Some time later ...

I completed that third reading of the Holy Bible just an hour ago. It's a strange state to arrive at. It could be that I NEVER read it again and still I will wear it within my heart forever. Some part of my being desires that I launch immediately into a fourth reading, though I'll not do that. It's worth having a break between these lengthy Genesis to Revelation readings.

Three Books

Today I begin to read Revelations, some 22 chapters away from my third complete Genesis to Revelation reading of the Holy Bible, AV1611. After consideration, I'll take a pause before I begin a fourth reading. And that gives me options. I was looking at Moby Dick as a good contender, it has a high page count, it's a classic work that has stood the test of time and is obviously richly symbolic. As a conscious effort I would have more; forces have to be balanced and consolidated. Don Quixote is a mysterious inspired work, again part of the Western canon, and a high word count. Multi-layered, dealing with inconsistency, chaos, disarray, unnatural phenomena, a baroque love affair - airy qualities for sure. The obvious return to earth has to be War and Peace, another classic, a work that looks at history whilst recognizing the inner events of individual lives as being the real events of history. And of course Tolstoy writes in such a grounded manner, his style is in some ways flawless.

That's a proper trilogy! No timescales for any of this yet, although a minimum daily page count will be required. I may, or I may not make notes - but I'll post them here if I do. The only outstanding matter of any significance is that of translation, although I have looked into enough to know who I'll not be approaching, I've still to make a decision.

Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
War & Peace - Leo Tolstoy

Islamists

What it is the West doesn't seem able to understand at a level deep enough to muster any serious - which must equate to collective - response is the fact the Islamists are principally involved in a struggle for the (muslim) Umma. Terrorism is a temporary tool, it certainly got them the media attention they so needed to resurrect their cause. Let's not forget al-Quaeda have their own media arm, al-Sahib, which if nothing else tells us they have something we haven't! And, their operational leaders, the likes of Ayman al-Zawahri, talk of this war as a struggle for the Muslim mind. They do not talk of this struggle as being achieved next year or come the next election, nor the next decade, they talk of 50 and 100 years. They see this as a historical struggle, of which they play only a small part in the present revival. It is undoubtedly very difficult to see how all this will pan out through the fullness of time. There is nothing occurring today that offers much to meliorate our confidence - there's no point denying what is obvious, even if there is much we don't see - the West looks weak and vulnerable. And the fact there are people walking our streets who believe the whole thing is the invention of the intelligence services doesn't help much. This all seems utterly Biblical.

A Note

Having played around with googlepages and still feeling that it's all pretty clumsy, I will continue with this and other blogs not only because Blogger is easy to use but because I can access it anywhere and web pages are perhaps more structured and organised and really I do all this for myself primarily.

Just to nail it, to define what purpose this address serves, and I said it in the first post: a tool for spiritual growth.

And I'll define that as I please, literally. It's an obvious point, though the obvious is often in need of re-stating, the way is a strange mysterious experience, different for each and all, yet in the spirit of mystery, a shared experience - not just among individuals, but down through centuries and across cultures. Because no man is free who is not master of himself. Let's not be deceived by foolish imaginations, this is not the first estate, we live in a fallen kingdom - it takes all our energy to weed out vanity from the dark recesses in which it lurks. And that is barely preliminary to engaging the work, such efforts are we bound to endure, or die here to the flesh.

You are responsible for what you have understood.

Paraphrasing Herman Witsius

Adam, in the garden, was in a state of acquiring a right. Only upon fulfilment of the conditions of the covenant, having done constantly and perfectly what was commanded, could he claim and expect what God had promised.

As we know and understand, Adam never acquired that right and the consequences go on unto this day. If you do not know and understand, if you think that it is all a fable then consider, it is the life of positive holiness which Adam had and knew yet lost and which now lies buried in the essence of all God's children. To reclaim the image of God, recognise the majestic purity and divine holiness of our Creator and open your heart to the presence of the Holy Spirit - without contact, without the operation of the Holy Spirit there can be no inner renewal and no conforming to the image of God.

Bach's Motets

Quite some time ago I was enthusing about a rare (in that it is difficult to obtain) recording I had acquired of the Motets performed by the Tolz Boys Choir. I still hold this to be astounding listening, so balanced and with some beautiful solo performances that lift the entire work to another level, and unlike some of their other performances they appear ideally suited to Bach's Motets. Here's a short review of that particular recording:

Tölzer Knabenchor

Now look what I've found, perhaps the quality doesn't come through but it's worth sharing because many people will never even have heard of the Tölzer Knabenchor. The second snippet of Jesu, Meine Freude gives a glimpse of a small group solo performance and helps you see how individual voices soar through to lift the work into those celestial dimensions.

