding this work, or one may simply necessarily refer to any particular person, of course; it listen to it. could signify anyone, anywhere, whose life has become It seems that this work transcends form or musical one with the Self. evaluation, although musical form is the vehicle used for This is the only piece of pottery I ever tried to copy. It its manifestation as a work of art. was only during the working process that I realised that The Sinfonia Concertante in E flat seems to be the whole composition is centred on the place of the concerned with reciprocity and sustenance as two heart, just above the right hand. Is this incidental or was qualities available to humankind. The slow movement, it deliberate? the Andante, appears especially concerned with these Images abound today, in magazines, posters, qualities. The idea of the ‘thread’ in music was important television and so forth. They are things we look at, part to Mozart. Allusion to Theseus and the story of the of the world outside us, and it is sometimes a relief to labyrinth and his tracing of Ariadne’s thread to the escape from them. Eight hundred years ago, when this centre and back seem pertinent. The story by Leo Tolstoy lustre dish was painted, people seldom saw images and of ‘The Three Questions’ (one of his Fables and Fairy they were viewed very differently. Metaphysical or Stories) also comes to mind when listening to Mozart’s religious images, in particular, were something more Sinfonia Concertante. than things to be looked at. Having been attentively The great scientist, Albert Einstein, commented, ‘The perused, they could be absorbed and inwardly music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he recomposed. The practice is still deliberately followed in merely found it – that it has always existed as part of the inner both the East and the West in certain contexts today. In beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed’. this way an image becomes more than something seen Constancy of musical line seems to be ever present in externally; it begins from within to influence the way this work and never ever fades. Themes of course pass people live. So too can this remarkable lustre dish. from one instrument to another but never drop and are Some art historians might dismiss what I have always evident. Unity behind apparent diversity is clearly written as subjective, though I do not think they would referenced and in listening it is possible to experience art be justified. Professor Robert Hillenbrand evidently felt flowing in an unbroken line from the source. much the same as I did about this dish and wrote an The movements are Allegro Maestoso; Andante; appreciation in the article from which I have quoted: Presto. ‘Images of Authority on Kashan Lustreware’ in Islamic The opening orchestral tutti of the Allegro Maestoso Art in the Ashmolean, ed. James W. Allan, Oxford 1995. I appears to set the backdrop for unity with no division. only came across this fascinating article two years or so The soloists, though magnificently bright and warmly after I had made the copy of the dish; it told me much sonorous, always appear to be part of the greater whole that I had not known and it was a wonderful of the orchestra. Building together without any trace of confirmation of what I had originally felt. strain seems apparent. After the initial orchestral tutti,

13 the emergence of the soloists out of apparently nowhere There seems to be in this picture something which is a special, important and sublime moment in music. exactly resonates with what I can only term my heart’s The Andante continues to evoke an all-embracing desire. I love it with a kind of aching recognition. It is constancy out of which the violin and viola soloists exactly what I would have wanted to paint myself. The seamlessly arise. All the musical lines and harmonies sense of absolute stillness – the focus on the man with seem to facilitate the penetration of a deeper place the cap who is so important to the picture and yet within ourselves where invulnerability and pure energy unknown. There is nothing personal about him. He is appear to reside. only a silhouette. But remove him from the scene and a The final movement, Presto, seems to speak of quiet whole dimension is lost. Without this person, this immovability and brilliance. Here nothing is staid or observing presence, the room with all its beauty and dull. Soloists and orchestra express joy at being alive and brightness ceases to be alive. although the violin and viola soloists are ever responsive There is probably something significant about the to each other, they always seem to be describing and composition of the picture: the window frame, its performing a play for our enjoyment. Playful, dramatic reflections on the wall, seem to dissect the scene into and powerful moments abound but always we seem to some golden mean that may satisfy our unconscious be reminded of the play. sense of the rightness of proportion. For an overall appraisal, individuals must listen for However one may analyse reasons why the picture themselves. Tapping into the core of this work is a joyful succeeds, one is left with the most important thing – the experience. Any superficial preoccupations seem to overwhelming sense of a great and loving Presence, vanish. always there. The recordings which I would recommend are an early one with David and Igor Oistrach as soloists and Tony Brignull, Poet & Writer Menuhin conducting (the first recording I ever heard); a Poem: Donal Og recording with Iona Brown and Nobuko Imai as soloists and a more recent and, in my view, wonderful recording I'm not sure what a ‘conscious’ poem might be but let’s with Maxim Vengerov and Lawrence Power as soloists. say it is one which wakes us up, invests old words with Enjoy. new meaning, delights throughout and ends in astonishment. We are lucky that many of our great poems Anna Simmons, Painter achieve all these things. Even so, there are a few which seem to come from, and take us to, another world. Follower of Rembrandt Their birthing seems unplanned, as if they slipped out Man Seated Reading at a Table in a Lofty Room of the corners of the poets’ minds while they were I come back always to a small painting which once was occupied elsewhere, exhausted after struggling with attributed to Rembrandt but has now been relegated to different and obdurate poems perhaps, or under the one of his followers. influence of grief, love, illness or (in at least one famous The picture is of a room, we don’t know what kind of case) opium. Then something ‘rich and strange’ seems room, but perhaps a library, or a music room. Most of it almost to write itself. is very dark. We can just make out a rather noble and Such poems are totally without artifice and need little elaborate fireplace. To one side there is a window, and revision: Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’, Coleridge’s through this window comes the most extraordinary ‘Kubla Khan’, Keats’ ‘To Autumn’ and Jonson’s farewell to light, probably evening light because there is a soft his young son who died aged seven (‘my finest piece of glowingness about it, unlike morning light which would poetry’), are just a few examples. have been much more brittle and whiter. In ‘Donal Og’ we have another. We don’t know who And onto the wall of this room is cast the very wrote it or when. Some say it’s from the 8th century, delicate reflection of the window-panes which are small others the 16th or 18th. It has survived not only time but and latticed. There is one person in this room of whom countless tellings by fireside and candlelight, and many you only see his tiny head, in silhouette against the translations. brightness of the background. He appears to wear a little Nor do we know who Donal Og (young Donald) cap, and to be seated in front of some great piece of was: there are conflicting clues that he may have been a furniture – or some kind of keyboard perhaps, one can’t priest or sailor or tinker. Whatever, he certainly had the tell. You can just see part of his hand – turning a page... gift of the gab. He bewitches the young girl with words about to strike a note? even more enticing than his promises: ‘a ship of gold

14 © The National Gallery under a silver mast’, ‘gloves of the skin of a fish’, ‘shoes of the not just any Sunday but Palm Sunday! Now she feels her skin of a bird’. ‘black’ heart has defiled the ‘white halls’ like a dirty shoe. She knows such things are ‘not possible’ but she wants We remember that earlier the ‘white court by the sea’ was to believe for the man has opened a new and exciting another broken promise. world to her. This is a poem in which pagan folklore, The roughness of the rhythm, ragged lines and many where dogs and birds speak, collides with Christian repetitions intensify the girl’s distress. Her long morality.The poor girl is torn between them and loses unremitting wail of betrayal culminates in the last terrible faith in both. line of the last terrible stanza. The magical language that The rite of spring has led her to sexual awakening but seduced her has deserted her. Christianity does not her religion persuades her she has sinned – and on a comfort her. She is now God-forsaken and like her mother Sunday (the day tolls like a bell four times in six lines) and we fear for her. (Poem overleaf)

15 Donal Og

It is late last night the dog was speaking of you; the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh. It is you are the lonely bird through the woods; and that you may be without a mate until you find me.

You promised me, and you said a lie to me, that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked; I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you, and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.

You promised me a thing that was hard for you, a ship of gold under a silver mast; twelve towns with a market in all of them, and a fine white court by the side of the sea.

You promised me a thing that is not possible, that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish; that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird; and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.

When I go by myself to the Well of Loneliness, I sit down and I go through my trouble; when I see the world and do not see my boy, he that has an amber shade in his hair.

It was on that Sunday I gave my love to you; the Sunday that is last before Easter Sunday. And myself on my knees reading the Passion; and my two eyes giving love to you for ever.

My mother said to me not to be talking with you today, or tomorrow, or on the Sunday; it was a bad time she took for telling me that; it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.

