Closer

Closer

Let's commune iCate
uWho
^_^ my way
Catch the sound
Hid den in the let hers
Hold onto the stories
Captured in the pictures
Swirl~ ~ ~ ~ing
Twirl~ ~ ~ ~ing
Across these waves
Bringingusallcloser
2 ea other
~~~~~~~ like the colors
On a spinning top

Til there is only One

Time melting

In 1931, Salvado Dalí introduced the image of soft, melting pocket watches in one of his most famous works, “The Persistence of Memory”.

Suggesting that time was not as rigid and fixed as many people believed, the watches also suggested Einstein’s theory that time is relative. The image of the melting watch was portrayed by Dalí throughout his lifetime. 

In Dalí’s sculpture “Dance of Time II” seen above, Time appears to be fluid as it moves and dances in rhythm with the beat of the universe.  

Influenced by their perception of time, humans have always attempted to dance with Time in various ways and to different beats. And Time is a versatile dancer.

When there was no experience of self separate from the environment, magic Time danced in pointed shoes through point-like moments. Its flying leaps from moment to moment were magical, taking all and sundry along.

The repetitive dance steps accompanying the chorus of mythic, cyclical Time formed an ongoing round as Time danced in circles. Its seasonal music was comforting and offered hope. 

With the coming of the Age of Reason, time was seen to be linear, consisting of past, present and future. This necessitated the learning of new steps in the dance with mental Time, all in the name of progress. Time marched on, beating out its rhythm.

Postmodernism allowed all movement to be dance, and so Time improvised, focusing on the individual it was partnering with.

In dreams, Time leads in a tango-like dance. Time's embrace of the dreamer alternates between the open and the closed as scenes change rapidly from one to another and characters morph into each other.

Technology has made possible no time and all time in a huge web. In an age of information and an age of communion, individuals connect with each other regardless of time zones.

 “Sardana” by Picasso

Reminiscent of the Sardana, a dance which symbolises a spirit of brotherhood and harmony, the dance with Time is one of interconnectedness, acknowledging self and the other in a unique fashion. Perhaps on the threshold of entering another dimension, we more and more begin to be reminded of pure grace and fluidity of movement. Time is no longer Chronos. It is dancing as Kairos, known to those individuals who have experienced being in a state of flow.

In this state, an individual's subjective experience of time is certainly altered. Time seems to disappear as it were, hiding its face for as long as the experience lasts.

No noticing of thoughts, emotions or feelings. No concept even of self for as long as the experience lasts. Present and in the moment. No thing in which all things rise. An emptiness giving rise to all forms. Experiential oneness with it all.

Mindful, present and in the moment, and most definitely aided by technology in a significant way, together we are now able to begin to enter a dance of shared flow which allows, welcomes and integrates all the various dance steps. 

Jean Gebser, spoke of timelessness and  time-freedom.

Jeremy Johnson, @jdj_tweets, in his excellent piece “The Integral Philosopher: Jean Gebser and Time” writes, 

“Integral is not abstraction. It is not a new system of ideas that everyone can agree on. It is a direct experience of “Presence.” Not an eternal now, but a consciousness that supports all the multitudes of experience, all the different ways we can perceive time.”

In this dance of Presence, all movements rise and fall. At its heart is stillness.  

“Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance." - TS Eliot

Do we see the rhythmless and rhythmful stillness?  Do we hear, smell, taste and feel the beat? Do we intuit the dance?

The Gathering

Visiting the Pavilion in Downtown Dubai yesterday, I noticed that there were workers completing the installation of a new sculpture on the sidewalk.

After the installation was completed I went outside to photograph the figures from various angles, before going inside to continue what I was working on. 

As sunset approached the pink fingers stretching across the sky to embrace the Burj Khalifa drew me outside again. The chatting figures of the sculpture seemed happy in their new setting. 

