Smoke and Bounce

11:14 am EST

"MARRIAGE of REINCARNATION to CHRISTIAN FINAL JUDGMENT"

(Disclaimer: The essay below fails to pull off the impossible (?) mission suggested by the title -- no surprise there, huh? But it still has some good stuff, so read on...)

I begin with a bias; to you S&B fans and dilettantes alike. The bias is the FEELING -- God! -- the feeling I got from The Star Rover, by Jack London (... the "Great", I say; what a man that writer was!). London's 1915 novel was originally titled The Jacket. Take your pick, gents and ladies; either works. London tells us not of the Klondike (as we popularly expect) but of a man -- reliving his past lives -- in a catatonic state -- in a straight/torture-jacket -- in a dungeon of solitary confinement, with rare morse-code knuckle-tapping communication with fellow sufferers -- awaiting the consummation of a death sentence by means of hanging. And that is the absolute simplest way I can put it. Folks: READ IT. And thank me or do not. I care not. (The one and only "pitch" or "trailer" I give to you in this adulatory is that: These are SWASHBUCKLING past lives of which he tells, in glorious chapters, of the most prime and exquisite sort you've ever dreamed.) Yes, I am biased; I believe in the spiritual transmigration of the soul mainly on account of having read this majestic fiction. But dear readers: consider the truth that the most intimate depths of human psychology are generally contained in novels -- is this "news" to you? Well... there are autobiographies, true, but just earnestly examine the population in your brain of the literature that has touched you most deeply -- you who are mainstream would name The Holy Scriptures and/or great novels. And that is a parsimonious supposition, I think. So therefore bear with me, all, for I am an academic but not born yesterday. I KNOW you believe in your heroes: Jesus of Nazareth, Darrell Standing -- or BOTH.

And now, meat: I have initiated this piece with a declaration of so-called "belief" (what is belief?) popularly attributed to "Eastern" -- i.e., Indian/Hindu unto Buddhist reforms -- religion and philosophy; again, reincarnation, or spiritual transmigration of the self or soul, as I would put it. Damn! I want to move on now! But while I've captured your attention toward this extended synonym of "reincarnation", I dare to delay as an indulgent hack. -- My OWN particularity here? You guessed it; this author has one. And it is: A single lifetime -- yours, mine, your lab-rat's, whatever -- is or can be intra-transmigrational spiritually; "intra-" suggesting that upwards of countless many alternate identities may be assumed, living brain aware or unaware, within a "one" life experience. As my father has put it: "A day a life; a life a day." You interpret. And more explicitly I'd crankily rant that the onus is on YOU, sir, to prove that you are not existing in alternate whole dimensions from one day or instant or phase of arrested adolescence to the next. Now, the delay -- the aside -- is OVER. Issue discussed, I say, and issue largely independent of related issues.

SO: I initiated with "Eastern bias". Let's talk West. Perhaps the title of this piece is deceptive! I will get to the point! I suspect -- suspect, in my relative ignorance of voluminous catholic theology -- that it is NOT that Genesis marks a beginning of Time and that the Last Judgment marks the end of Time, OR that the Hebrew race evolved in their relation to Yahweh over Time, OR that the Roman Empire existed (as an enabler of the spread of culture) as a historical phenomenon, OR EVEN -- and perhaps even ESPECIALLY (!) -- that the Church or "Christendom" developed as a part of The Almighty's plan oriented towards the "future"; BUT that Jesus' existence designates -- and what do I mean? -- the Christian's firmest grip on the concept of Time itself, SIMPLY because any bit of the Son's story may be seen as a focal point of the "temporal sciences" (if there is such a thing; and I'll get to that). The Christian must examine: Christ was a living player on the great chess board of the universe, on whatever square, at whatever point in the game -- but what do I make of Time, no matter how nobly or loftily or even introspectively I examine my Savior? And IS He my "savior"? for if the Lord preexisted the very creation of the heaven and the earth, clearly indicated in Genesis 1:1, and mine relationship with Jesus not one of equanimity but STILL yet "grace", clearly indicated in Revelation 22:21... well, then... my goodness: I am left blinded by the cross alone, or perhaps more mercifully by the star over Bethlehem. I am BLINDED. And confused.

I know, you Christian, your knee-jerk challenge to me or question: the Resurrection's significance pertinent to the temporal sciences. I assure you, dear one, I shall address that below.