My heart is as black as the blackness of the sloe, or as the black coal that is on the smith's forge; or as the sole of a shoe left in white halls; it was you that put that darkness over my life.

You have taken the east from me; you have taken the west from me; you have taken what is before me and what is behind me; you have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me; and my fear is great that you have taken God from me! Anonymous (Translated by Lady Augusta Gregory)

16 Tribute to Magritte © Besiaman Non Duality Simplified

I am not extended in space, I am not developed in having occurred earlier we think are from a place in mind duration; All these are my manifestations, all these are called memory. We even have a name for the separate self conceptual images of what I am when we see it in a negative conceptual way; we call this . Wei Wu Wei the ego. These names project a web of apparent mani- festation which we take to be real and thoughts serve to THE CONCEPTS OF NON DUALITY seem incomprehensible to perpetuate this as a world with each of us as a separate the individual at first but as awareness grows and they are person within it. In our tradition this is called Maya and the put into practice they become more relevant until in the separate person within it, the Jiva. end they seem indisputable. This is also the case on a But the Jiva is under the influence of Maya, while communal level as the ideas come more into common the Absolute is not. The Absolute is the commander currency. Teachers of non duality are popping up and the master of Maya, while the Jiva is the slave to everywhere, Eckhart Tolle’sbooks are best sellers and there Maya. HH Shantanand Saraswati, 1970 is even support from time to time from the scientific community. However, the important thing is not the With a moment’s observation we will each see that the currency of the concepts but what non duality means in world we engage in is temporary; things are passing. It is practice. It is of limited value to be told all you have to do is much more difficult to be aware that we ourselves are stay in the present moment, that you have no separate temporary. We can say conceptually that there is an volitional existence or you have no control over events if Absolute that lends itself to our separation, giving it you are quite certain it is you as a separate person apparent independent existence, and the whole process managing things. Life is often a far cry from seeing things lends an appearance of reality to a creation in time. In as non dual when we perceive ourselves as individuals reality the illusion of time is the same as the illusion of engaged in events. space which is exactly the same as the illusion of the It is a cultural inevitability that we give things names individual self. They depend on each other. When the and perceive things as being in a place. Thoughts we put in illusion of the individual doer disappears, the illusion of a place which we call mind. The experiences which seem to space and time also disappears. occur are perceived in a series of linked moments, which When we talk of time and space, it must be we call time. Thoughts about events which we perceive as thoroughly understood that their reality is relative,

17 it is a reality in the world of becoming. But beyond without seeking to escape from its illusionist’s trick by space and time is that stillness which knows no negating it, yet not allowing its beguilement, it might be becoming. Jean Klein apparent that we are already home. It is not an escape to somewhere else that is needed, just It is within the experience of most for there to be a the wider awareness and a sense that none of it needs to be wider awareness, cognised from within but which is escaped from. In this awareness the harshness of the unlimited; an Absolute. Having once glimpsed this we apparent reality weakens; it is no longer separate but part commonly seek it again. There is a tendency to grasp at of a whole. There is now a sort of intimacy with everything, concepts and at this point we might engage in some not a separation; space and time are diminished into just spiritual practice. The risk is that, rather than bringing us what is. It is this awareness that is within the capacity of back to the wider awareness, practice becomes part of the every human being and that is the fulfilment of life. It is not Maya, building confusion rather than dispelling it. Is it not an escape from life. It is life. This is the simple non dual slightly absurd to engage in spiritual practice to come into message, available in our own awareness, everywhere. the present moment? What is there to do to be in the present moment? However it is doing nothing that thought These roses under my window make no reference to cannot countenance. As has been put, it is like trying to get former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; out of a hole by digging deeper. When there is an inner they exist with God today. There is no time in them. There stillness the awareness widens and it might be realised that is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its there is no hole to dig our way out of after all. This wider existence. Emerson awareness or consciousness might be perceived as a Norman Alderton backdrop; it seems to be aligned with the being. Images and impressions, emotions and thoughts, appear in this awareness; even though we sometimes forget about it, this consciousness or sense of being never changes.

In reality,a Being (the Jiva) is nothing but part of the Absolute. HH Shantanand Saraswati, 1970 The Other The need is said to be removing impediments, which itself implies we are already where we need to be. So-called There are nights that are so still progress might be defined by what disappears rather than that I can hear the small owl calling what appears. Chief among the impediments is the idea that we are a separate volitional person; this we are told is far off and a fox barking the last barrier to go. When it does go, which can be a temporary experience, we might cognise with the simple miles away. It is then that I lie truth that what is happening is that Consciousness or the in the lean hours awake listening Absolute knows itself.

I have come to believe that it is a non-dualistic to the swell born somewhere in the Atlantic approach that is the solution to all problems. rising and falling Francis C Roles, Voyage of Discovery wave on wave on the long shore Perhaps there is another way of understanding this. Life draws us outwards so that we focus on what appears in its by the village, that is without light viewfinder, but is it really the place from which observation takes place that makes the difference? We can and companionless. And the thought comes perceive from this apparent separate person or from the of that other being who is awake, too, wider awareness. Is the spectacle we see coloured by the tint of the separate person through which observation takes letting our prayers break on him, place? It is surely from this more limited viewpoint that perceptions are given names, time and space come into not like this for a few hours, existence and the drama of life is made manifest. but for days, years, for eternity. We cannot go anywhere in time without taking this R.S.Thomas limited self with us. If we can cognise with the wider awareness, unbounded by the drama it conjures up,

18 Perfection of the Art

Let every artist strive to make his flower a beautiful living thing – something that will convince the world that there may be – there are things... more lasting than life. Charles Rennie Mackintosh

I remember, as an infant, meeting a Mackintosh high-backed chair for the very first time. It was rather like an Alice in Wonderland ‘curiouser and curiouser’ moment. It defied the norm of the time and certainly challenged space. To the eyes of an infant it was an object of pure delight, opening up a world of possibilities. And in a way, it spoke of oneness. On Monday, August 16th, 1964, at Lucknow, Lord Allan wrote:

The Mantra is the Word of the Absolute, its rhythm and creation. That is what one is hearing when one listens to it. In complete stillness one is at one with this. This feeling is expressed to the world through the highest forms of all art and through the purest forms of living. I went on to think that all genuine efforts at artistic expression, all good deeds or actions were steps on this path. Nothing was to be despised, but those whose expression was truest to the feeling of Oneness were the most likely to help the beholder to understand.

When he asked HH Shantanand Saraswati about the role of artists – were they the men and women who could express this Oneness to the world? – the reply came:

Yes, they are the experts – people trained in their A chair designed in 1904 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh field who will guide you, but they can only (1868–1928) for the Hill House in Helensburgh © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums) guide. If you are on a journey and want to get through Lucknow you buy the best map you can. In Allahabad, on January 1st, 1980, Nolan Howitt It takes you through the city and puts you on the asked HH to comment on the way painters who lived road onwards, but it cannot complete the journey in Ancient China and India prepared themselves before for you. It is only you who reach the destination, starting on a piece of work. If choosing a tree, the artist not the map! Artists, etc. are such experts. would sit in front of it for as long as it took to ‘become’ that tree: ‘This meant there was no space between observer He was asked further if these great works of art were and the observed... He was totally the tree and only in that created by those who were very near the Self: state could he paint.’ Yes, the experience has to be expressed by the HH commented: means of intellect, mind and the senses. These are When you want to paint anything, you have to flashes duly expressed efficiently. This doesn’t take it inside you. If you take it inside you, you mean their Beings stay permanently at that will become that thing and then you will be able higher level. Men of the same level fully to express it. understand the real great works of art.