While photographing them a gentleman and lady approached. Seeing me photograph the figures, she told me that the gentleman was the artist. I was privileged to meet architect and sculptor Xavier Corbero. 

A man with incredible vision, Corbero has built a dream home whose spaces are linked by underground passageways.

“His original vision of the property has since expanded to include a retreat for artists, studio spaces, workshops, a foundry, dozens of surreal chambers for residents and guests, sprawling galleries, living rooms, a myriad of hobbit nooks all connected by serpentine stairways filling over 10,000 square meters.”

Salvador Dali was Corbero’s first patron and Corbero is now considered to be Spain’s most important living sculptor. 

"You must leave things open so the person enjoys or looks," says Corbero. "I feel that when people look at a piece of art they become artists, they see what they see not what there is. What there is helps them to see something else and they feel better because they see something they were not seeing before seeing that. That's what I like to do.”

Standing next to his work, he seemed to effortlessly blend in with the figures, even unintentionally perhaps, replicating the pose of the figure he was standing next to.

 

In her piece on Corbero’s work in Beirut, Micheline Hazou, @mich1mich writes,

“Perhaps it’s the way the figures are positioned, in relation to the space and to one another that is as important as their bulk and mass…”

Corbero has said, "What is good is the scale, if you get the scale right, space stops being space to become mind. And this happens in a sculpture and it happens in architecture."

The sculpture, called The Gathering, invites one into its circle. The chatting figures capture for me the mix that is Dubai, a city where  many different nationalities and cultures meet.

The figures lean into each other with attention. They are accommodating of each other’s space and seem to acknowledge the other, while at the same time forming a unit. The energy flowing between them as they connect is almost palpable.

There is the sense that more personalities are about to join the gathering and engage in conversation. This excites me as non-judgmental listening and peaceful dialogue is so crucial in the world right now.

I immediately think too of this here2here space where we are all gathering now. What does it matter where we are physically situated in time and space. We can gather, be present here together, converse and share. We might all be different but we are more similar than we can imagine.

Whether gathering on sidewalks of cities, or sensing our interconnectedness in a large web made possible by technology, together we bear witness to Presence.

A Voyage into Hyperspace

Not so long ago, being in a space which had more than three dimensions was considered the domain of science fiction.

Today we speak of spaces unheard of before. And what is more, we are now able to meet in them. Physical geography is no longer the determinant for meeting to take place. 

Human beings interconnected through computers and telecommunications find themselves in cyberspace, which has its own special architecture. Units of information are organized into connected associations known as links or hypertext links. By clicking on a link the traveller in cyberspace is transported from one place to another. 

As each individual location is connected to many others, the resulting web consists of the total number of individual locations and all of their interconnections, and is referred to as hyperspace. 

In the world of science fiction, hyperspace refers to a space with four or more dimensions. In this multi-dimensional environment the conventional space-time relationship does not apply, making it possible to travel at a speed faster than light. 

I came across the use of the word “hyperspace” in a recent review of an event held this past weekend in the Burj Park at the foot of the Burj Khalifa. 

Having performed live at the Acropolis, Taj Mahal and the Forbidden City in China, composer and musician Yanni chose the Burj Kahlifa as his latest concert venue. 

On a stage lit up in blue and purple, Yanni told the crowd that he and his musicians came hoping to take the audience away from their everyday lifestyle if only for a short while. 

“And as if on cue the band burst into Voyage, a flamboyant and extravagant song that could have been made in hyperspace.” 

In hyperspace, each location is interconnected to many others. Enter me.

Watching the event from our balcony, I picked up my iPad when I noticed the Dubai Fountains dancing, and began to film. Although set to some other piece of music, it appeared to me as if they were dancing to Yanni’s Voyage. 

I was transported into another world, a world where synchronicities are not uncommon. I have written about synchronicity elsewhere, but since this weekend I have wondered much whether synchronicities are not there all the time but we cannot always see them. 