Jesu, Meine Freude # 1
Jesu, Meine Freude # 2
Komm, Jesu, Komm

Maria Callas

She's controversial but you have to appreciate what she can do, and care little for what she fails to do because that is all overshadowed by what she gives. And, what she gives is unreserved guts and heart, she carries the suffering right out of the character and gives it to the audience in a big package. She sets a standard and if you listen to later soprano's they will say just that, she was the benchmark for everyone that came after her. Besides she is quite possibly the operatic soprano of the 20th century, if not for the purists then for a large majority. None of this is to detract from the greatness of, for example, a Renata Tebaldi, I mean she's up there too and I wouldn't argue against anyone promoting her achievements. Yet Maria Callas is a legend for a reason and I believe you observe it here in these clips. It is probably worth noting that by general reckoning she had peaked by 1954, the famous Tosca recording is 1953, her voice being damaged, particularly in the upper register and even still these clips are a tremendous archive. They are currently available in two separate DVD releases on EMI, (here in the UK, anyway):
Maria Callas - La Callas... Toujours - Paris, 1958,
Maria Callas - Live In Concert Hamburg 1959 And 1962

Callas & Gobbi in "Torture scene" from Tosca Paris 1958
Maria Callas "Vissi d'arte" Paris 1958
Maria Callas - O Mio Babbino Caro

Influences

The TV is flicking bright coloured dancing streams of light across the darkness. I sit in between two worlds pondering these impressions as they crash against the interior being. A World Music Award Ceremony spectacular with young sexy women dancing and posing. Music, speeches and glamour - a glittering confetti of moving image and sound. OK, television, so what? I listen to and enjoy a lot of popular music, though even the better stuff be only so much dirge. You sense it when you stop to consider it, the emotional quality appeals to a lower level of being. It's worse when it's mediated through the television, but it's still there in any case. You know it but, probably feel so acclimatised you think nothing of it, after all it's the whole of the shared culture we live in. I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I do recognize there is some very worthwhile music 'out there' that falls well within the definition of pop culture. But, it is what it is and it does what it does, stirring emotions and passions, providing a soundtrack for the times, the day, the age, the event. You know it. Then it passes, left behind in 1981, (or any other year). Some of it outlives the times, rises above the contexts from which it emerged - certain artists have this type of legendary quality and it comes through in their music, or so we imagine. To prove a point to myself I just, more or less randomly, pulled from a shelf and put in the CD player Schubert's Trout Quintet. It's a cleaner, purer, more exalted form, touching completely different parts of my being to what I'd just heard through the television. Not having listened to anything much like this recently, I am able to feel the difficulties so associated with certain classical works and yet, the effort one makes to properly experience this music is working to our own advantage, opening parts of being otherwise shut off, shrivelled cold in the dark. These impressions coming through Schubert are so very different. I killed the television, it's just the tapping of keys as I now sit here writing, listening to the interplay action and response of the strings to the piano, harmonies mirrored in different octaves. I just forget, so it's worth writing it down: it's cleansing to the emotional parts of one's being to listen to this music. I hesitate to define it as classical because I am fully aware there is a great dirge of cheap emotional classical work that just scrapes the barrel of popular emotion. I'm not saying classical Vs popular music, but there are works evidently, and obvious upon hearing, that originate from a higher realm altogether, if not belonging to a soaringly celestial visionary realm of positive emotion then certainly inspired.

Regula

Unbeknown to me, although perhaps if I were to trawl through journal and diary entries something may exist to the contrary, I entered a whole new phase of Work at some unknown point, (though I assume it to have occurred earlier this year). Work efforts necessarily took on a different form and it niggled me that those efforts seemed lacking, not having the results I may have gotten used to. Yet I see now something far subtler was at work and my recent reading of Robert Reymond's The Lamb of God just brought it all together, connecting two branches of personal development to the same single limb. Yet now I'm thinking that this period is either closed as in completed or shutting down as in wrapping up. This uncertainty is not an issue, but rather needing a clear formulation - let's steal another's phrase, and call it - a rule of life, which we might call a goal or aim, but no that is something slightly different. My aim still stands: To live in the presence of the Work.

This rule of life however is something else again. It is the Latin regula - a yearning, a tool for spiritual growth. I'll develop this weblog along those lines, aware from the outset that I have never held too firmly to any single form in these matters, usually having different irons in the fire in order to hold continuity in terms of trajectory, if not in apparent outward appearance. So I'll use this format for as long as it proves worth the effort, and then until time restrictions, or war, insist on something more traditional - pen and paper in back pocket, which is always the bottom line anyway.