19 The Photopic Sky Survey (right hand page) is a 5,000 megapixel photograph of the entire night sky stitched together from 37,440 exposures. It Mr Howitt continued: ‘What interests me is this strong reveals our familiar Milky Way with unfamiliar concentration on what one is doing, the disappearance of the space clarity. When we look upon this image, we are in between what one ordinarily thinks as oneself and the object.’ fact peering back in time, as much of the light— HH replied: having travelled such vast distances—predates If you do something without removing that civilization itself. distance between observer and what is observed Seen at a depth thousands of times more faint than the dimmest visible star, tens of millions of then it will just be an ordinary painting. But other suns appear, still perhaps only a hundredth when you do it after removing that depth, or of one percent thought to exist in our galaxy alone. distance, between observer and the observed, Our Milky Way galaxy is the dominant feature, its when that distance is eliminated altogether, then dusty arms sweeping through the frame, it will be perfection of your art. punctuated by red clouds of glowing hydrogen. This removing of the distance reminded me of how To the lower right are our nearest neighbours, each small galaxies themselves with their own an actor can approach the text of Shakespeare. As a hundreds of millions of stars. member of a theatre company, I was once fortunate See http://skysurvey.org/ enough to take part in a workshop session with Cicely Berry, the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. On first reading a piece of text, Berry explains that our immediate impulse is to rush to make IME sense of it, but by coming to immediate conclusions T about its meaning, we can ‘miss out on the surprise Time’s glory is to calm contending kings, within the language’ and its possibilities. We tend to read everything in ‘clumps of sense’ but miss out on Tounmask falsehood and bring truth to light, what is actually happening in the text. We rush to Tostamp the seal of time in aged things, present the end thought without discovering thought as Towake the morn and sentinel the night, we go through. Her advice, when approaching, say, a Shakespearean text, is to speak each word, no matter Towrong the wronger till he render right, how small, as we really understand it and this ‘keeps Toruinate proud buildings with thy hours, the questions going’, not just for the character that is And smear with dust their glittering golden towers; emerging, but for the audience. It is this that brings truthful meaning to the text. And through helping actors understand their imaginative process, Berry Tofill with worm-holes stately monuments, believes that it can lead them to greater self-awareness. Tofeed oblivion with decay of things, But what of finding ourselves in the grand drama of Toblot old books and alter their contents, creation? How to become the Oneness? Sri Nisargadatta was once asked: ‘How is it in spite of so much Topluck the quills from ancient ravens’ wings, instruction and assistance we make no progress?’ Todry the old oak’s sap and cherish springs, His reply: Tospoil antiquities of hammer’d steel, As long as we imagine ourselves to be separate And turn the giddy round of Fortune’s wheel; personalities, one quite apart from another, we cannot grasp reality which is essentially impersonal. First we must know ourselves as Toshow the beldam daughters of her daughter, witnesses only, dimensionless and timeless Tomake the child a man, the man a child, centres of observation, and then realise that Toslay the tiger that doth live by slaughter, immense ocean of pure awareness, which is both mind and matter and beyond both... The mind Totame the unicorn and lion wild, creates time and space and takes its own Tomock the subtle in themselves beguiled, creations for reality. All is here and now, but we Tocheer the ploughman with increaseful crops, do not see it. Truly, all is in me and by me. There is nothing else. The very idea of ‘else’ is a disaster And waste huge stones with little water drops. and a calamity. William Shakespeare Fiona Stuart (From The Rape of Lucrece)

20 Why Is Space Big?

DOUGLAS ADAMS’ HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Many philosophers from Bertrand Russell includes a helpful entry on space: backwards have argued that the enormous size and emptiness of the universe is a signature that it Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, is neither sympathetic nor terribly conducive to the hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may development of life within it. Modern astronomy think it’s a long way down the road to the changes this whole perception of the universe chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space ... completely. You see, the universe is expanding and And so on. Amusing, but true, space really is huge. So this expansion means that the size of the universe huge, that distances are measured in the time it takes light is inextricably bound up with its age. And the to cross them, and light travels at around 300,000 km/s. reason the universe is so large, is that it so old. Its Speed of light travel time to Australia is a fraction of a enormous age is no accident. second. Even to the moon it’s only a quarter of a second And it has to be this old, or we wouldn’t be here. and to the Sun about eight minutes. Yet the nearest star is Building complex life is a slow and complex process: almost four light years away. So spread out are the stars that if they were the size of You see, we are made out of complicated sand grains there would be just three of them within the molecules of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and entire volume of St Paul’s Cathedral. And yet, in our phosphorus that can do very complicated chemical Milky Way galaxy alone, there are around 300 billion of gymnastics. But those elements don’t just appear them! There’s another galaxy, Andromeda, about 1.2 ready-made in the big bang. They are made in the million light years away. Altogether, there are probably stars by a long process of nuclear alchemy. And 300 billion galaxies in the visible universe, and that is only when stars exhaust their fuel and die they explode limited by the light horizon – light from anything further in supernovae and spread all these biological away has not had time to reach us even though it has elements around the universe. Now that process been travelling at 300,000 km/s since the start of our takes billions of years to complete, so you begin to universe 13.7 billion years ago. see why it is necessary that the universe is billions So yes, space is big. of years old if it is to contain the building blocks of And we are small. any type of living complexity.And if it’s expanding So why the big difference? According to John Barrow it therefore needs to be billions of light years in size of the Department of Applied Mathematics and as well. If the universe was significantly smaller, Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, the say just the size of our Milky Way galaxy, it would seemingly lonely, unfriendly vastness of space is all to do be little more than a month old. You could barely with time: pay off your credit card bill let alone produce

21 complexity and life. The universe would have to be every bit as big as it is just to support one lonely outpost of life. TIME John Barrow You ask me about time Or, as G K Chesterton put it: ‘The Cosmos is about the As if an answer will arrive, smallest hole a man can hide his head in.’ Chesterton is teasing us about the arrogance of man, On time. but the realisation that we need the incredible vastness of space and time to bring about our very existence is one When the moment is right; that I find extremely humbling. It is not just man – or even The apple falls, woman – that makes all this so necessary. It is The cell divides, consciousness. We are the agents – perhaps just one of The prisoner escapes, many agents – that are making the universe self aware. In one interpretation of quantum physics, that favoured by The dam bursts, the late Prof. John Wheeler, conscious observers are The heart opens, necessary for anything to come into the reality of being The sun sets, from the mathematical realm of possibility. If this is true, then it follows that, for it to exist, the whole universe must The seed sprouts, come into consciousness. The lie is told, True consciousness does not judge. It is very easy to The key is lost, see the universe as a terrible and violent place. But if stars The lightning strikes, did not explode, we would not have the chemical building blocks of life. If asteroids did not crash into planets, the The Way revealed. Earth would still be populated by dinosaurs. Even our wars, our anger and our greed could just be the childish You ask about time remnants of the forces we needed in order to evolve. As if there is an end, There may be other universes, some of them neat and To the question. compact, where space is small and time is short, but these cannot have developed self awareness. Perhaps, one day, When the moment is right; through observation or even theory, we, or other No beginning, conscious beings, will come to understand such other worlds and draw them too into consciousness. For we – or No requirement, at least our more scientifically and mathematically gifted For an end, friends – are developing the most remarkable gifts of all: For an answer, imagination and understanding. With these tools our For a decision, minds can encompass worlds far beyond our own. We can conceive of the seed from which the big bang of our own For a mind, universe may have grown; perhaps of the multi- For a teacher, dimensional collisions that marked the rise and fall of For a journey, earlier universes; and of the multiverse foam that may lie for ever beyond our physical powers of observation. For a form, Our mind can conceive of the vastness of space and For a name, time in relation to ourSelves, and in doing so we become For a place, the Universe. For a Way. The poet Emily Dickinson summed it up in four eloquent lines: Now you and I are one The Brain—is wider than the Sky— The clocks may stop. For—put them side by side— For God’s sake. The one the other will contain With ease—and You—beside— Philip Marvin Martin Redfern