@conscire tweeted recently: “Kairos is the time of the sacred, the time of Synchronicity. Chronos, clock time, is nothing more than a construct of the mind.”

Voyages into hyperspace will become more common. They require an acute awareness, a mindfulness of all that is around and within us. The voyages will be both inward and outward and to nowhere, as we discover that every space and every moment is everywhere. Some call this everyhere. I call it here2here.

Shubhra - A Tale of Two Cities

A little boy ran and played barefoot and joyfully in his village in India. A bright little youngster, eager to learn, he diligently applied himself to his studies. His name was Shubhra, a name which had its origin in Sanskrit and was used in Hindi speaking countries for both boys and girls. It meant radiant, pure, pure white.

His best friend at school was a Muslim, and throughout the years they maintained their friendship. After completing a Bachelor of Commerce, an undergraduate degree, they both went on to study for a Master of Commerce. At this point, Shubhra said goodbye to his friend who emigrated to Kuwait, and went to live in Bombay.

Earning 400 rupees per month, Shubhra was able to live comfortably and still save.

Time passed and his friend returned. Shubhra was immediately struck by his fine clothes and his jewelry. They had grown up together, studied together and had the same qualifications, yet their lifestyles were at this point clearly very different.

Shubhra immediately began to make inquiries around Bombay. He too would be bold and move further afield. At last he found someone who could organize for him to move to Dubai.

It was 1968, a year before a boeing 707 belonging to Air India would make its first flight from Bombay to Dubai.

A flight from Bombay to Dubai today, only lasts 3 hours. Shubhra did not have this luxury. Instead he bravely boarded a ship for a journey which lasted 3 nights. Dubai, at this point in time, was still a British protectorate and there were only small settlements on either side of the creek.

Fast forward to 2011.

Yesterday, Shubhra and I chatted. We had met before but had never shared personal stories.

He told me that he only knew of one person in those days who had air-conditioning.

With a smile on his face, he recalled a picnic in Jebel Ali. The return journey to Sharjah, a trip which today would take 30 to 45 mins by car, had lasted a day as he and a friend had a vehicle which kept getting stuck in the desert sand.

As he was about to leave, I asked Shubhra about his home village. The look on his face changed. He tried to return there every year but things were never the same. Where once he had run through the rice paddies there are now roads. Family relationships have become strained over time because of distance and lack of communication. People in the village no longer recognize him and ask him who he is. He should never have left.

I am reminded of the passage in “A Tale of Two Cities” where Mr Carton reflects on his life after he leaves the home of Mr Stryver. The two of them had chatted earlier about the divergent paths their lives had taken despite the fact that they had attended the same schools and university.

"Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace, and saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honorable ambition, self-denial, and perseverance. In the fair city of this vision, there were airy galleries from which the loves and graces looked upon him, gardens in which the fruits of life hung ripening, waters of Hope that sparkled in his sight. A moment, and it was gone. Climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses, he threw himself down in his clothes on a neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with wasted tears."

- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book 2, Chapter 5

As Shubhra shared with me how he had come from here2here I suggested to him that he write his story. He simply nodded his head from side to side.

I share fragments of his story here. In the telling we are all brought closer together. In this here2here space, we realize that although we may be different in many ways, at our core, we are all the same. We all have dreams, some fulfilled, some shattered.

Today, thanks to technology we can all travel, if only virtually, to far away places and converse with each other. I live in Dubai and can instant chat, Skype or Facetime with family and friends far and wide.

How different would Shubhra’s life have been if he had had access to such facilities at the time of his move?

As we honor people like Shubhra, who even though he might not realize it, remains radiant to this day, let us at the same time be mindful of all the benefits of modern communication.

"There is a great crowd coming one day into our lives, if that be so."

- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book 2, Chapter 6

These words, spoken again by Mr Carton, were prophetic of the French Revolution. Today they take on yet another meaning as we recognize in them the “we” generation which is currently being born.

Bombay Dub Orchestra - Amina