22 SACRED SPACE The Great Cathedrals

BY A CURIOUS QUIRK OF HISTORY, the transformation in architecture that produced the great Gothic cathedrals arose in part from a misapprehension. In the mid 12th century, Abbot Suger of St Denis, the Royal Church of France, was inspired by three works then available in France, probably as a result of the restoration of Christianity in Spain, books ascribed to ‘Dionysius the Areopagite’, entitled The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology and The Celestial Hierarchies, all setting out the immediate possibility of access to the divine, or to realization of the divine Self. These became especially significant to Suger because of the coincidence of the name, in that ‘Dionysius’ is a form of the name ‘Denis’, Saint Denis being the patron saint of France. There was also another Dionysius, mentioned in the New Testament as having met St Paul, so it was an easy step to conflate the three into one, so that the patron saint of France had met St Paul and was then the author of these books of mystical theology. They are, in fact, now considered to have been written much later, by a Syrian monk. Suger was a man who had himself experienced and described peak experiences of enhanced consciousness, a Exeter Cathedral. Interior from West sense of the nearness of God, and he was inspired to create, in the rebuilding of his abbey church, a building spreading across Western Europe. Churches were being that served not only to house the work of the Church, but built and pilgrimage undertaken, so more information also to lift the soul in the same way as the liturgy did. He was becoming available about life slightly further afield. was the catalyst for a transformation of architecture, a The small fiefdoms were coalescing into larger units and transformation for which it was very ready, a architecture was again developing. transformation that lifted the architecture from an The form for new churches was picked up from earthbound stability to a heaven-aspiring exaltation. remains existing across Europe when, long before This change cannot now be seen in Suger’s own Christianity became the state religion of Rome, builders church, the Abbey of St Denis, which has mainly been used an existing form derived from the basilica, a Roman rebuilt, but rather in the cathedral that followed it, civic building. The essential nature of the basilica was that Chartres, where the clergy had much in common with it was made up of three aisles separated by rows of Suger. This church survives as the most complete and columns, with the middle aisle rising above the outer two intact of all medieval cathedrals, retaining almost all its to provide high windows (the clerestory) to light the heart sculpture and stained glass. These churches were of the building. A basilica is inevitably directional, with an followed by a succession of wonderful buildings across entrance at one end and a focal point at the other, whether Europe until the 16th century. it be an altar, the seat of a magistrate, or the seat of a What was the background to the transformation? The bishop. The medieval builders followed an older collapse of Rome had brought centuries of chaos to precedent and built their basilican churches oriented west Europe, which descended into conditions rather like to east, which was practically obligatory until the 17th Afghanistan or Somalia today, with warlords (who might century. There is an obvious symbolic intention. have been called ‘dukes’) in control of small areas, and in The character of a basilican building is a high interior perpetual conflict with their neighbours. There were only flanked by rows of columns, with high-level windows resources for defensive architecture, so the tradition of above, and lower aisles on each side, with further craftsmanship was lost. Education and literacy had been windows in the side walls. The aisles allow the preserved in some places, particularly in Ireland, and by proceedings in the centre not to be disturbed by people the second half of the first millennium scholarship was circulating to other parts of the interior.

23 24 Chartres Cathedral, Choir Ambulatory The rule that every priest should celebrate mass daily, masonry, and in a way ought to look like a Roman facing east, produced a need for east facing walls; this was aqueduct, but the whole interior is defined by lines, stout achieved over time by giving the basilica a cross wing columns formed into bundles of finer shafts, which fly north to south. It gave the church a cruciform shape, upwards to branch out into the ribs of the stone vaulting. whose symbolism was noted and became part of the Round arches have been abandoned in favour of a meaning of the church. The western entrance leads into pointed form, enhancing the upward emphasis (but also the shaft of the cross, the nave, the congregational area. highly practical in construction). We see an interior which Beyond that are the two transept arms, north and south, draws our eyes upward by its height and its ecstatic lines, and then the head of the cross, the choir or chancel, but also by its high windows, so that light flows down accessible only to the clergy and people of standing. from above, with further symbolic meaning in our The medieval masons at first had only the ruins of psychology. Roman buildings, quite common in France, from which The interior is directional, and our eyes are drawn to learn, and the character of the architecture they along the cross to the eastern windows. We meet now a produced had a resemblance to Roman style; it has come new factor in the architectural symbolism, in that the to be known as Romanesque (and as Norman in interior reveals itself as tripartite. We stand at the foot of England), with round arches, round vaulting (like a stone the shaft of the cross, the nave, but then the side walls are tunnel) and columns and pillars derived from the Roman. replaced by dark cavities north and south, the transept The first buildings were small and heavy, but pilgrimage arms. Beyond that the lines of the nave are continued in produced a need for ever larger churches, splendid fully the side walls of the choir, which, in France, is usually cruciform churches with nave, transepts and choir, all closed by the rounded east end of the apse. The height of built with great confidence. Because reconstruction in the building is also tripartite, as a result of its basilican England really had to wait for the Norman Conquest, design, with a high central nave flanked by lower aisles. there are in England very fine late Romanesque churches, The side walls stand on the pillars of the arcade, the including the finest of all, Durham Cathedral, the strength of the building, which has above it the wall stepping stone of the Gothic. corresponding to the aisle roof, a dark band usually From their writings, there is no doubt that there were lightened by arches. Above that is the clerestory, the high men of high spiritual development in the medieval windows, which are made as large as possible by taking church at that time. Under their influence all concerned the load of the building on the external flying buttresses. with the building of the great new churches were uplifted Both the length and the height are in three parts, which and inspired: Master Masons, stonemasons, labourers, have multiple symbolism, including the concept of and even ordinary citizens, who are recorded in several physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects, the places as working with the labourers to haul stone to the ‘intellectual’ here denoting the higher intellectual building sites. Externally, the church stands as a mentality, not merely logical reasoning, and thus the prominent beacon in the community, calling all to source of light. The interior can be seen as symbolic of a spiritual life, while internally a new architectural quality human being both in its length and in its height. was invoked. These interiors are very rich in detail, clusters of shafts Enlightened leadership and a flourishing new craft of striving upwards, but the design is intensely ordered and masonry created building spaces that acted on human comprehensible. The building is built in clear segments, perception to lift the mind out of its petty preoccupations known as bays, each one based on two columns bearing a into a state of deeper observation. They built intuitively in huge arch, carrying the wall or gallery of the clerestory, harmony with the working of the human mind, to affect with above that the enormous coloured windows. In people deeply, people who now come from all over the many of the cathedrals the number seven can be found in world, from many different cultures, who feel the the length, as the number three is found in the height, the profound qualities of this architecture as fully as people numbers which have through human history been with a European, Christian cultural background. They considered as representing the way to wisdom. Every created a space that calls us to the realization of spiritual number was a path to the divine. life, if we open ourselves to observation.. Study often reveals that the shaping of the design is What are the elements of that space? We enter a cross- based on systems of proportion, most commonly the shaped interior at its foot, our eyes drawn to the far ‘golden section’, the ratio of nature, which occurs in the windows in the east. The space is very high, drawing our plant world and in our bodies and minds, but is also observation upward; this has a clear symbolism in our derived geometrically and mathematically. The masons psychology. It is a building of enormously heavy will have used it in an intuitive manner, rather than a

25 Whether one travels the cathedral on foot or by eye, what one experiences is rhythm, repetition of patterns. Rhythm is central to life, to music, to dance and also to meditation; it is alive with the potential to change one’s awareness, another of the ways these buildings have been built to lift us from everyday attachments to a wider perspective. Finally, the cathedral is a ladder to heaven. It is built of lancet shapes, at their smallest, two little pillars bridged by a pointed arch, pointing heavenward. The smallest are about the size of a human being, and from these there is an enlarging scale of lancet shapes towards the bay of the building and then the whole building itself, every lancet with its upward direction and leading, one might say, to the lancet of the whole world, the whole universe. This, and every aspect of these interiors, invites us to ascend the ladder towards the divine centre, the divine unity. Thus has sacred space been created by human endeavour, but we must remember that nothing is profane, everything is sacred. The cathedral, forest glade, sunset over the sea, great spaces of mountains and valleys, great music, poetry, literature, drama, paintings and sculpture, all these are pointers, but in each of us the sacred is calling in every moment: we need to turn in the right direction. Clive Hicks

Chartres Cathedral., Choir Clerestory & Vault Photographs © Clive Hicks calculated, intellectual manner. If we choose with a clear mind, this proportion is likely to be found in our work. It WAKING UP has been found in many of the cathedrals, including Something has changed in the depths of my volcano Chartres. These buildings have a harmony which reaches us through observation in stillness, rather than detailed That I became such an eternal ocean of silence examination and analysis. The harmony in the building I feel and experience nothing evokes the same harmony in the mind. It is empty space where Nothing exists While the great space is the most striking aspect of the interior, the walk along the aisles and around the head, or Only the existence of my Divine Self observes it chevet, can also be a rewarding experience. As one walks the length of the aisle, there is a constant play of Nothing from the outer world interferes with me perspective in the diagonal views across the two arcades Even my many 'I's become silent... of the church, a spatially awakening opportunity if we can walk without our constant chatter. The aisles usually Heigh Ho! extend down the transepts, but not across the transept I can hold the reins of my carriage lightly ! ends, so one has to cross the transept to continue the route And not respond like a machine around the cathedral, past and around the choir, as the aisle is wrapped around the high choir in what is known My mind has slowed down as the ambulatory. Here the spatial experience can be rich and rewarding and most powerful if one can do it in and its chattering dissolves into the silence outer and inner silence. Many English cathedrals have not I cannot hear it in this ocean where Nothing exists, followed the French layout and have no ambulatory only my Divine Self... around the choir, but extend full height to the great east windows, with often a Lady Chapel at the east end. K.K.

26 BOOKS

TIME AND SPACE AND our choices. He asked his subjects to raise a finger at a time SCIENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS of their own choosing. It was already known that the brain activity, preparatory to doing so, started up to a full — AND US! second before the action commenced. What led to newspaper headlines was that when he also asked the IF YOU SAW the television series last year on the nature subjects to report the instant they had decided to move of the universe, you may well have shared the sense of their finger, the change in brain activity, against awe and wonder conveyed by its presenter, Professor expectations, still started beforehand, this time Brian Cox, to learn that the development of living beings approximately 300msecs sooner. So to what extent did this depended on the death of stars and that the temperatures indicate that our actions are predetermined? Do we think necessary to form the additional chemical elements ‘we’ are making a choice when our brain has done so needed for life are only reached in a supernova explosion. already? It is a revelation about the interconnectedness of The review below may reveal some answers! everything. It seems we are indeed formed in part from stardust. Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates And yet the same sense of awe can be felt when we our Mental World. Chris Frith, Blackwell, 2007 begin to learn about the infinitely complex nature of the human brain that is being progressively revealed in AS CHRIS FRITH, A LEADING NEUROSCIENTIST, states in his neuroscience. It is hard to comprehend that there are an introduction: ‘The study of the mind and the brain cuts across estimated 100 billion neurons in each of our brains and traditional disciplines, from anatomy and computational 10,000 main connections; they are being mapped this year neurobiology to philosophy and anthropology.’ And perhaps it by a group of Oxford scientists. Then last term, Chris is this wide reach, together with the way that brain Frith’s book, Making Up The Mind, gave us some flavour of imaging gives the neural correlates of some of the patterns the multiple systems and processing power that construct of our inner mental activity, which has caught the the brain’sworking model of the ‘buzzing booming’world imagination of the public. of sensory input signals. Frith’s perspective as a scientist is essentially You might think that we only need to turn to physics to materialist, as expressed in his sub-title above, but at explain the phenomena of time and space. You may also intervals in his narrative we are also given another know that quantum theory tells us that neither time nor perspective argued by a splendidly imagined Arts space operate in the same way at either micro-level or in colleague, a female Professor of English who has no truck the vastness of space and that some physicists like Fritjof with materialist-only explanations! Sceptical footnotes Capra (The Tao of Physics) and David Bohm have made about the history, but also humour and complexities of spiritual connections with aspects of this newer science. messy reality,add a further engaging strand for the reader. Quantum theory is hard to grasp and similarly it is not Then, for those interested in the nature of consciousness, easy to intuit what it means when neuroscientists indicate there is the question of what kind of perspective could that time and space can also be registered differently in the relate to, and encompass all? brain, without us necessarily realising it. Further, this has a Science and religion are so often seen as polar bearing on how we experience ‘agency’ (how the exercise opposites in the West yet both represent a search for truth of choice and ‘free’ will is understood). It seems that at different levels: James Austin, a scientist and Zen Ouspensky’s insight that we are ‘asleep’ or on automatic Buddhist, says in the forward to his latest book, Meditating pilot much of the time foreshadowed some of today’s Selflessly: ‘A new field of meditative neuroscience has opened up. scientific findings. It shares contributions from both brain-based research and No wonder there is a developing view that the way Buddhist scholarship.’ Mantra meditation has also been people understand themselves and society will be researched. Therefore, in the non-dual philosophy of gradually changed by the ongoing discoveries about how Advaita, should it not be especially possible to welcome the brain mediates all our experience – in the same way this meeting of science and spirit, and also to find a way to that Freud changed psychological understanding in the dialogue with the many in our western culture who take last century. the materialist/science perspective as a given? Frith reminds us (p. 66) that there was something of a It is in this spirit that it has been suggested that those public alarm in the 1980s when a researcher, Benjamin interested familiarise themselves with the concepts and Libet, did a simple experiment that appeared to bring into language of current mainstream neuroscience. Since Chris question our sense of having straightforward control over Frith is to speak at the Study Society AGM, this does give

27 an opportunity for dialogue. So a fairly detailed summary every response we have just made’. This makes it easier to of his book follows, with reference to key sections and to repeat the same response again (footnote p. 80), rather questions that may arise. A copy of the book is available in than try a different response. This gives clues as to how the Colet library. habits can develop – but also how they might be changed. In the Prologue, Frith sets out his aim to illustrate from practical experiments how: Part 2 – How the Brain Does It In this section, the historic experiments by Pavlov (how Everything we know, whether it is about the dogs learned to anticipate food at the ring of a bell and physical or the mental world, comes to us through automatically salivate) and by Thorndike and Skinner, the our brain. But our brain’s connection with the behaviourist, are revisited. These have shown how, physical world of objects is no more direct than our through trial and error and associative learning, the brain brain’s connection with the mental world of ideas. actively constructs the individual’sperception of the world (p. 17) and this primes his/her responses to particular stimuli, Reading the case studies helps one understand this sometimes inappropriately, but with self-correction built rather counter-intuitive statement. in to enable the more rewarding outcome. This is called the Actor/Critic model of learning (act, evaluate, renew Part 1 – Seeing through the Brain’s Illusions effort). Frith maps this onto the patterns of neural activity Helmholtz, a nineteenth century researcher, was the and the release of chemical neural transmitters like first to measure the speed of nerve induction and then dopamine that ‘reward’ the successful choices in trial and observe that there was a 100msec gap between when a error interactions in a situation. One can read about the subject was touched and when that subject registered their monkey (pp. 94-98) to see what happens in its brain, both perception of the touch. Helmholtz deduced that before when its drink arrives and when unexpectedly it does not, we can perceive anything, the brain has to infer what it and how the animal learns to modify both behaviour and might be from a range of ‘signals’ coming in from the expectations from the experience. senses, so the gap between the event and the individual’s Pages 98-100 give a real sense of how one’s brain perception of it was the time the brain needed to process utilises a kind of on-going map of preferred possibilities, incoming information. minute by minute, via prediction from past experience. Through other case studies we are shown that the Frith writes that on entering a refectory: ‘I instinctively go brain – the most complex organ in the world – ‘knows’ toward where... the drink will be found... where my friends will things that the mind is not necessarily aware of. Some be... and avoid those tables frequented by molecular geneticists perception exercises (given from page 41 onwards) show and Professors of English.’ We are embedded by our brains how the brain can sometimes misread or misrepresent the in the physical world and this allows us to respond signals it is processing. quickly and efficiently, yet this happens mainly below the The research of Benjamin Libet startled a wider public radar and semi-automatically. If it did not we would with scans that appeared to show an individual’s brain experience the daily exhaustion of ‘I W’ (p. 107) who lost activity starting on a chosen course of action before the the sensation in his limbs and could only control his individual felt he had made the decision to ‘do’ it. This actions by visually checking and repositioning each limb time gap, the reverse of what one would expect, does raise throughout each sequence of simple movements – like questions about our sense of self as a ‘doer’. Nevertheless, someone learning to walk on a tight rope – yet in the dark it seems there was a technical explanation: it simply took he lost this painstaking method of control and therefore brain-processing time for the (ego) self to become aware of his balance. the decision already taken by its body-mind complex. For Frith’s argument is that it is because the brain manages anyone interested in consciousness and individual agency our normal physical adjustments to our surroundings this is thought provoking. Frith discusses ‘Who’s in without it taking much or any attention, that we are then Control?’on pp. 65-68 and the ‘Experience and Illusions of left free to focus on our own inner mental world and our Agency’ on pp. 151-157. interactions with the mental worlds of others. For this we It seems the time gap between an intention and its have learnt to read the cues in others’faces, body language expected outcome is linked by the brain more speedily and movements in order to interpret their mood and than in the ‘clock’ time that it physically takes to carry out intentions. Experiments with one-year-old children show the intention (p. 77). This time gap may be even more an early ability to read people’s intentions through their marked if we repeat a choice that we have just made actions or by watching their eye movements and direction previously because ‘a temporary trace remains in our brain of of gaze (p. 142-3).

28 Much of this learning comes from an almost through each new encounter with other people and their unconscious drive to imitate those around us, the better to differing ideas. ‘Social stereotypes provide the starting point for understand them, and here Frith illustrates the difference our interactions with people we don’t know. They enable us to between ‘movements’ and ‘actions’ (only the latter being make our initial guesses about the person’s intentions.’ (p. 168). imbued with purpose) and the cues our brains pick up Once we notice any difference to our own norms, that enable us to quickly grasp someone’s intentions. communication may be more cautious until further Linked with these abilities, necessary for survival, there is experience allows us more confidence. (This can be the further human quality of empathy. Our ability to observed in young children playing together.) imitate others includes the subtle facial gestures that However, we do have a mistaken sense that our ‘self’is express emotions: ‘If I see a smiling face, I smile a little too, and an ‘island of stability in an ever changing world’ and it is I feel happier.’ (p. 149). If we see someone in pain, we can others who are changeable. So we project: ‘The Professor of wince and feel for them. Our brain’s activity then mirrors English is hopelessly volatile... sympathetic one minute, so the other’s subjective experience of pain, but does not also critical the next’. . . (but, actually)... ‘I can’t help imitating her.’ mirror the separate brain activity that records the physical Frith elaborates: ‘Your prejudices and your observations of their aspects of pain signalled via the other’s senses. behaviour automatically make you become, for a moment, more In Zero Degrees of Empathy, Simon Baron-Cohen has like the person you are interacting with.’ (p. 170). He then cites identified what he calls an empathy circuit in the brain – the fairly well known example of the way two people which does not light up in the usual way in some scans talking together will unconsciously synchronise body made of individuals with autistic or psychopathic language: leaning forward, crossing legs, etc. The same tendencies. Frith starts by describing those experiments thing happens in verbal communication: we talk in that discovered ‘mirror’ neurons – when the brain activity different ways to different people, again often without of an individual observing another’s actions ‘lit up’ in a realising this. Social situations also ‘require’ agreed ways way that mirrored that of the individual actually carrying of communicating. Imitation, as discussed above, makes it out the activity. easier to understand someone else and this can also In humans the same thing can be seen when someone engender empathy (thus making it more likely that we is asked to simply visualise an action rather than actually will be ready to share our inner thoughts). carry it out: an example of a mental operation triggering Unlike the one-way process involved in reading, face- the same observable brain activity that would normally to-face communication is a two-way process which allows accompany actual physical activity. Does this raise us/our brains the maximum cues through which to questions about the ‘bottom up’ brain/mind model – or understand and construct these models of the mental not? world of others. So successful has this been in humans that the social cultures created have, in turn, modified aspects Part 3 – Culture and the Brain of brain activity. Apparently, the physical aspects of Without doubt our brain’s most remarkable achievement is spoken language have led to different languages being to permit communication between minds. (p.163) processed in slightly different parts of the brain. Isn’t this a somewhat anthropomorphic positioning of Frith’sexplanations of how the brain ‘Creates our Mental the brain: its ‘achievement’ and ability to ‘permit’ as World’do convince. However, the most challenging aspect though it were like the whole human? This is one aspect of of his exposition is that awareness of some brain processes the materialist position, emphasising the dominant role of seem to be suppressed in order to facilitate illusions about brain processing, that has been criticised (cf. Aping what constitutes our sense of ‘self’ (an entity not so far Mankind by Raymond Tallis); it is a problem that, to be fair, located in brain scans). Frith does discuss later in ‘The Homunculus’ (p. 188). Akey aspect seems to be a requirement that we feel we Nevertheless, the message stands: ‘Sending ideas from one are free agents who therefore recognise others as free mind to another seems vital, almost a compulsion, for us.’ (p. agents. Linked also to our strong sense of what is fair, it 163). Think of the now ubiquitous mobile phone! appears that this is not just to do with individual character And the means for this is the representation of the but has evolved as a necessary precondition to successful physical world – of objects, movements and goals – and in social living. This strong sense of fairness requires people the parallel mental world of words, dialogue and to ‘choose’ to follow the rules and they will be felt meaning. Frith sets out to show how our brains build up deserving of punishment by the co-operating majority if models of this mental world in the same way that we build they ‘freeload’. There is a fascinating account of what are our models of the physical world: through predictions, called ‘Common Good Games’, studies that uncover these based on our own prior experience, which we modify general patterns within all groups (p. 190-end). So this

29 may give us some clues as to the possible answers to the Latin libido... During the late seventeenth century, question posed by the author, ‘What is consciousness for?’ however, as our concept of knowledge became A final thought: because brain scans can record the more theoretical, the word ‘belief’ started to be physical traces of mental activity, though not the content used to describe an intellectual assent to a of that activity, it confirms that insubstantial thought hypothetical – and often dubious – proposition. impacts on our physical selves (and the brain is Scientists and philosophers were the first to use it extensively linked to the rest of our bodies); it also in this sense, but in religious contexts the Latin provides evidence that something is happening in credere and the English ‘belief’ both retained their previously hidden activities of the mind such as original connotations until well into the nineteenth meditation, and it could be said that we undertake this century. discipline to experience an expanded sense of Another passage (p. 4) follows from what she says consciousness encompassing the physical, mental and about holding something dear: spiritual. As yet, Chris Frith feels there is no adequate scientific Religion, therefore, was not primarily something explanation of consciousness, though some other that people thought, but something they did. Its neuroscientists have tried to give one. truth was acquired by practical action. It is no use Belinda Kennedy imagining that you will be able to drive a car if you simply read the manual or study the Highway The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong was Code... There are some things that can only be reviewed in Contact 51, Spring 2010. Here, Alan learned by constant, dedicated practice ... Caiger-Smith provides a commentary on ‘Belief’. Alan Caiger-Smith

I AM WRITING THIS IN APPRECIATION of a paragraph in Cave in the Snow Karen Armstrong’s book, The Case for God (2009) which A Western Woman’s Quest for Enlightenment. clarifies a confusion that must have arisen in many Vickie McKenzie, Bloomsbury, 1999 people’s minds. The word ‘belief’looms large in Christian tradition, perhaps too large. Over the centuries, and THIS IS THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE STORY of Diane Perry especially during the Reformation, there have arisen (Tenzin Palmo), one of the first Westerners to become a many versions of what ‘those who profess and call nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition; it describes her themselves Christians’ are supposed to believe. The twelve years of intense meditation spent in a cave high intention was to put an end to religious controversy, but up in the Himalayas. the effect was often the complete opposite. Many people, Born the daughter of a fishmonger in London’s East like Karen Armstrong herself, were unable to ‘believe’ End, she was ordained in 1964 and made a vow to any of these credal statements and felt they had to attain enlightenment in the female form – no matter withdraw altogether. how many lifetimes it took. So, in 1976, she secluded However, what she says about the changing meaning herself in a remote cave, 13,200 feet up in the of words puts the situation in a new light. She shows that mountains, cut off from the world. There she engaged the word ‘belief’ originally signified an emotional in her meditation practice. She faced wild animals, alignment to something that was not necessarily fully avalanches and unimaginable cold; she grew her own understood, rather than an intellectual assent to a food and slept, never lying down, in a traditional, statement or an idea. She also explains how it came about Tibetan wooden meditation box, three foot square. that when St Jerome (c. 342-420) translated the New Tenzin Palmo’s story is certainly an inspiring one – a Testament from Greek into Latin, he introduced the great accomplishment for any Westerner and all the word credo, a word that derived from the expression cor more so for a woman, alone in Asia. Palmo has do: ‘I give my heart’. undoubtedly blazed a trail for women Buddhists She continues (pp. 90-91): looking for an example to follow, and for this she is to When the Bible was translated into English, credo be commended. became ‘I believe’in the King James version (1611). The book, on the other hand, has little to But the word ‘belief’ has since changed its recommend it but Tenzin Palmo herself. Abounding meaning. In Middle English, bileven meant ‘to with grammatical and typographical errors, it is poorly prize; to value; to hold dear’. It was related to the written and in need of a talented copy editor. German belieben (’to love’), liebe (‘beloved’) and the Ellis Nadler

30 Colet House Library News A general overview can be read at: During the course of 2012, there will be an upgrade of the www.librarything.com/profile/studysociety library catalogue. The existing spreadsheet catalogue will It is especially interesting to explore the tags and remain on the Colet website. ‘LibraryThing’ software is in statistics for the library. use for the upgraded catalogue. In addition to author and Another part of the upgrade is the introduction of the title searches, it allows searching by tags, subject, ISBN, Dewey Decimal shelf marks on the book spines. Most and even book jackets. It is an exceptionally powerful libraries use this system. This will improve the current system that gives access to reader reviews and to similar situation as books will now be shelved according to their books held in other libraries. When you click on one of content. At the moment it can be difficult to find books our titles it shows how many other libraries have it, and because the old catalogue has them shelved according to then you can delve into their collections for new ideas and the points of the compass. Dewey should make searches also see what sort of people share our books. easier for readers and for the work of librarians. About 16% of the stock has been upgraded so far and Audio tape cassettes and various journals continue to progress can be viewed at: be available, though the future holding of this stock will www.librarything.com/catalog/studysociety be determined by its usage.

Contact’s Very Short Story Competition Our winner, Tony Brignull, writes: ‘I can’t honestly say that any single aspect of the teaching inspired this very short story.It is more an overall feeling of liberation and clarity for which I am grateful – liberation from the superstition and dogma which seem to accrete to most teachings over the centuries as their followers project onto them their anxieties and notions. In The Nile God these are represented by the elders of the village and their priests, and their need to make a human sacrifice in exchange for the river’s nutrient-rich flood. Whereas the girl’s father represents the love and protection of the Param-Atman which is always available, immediate and practical. If you are so inclined, you might interpret the diving down into the water as a symbol for meditation, but I confess I did not see it as such when I was writing.’ The Nile God

Tony Brignull As soon as I was a few weeks old my father took me through the flax fields to the slow green river. He lay in the shallows and rested me on his chest where I splashed and kicked in the warm water. Each day he floated on his back a little further out until one morning he sank beneath the surface and I swam fearlessly. Every week we had new targets to reach: an island where lotus flowers grew on the margins, then one further off where egrets waded. My shoulders grew strong, my strokes fluent, my breathing untroubled. On my fifth birthday I swam across the river. My father taught me to dive down to the darkness and hold onto weeds until my lungs were bursting. I see him now mouthing ‘a little longer, my daughter, a little longer’,every day a little longer. When I was fourteen the village elders came for me. They anointed my body with oils of lavender, cedar and rosemary. Women painted my eyes with kohl and malachite. They dressed me in white robes and gave me a coronet of lilies. They took me to a barge where priests were waiting with trumpets. They rowed to the middle of the river and told me I must feed the Nile god so that he would flood and feed our crops. They threw me in and stood around to stop me clambering back. But all that surfaced was a coronet of lilies. fff

31 Three Questions

T ONCE OCCURRED TO A CERTAIN EMPEROR attendants at a distance, went on alone. that if he knew the answers to three questions he When he came to the holy man’s dwelling, he found would never fail at anything: him digging the ground in front of his hut. When the IWhat is the right time for every action? hermit saw the emperor, he nodded and carried on IWho are the most important people to be with? digging. The hermit was old and frail and whenever he What is the most important thing to pursue? stuck his spade in the ground to turn some earth, he So he issued a proclamation announcing that he breathed heavily. would give a large reward to anyone in his kingdom The emperor approached him and said, ‘I have come who could provide him with the correct answer to each to you for help, to ask you to answer three questions: of these questions. What is the right time for every action? Who are the Many people came to the emperor, but they all had most important people to be with? What is the most different answers. In reply to the first question, one important thing to pursue?’ advised that to know the right time for every action, he The hermit listened to the emperor, but did not should first draw up a table of days, months and years answer. He just continued with his digging. and then keep rigidly to it. Only then could he expect to ‘You must be tired,’ the emperor said. ‘Here. Let me do everything at the right time. take the spade and give you some help.’ Another said that it was impossible to plan the ‘Thank you,’ the hermit replied. He handed him the correct time for each action in advance and that he spade and sat down on the ground. should put all useless pleasures aside and always When the emperor had dug two rows, he stopped and attend to everything that was going on; then he would repeated his questions. Again, the hermit did not give know what to do at the right time. him any answers; instead, he stood up, pointed to the Someone else said that however attentive the spade and said, ‘Have a rest. I’ll take over for a while.’ emperor might be to all that was happening, he alone But the emperor carried on digging. An hour went could never correctly choose the right time for every by and then another. It was only when the sun began to action; what he needed was a council of wise men who set behind the trees that he finally stuck the spade in the would recommend the proper time for everything. ground and said, ‘I came here to ask you to answer my However, another said that certain things could not three questions, but if you can’t do it, please tell me and wait to be placed before a council and that a decision I will go back home.’ whether to undertake them or not should be made ‘Someone is running this way,’the hermit said. ‘Let’s immediately. But in order to decide that, the emperor see who it is.’ must have prior knowledge about what was going to The emperor turned to look. A wild, bearded man happen, so in order to know the right time for every came running out of the wood, clutching his bloodied action he must consult magicians and soothsayers. hands against his stomach. When he reached the emperor The second question attracted similar discord. Some he fell to the ground in a faint, groaning weakly. said the most important people that the emperor Loosening the man’s clothing, the emperor discovered a needed were councillors; others recommended priests deep wound in his stomach. He washed it as best he and others physicians, while some insisted that could, and bandaged it with his own shirt, but the blood warriors were the most necessary. continued to flow. So he washed the shirt and reapplied As to the third question, some said that the study of the bandage, doing this several times until the blood science was the most important thing to pursue. Others finally stopped flowing. It was then that the man regained said it was to follow religion and yet others maintained consciousness and begged for something to drink. The that it was skill in warfare. emperor brought him a jug of fresh water. By this time, The emperor agreed with none of these different the sun had gone down and the night air was turning answers and so gave no reward. But after continuing to cold. With the hermit’s help, the emperor carried the dwell on the matter and wanting to find the correct wounded man into the hut and laid him down on the answers to his three questions, he decided to seek out a bed. The man closed his eyes and remained still. particular hermit, one who was said to be enlightened. Tired after all the work that he had done, the Knowing that this man never left his home in the woods emperor leant against the doorway and fell asleep. and would only receive poor people, the emperor When he woke, the morning sun had already risen and dressed as a peasant and, leaving his horse and his for a while he could not remember where he was or

32 why he was there. The bearded man lying on the bed ‘I don’t know you,’ the emperor replied, ‘so what is was also looking around in confusion. When he saw the there to forgive?’ emperor, he stared intently and said in a weak voice, ‘You do not know me, but I know you. I am your ‘Forgive me!’ enemy, a man who swore to exact revenge on you because you killed my brother in the last war and seized my property. I heard that you had gone alone to find the hermit and I vowed to kill you on your way back. But the hours passed and there was still no sign of you, so I came out from my ambush to find you; instead, I came upon your attendants and they recognised me and wounded me. I escaped but would have bled to death if you had not dressed my wound. I wanted to kill you and you have saved my life. Now, if I live, I will serve you as your most loyal servant, and will bid my children to do the same. Please forgive me!’ The emperor was delighted to have made peace so easily with his former enemy and to have made a friend of him; he not only forgave him, but promised to restore his property and send his servants and his own physician to attend him until he was healed. Having taken leave of him, the emperor went in search of the hermit. Before returning home, he wanted to repeat his three questions one more time. He found him outside, on his knees, sowing seeds in the beds that they had dug the previous day. The emperor approached him and said, ‘I pray you to answer my questions, wise man.’ ‘But your questions have already been answered,’ the hermit said, looking up at him. ‘How’s that?’ the emperor asked, rather puzzled. ‘Don’t you see?’ the hermit replied. ‘Yesterday, if you hadn’t taken pity on me, an old man, and helped me with my digging, you would have been attacked by that man on your way home. Then you would have regretted not staying with me. So, the right time was when you were digging the beds, I was the most important man and the most important thing that you did was to help me. Later, when that man ran here, the right time was when you were dressing his wound, because if you hadn’t cared for him he would have died and no peace would have been made between you. So he was the most important man and what you did for him was your most important action. So remember this: there is only one right time and that is Now! The present moment is the only time over which we have any power. The most important person is the one who is with you, the one right before you, for who knows if you will ever have dealings with anyone else in the future. And the most important thing is to do that person good, because happiness is life’s treasure.’ Window from the church of Saint-Eutrope, Leo Tolstoy Clermont-Ferrand. (Wikimedia commons)

33 How To Get Out of This World ALIVE

Alain Forget Wednesday 7 March 2012 7.00 pm at Colet House Alain Forget, a French philosopher working within the non-dualistic tradition, has developed a remarkably practical and rapid method that can usher in a more conscious life, liberated from fear and anxiety. This method, the 4Ds, which he presents in his forthcoming book, How To Get Out of this World Alive, dismantles the illusory guilt-generating foundations on which the sense of identity is built. As he has repeatedly demonstrated to his own students, it is only if the individual dismantles these mechanisms that he can move from making unconscious losing choices to making conscious winning choices. The 4Ds are designed to send the student towards the deepest parts of himself. Paradoxically, it is by going to these depths that consciousness can raise itself, revealing the individual's talents and his ability to make them manifest. Only if the individual can connect to a richer, happier and more abundant life can he surrender to a process of metaphysical enquiry that can, in turn, trigger awakening. This is the unconditioned freedom that the awakened Teachers of the great philosophic and religious traditions have been discussing for millennia. Study Society Events All these events are free of charge, but donations are welcome

Tony Parsons — The Open Secret Saturday 26 May 2012 2.00 pm at Colet House

The Open Secret message points to the possibility of there being a radically different perception of reality. It does not recognise any kind of spiritual authority or tradition. It attempts to describe the simple and effortless wonder of being which is beyond path, process or belief. It also reveals the way in which seeking for fulfilment can only reinforce the sense of continuously reaching out for something that has never been lost. The dynamic of this communication is essentially energetic, and this can nullify the mind's need for ideas and answers and dissipate the contracted sense of the self and its fear of unconditional freedom. Tony Parsons will speak briefly and then respond to questions. The session will end around 4:00 pm and be followed by a shared tea. Please bring edible contributions.

34 EXPLORING CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH THE ARTS PUJA FESTIVAL at Colet House 14 July 2012 5.00 pm onwards

. . . Singing, Dancing, Music, Poetry, Food, Celebration . . .

One of the most effective routes for re- acknowledging our essential Unity is through the Way of Devotion or Bhakti. Through this Way the devotee devotes him or herself to a particular deity. In this practice it is usual to make offerings of fruit and flowers, music and dance. This is known as Puja. The deity is a personification of the Absolute and as the love for the deity deepens, the separation between devotee and deity disappears and a single Unity is experienced. In the world’s different traditions there are many deities that are a symbol of the Absolute and that act as a focal point for devotion. When we experience love for our fellow creatures and the world around, in reality it is the One Self loving itself. When this is seen and acknowledged, then it is also seen that there are in reality no others.

Radha meditates on Krishna, and Krishna meditates on Radha. As the meditation deepens, Radha turns into Krishna and Krishna turns into Radha. These transformations from one to the other take place every instant, until the difference between the two vanishes. . . . Bring a dish to share and celebrate . . .

Published by The Study Society, February 2012 151, Talgarth Road, London W14 9DA [email protected] 020 8748 9338 www.studysociety.org 35 A journey journey of of self self discovery discovery

For anybody anybody truly interested inin embarking on, on, or or further further developing developing a a voyage ofvoyage self discovery, of self discovery, we make we available make available a range of a practicalrange of methods practical andmethods approachesand approaches that canthat help can transformhelp transform theoretical theoretical knowledge knowledge into real into real experience and bringbring aa deeper deeper meaning meaning to to everyday everyday life. life. All All these these activities activities are based aroundaround aa uniqueunique East/West East/West understanding understanding of of the the philosophy philosophy of of non-dualism which which declares declares the the essential essential oneness oneness of of the the individual individual with with the the universe. Our Our SocietySociety waswas formedformed byby PP DD Ouspensky and continuedcontinued by by his Dr studentFrancis Roles Francis under Roles the under guidance the guidance of the Shankaracharya, of the Shankaracharya, HH Shantanand HH ShantanandSaraswati, one Saraswati, of the heads one of of the the heads Advaita of the Vedanta AdvaitaVedanta (non-dual) (non-dual) tradition. tradition.The Society is currently directed by Dr Peter Fenwick.

MeditationMeditation AsAs our central central practice practice we we offer offer mantra mantra meditation meditation from from the the Advaita Advaita tradition.tradition.The The practicepractice ofof meditation leadsleads youyou to a deep inner connection connectionand puts everyday and puts life everyday into perspective. life into perspective.A A remarkable remarkablerecord of questions record ofand questions answers andcarried answers on with carried the Shankaracharya on with the Shankaracharya for over 30 years for oversupports 30 yearsour practice supports and our understanding. practice and understanding. Contact us for further details. The Fourth Way Journey IntroductoryIntroductory G Grouproup TheAt Colet Fourth House, Way PDO Journeyuspensky’s Fourth Way Informal andand friendly friendly weekly weekly meetings meetings are are available TheSystem Fourth has Way for 60 System years developed been continuously at Colet House toavailableintroduce to introduce you to the you philosophy to the philosophy of non-dualism of prreformulatedesents a profoundly and developed practical to psychology keep pace and with andnon-dualism the Society’s and activities. the Society’s Non-dualism activities. is Non- seen as cosmology—allcurrent science expressedand culture. in accessibleIt presents Western you with a thedualism perennial is seen philosophy as the perennial at the heart philosophy of all the at the termsprofoundly and language.Together practical psychology with itsand basic cosmology— training world’sheart of mystical all the world’s and religious mystical traditions. and religious It is very inall attention expressed and in self-awareness,accessible Western this Fourth terms Way and simple,traditions. requiring It is very no simple, adjustment requiring of faith no or lifestyle Systemlanguage. can Together lead you to with a clear its basic understanding training in of andadjustment yet can haveof faith a profound or lifestyle and and positive yet can effect have on a non-dualism.attention and Contact self-awareness, us if you are this interested system of in howprofound we view and the positive world effect and ourselves. on how we Contact view the us joiningknowledge a course. leads towards a clear understanding forworld details and ofourselves. groups in and outside London. of non-dualism. The Gurdjieff Movements Whirling Dervishes Whirling Dervishes TheseThe G Movementsurdjieff Mo arevem ae repertoirents of ancient and ‘Turning’ is is aa potent potent method method for for experiencing experiencing inner sacrTheseed Movements dances and esoteric are a repertoire movements of ancient from and stillness.inner stillness.Developed Developed by followers by followers of Rumi of in Rumi the closedsacred communities,dances and esoteric temples movements and monasteries from closed in 13thin the Century, 13th century, it was init 1963was in that 1963 a Mevlevi that a Mevlevi Sheikh thecommunities, Near and Middletemples East and and monasteries Asia.They arein the a Near startedSheikh started a group a here group with here the with permission the permission of the meansand Middle of acquiring East and knowledge Asia. They beyond are a means language. of headof the of head his Order.Training of his Order. Training to be Turner to be starts Turner in Theacquiring Movements knowledge have beenbeyond taught language. at Colet The House Januarytakes place 2011. each You year. can also You attend can also monthly attend guest sinceMovements the 1930s have in been an uninterrupted taught at Colet line House of since ceremoniesmonthly guest preceded ceremonies by a meeting preceded of the by Rumia transmissionthe 1930s in safeguardingan uninterrupted the tradition line of transmission, and carrying poetrymeeting and of musicthe Rumi group. poetry Contact and usmusic for detailsgroup. of itsafeguarding forward. Contact the tradition us for details and carrying of classes. it forward. these and other events. We warmly invite you to contact us for further details. WeThe warmlyStudy Society, invite you Colet to House, contact 151 us for Talgarth further Road, details. LondonW14 9DA The Study Society, Colet House, 151 Talgarth Road, LondonW14 9DA [email protected]  www.studysociety.org  020 8741 6568 [email protected] • www.studysociety.org • 020 8741 6568