But let's backpedal a tad and jump as high in the air as we may to examine Time -- and HONESTLY. The concept of Time, first and foremost, is absolutely an integral and indispensable part of how we make our identities intelligible to one another. This is a plain fact. I have a story, you have a story, Jesus has a story, and we tell each other our stories in even the most tacit or casual talk or writing, all the damn time-long-day. Time being a "flow", or whatever under the heavens it may truly be, is supremely important in our relations -- or IS IT, NOW?! (And I shall rise to that! if only rudimentarily.) Occidentals: I am blogging in English. I will say that much. Now CONCEIVE Time! You cannot! No how, no way. There is no universally satisfying definition of Time, there is no universal metaphor for Time, and whatever cave or foggy marsh you've been living in: there is no universally agreed-upon SYMBOL of Time. In fact, if there were a symbol for Time, there would be logically a synonym for Time. You have NONE, dude. Get over it -- and you're not alone. Yet praise yourself! You speak about Time, and of Time, so deftly! and effortlessly! You apply the concept in a limitless variety of ways. And it begs no doubt at all of you. It's not a problem! It's not the game of chess; it is the board! 64 squares or dimensions or trajectories or jokes or what-have-you. Or infinite, or none at all. No problem, sir. Yet remember: you are both its master and its slave -- and this duality is inescapable. Ha! "... to Time indefinite!" Ha!

And now let's get over the ENGLISH! For it's not your religion or race or routine, Occidental boy; not at all -- but your TALK! (Let's call it "talk" over "language", because it is quite so -- trust me -- that this is a case of everday street-TALK-shit DIFFERENCES, profoundly real versus India; very, very independent of the overstocked personal libraries-gathering-dust of the ivory-tower Indian intellectual sending his passenger pigeons to the ascetic Christian monk in the Alps. This street shit likely goes straight to the tongues of the homeless heroes in the ghettos of Mumbai, or to the dinner table of an Indian subsistence-farmer and his family, for that matter. Got it? Good.) I'll bet wads of cash you'll never take the trouble, but supposing you did learn Sanskrit, you'll likely notice first the startling non-use of finite verbs. As a general rule, Indians simply do not use them. Rather, in Sanskrit, the verb appears mainly as a verbal noun. Again, street-chat, NOT philosophy; common sense (!) to Indians, NOT Einsteinian calculus. So if you take my word for all this: what does that indicate to you, Occidental? (Booster-example for you: A Westerner states "You will go." The Indian states something qualitatively different that is yet the closest translation: "You are the one who goes.") The Indian does not concern himself with, but rather largely ignores Time, and if he regards Time at all he apprehends it as an illusion. And again, sir, I will reemphasize: this is not an esoteric idea in "The East". Not at all -- but TAKEN FOR GRANTED; COMMON SENSE.

This accounts, I say, for an intuitively noticeable difference in the Westerner's capacity to practice meditation techniques versus the Easterner's. Everybody knows it; when a white man "meditates", he's typically just praying to God for God's hand in helping him advance his DEEDS, or thanking God for making his DEEDS possible to DO, or begging God's forgiveness for MISDEEDS. Typically the white man does not truly meditate in the classical sense at all. You know it! His frustration in trying to "stay in the present moment", or "just be", or whatever-the-fuck-ever he thinks he's trying to do? Man! It is world-renowned! Typically the white lacks the basic capacity to perform true meditation. And in this author's opinion, he ought to stop trying. Seriously. The racial element of his incapacity may be negligible or not, but ultimately he is incapacitated by his very own native, Occidental language. His everyday TALK. He talks action, action, action; past, present, future. Give it up, typical white man. You cannot pull it off, and so when the police take you to the psych ward, I suggest that you elevate your status there not through breathing exercises but rather by wiping swastikas on the walls with your feces. Take it or leave it. And just take the goddamn meds. Get your shit together and get out. No one there will penalize you for dicking around, but don't tell me that you weren't with that ooga-booga mumbo-jumbo crap. Do not try me; I will not have you.

The typical Indian, benefited by his linguistic heritage, has little trouble sitting down on his practiced and firm ass and dis-concerning himself from action, which occurs upon a time-continuum. He concerns himself with... himself! He more easily and readily apprehends himself as true, essential, universal, stable, and STATIC, rather than dynamic -- independent from the distracting illusion of Time; he knows he is an agent or actor of intention, true, but he draws the line at calling his true self a history of deeds. Furthermore, when the Indian typical is done "chilling", and he returns to his friends and relations, they understand his deeds future and past and between more in the sense of context, by far, than by temporal qualification; and this author's guess is that this involves the exercise of a hazily unique form of logic chiefly unfamiliar to the Occidental communities.

The Resurrection, you Christian waiting patiently? Sir: who am I to make a serious attempt to discuss, in all my immaturity, the epicenter of your very personal faith? Shall I, really? Shall I? Well, the echoes of the mass in my head breathe "the life of the world to come". It is none of our places to know this, dear Christians. We can't imagine it in more than a flicker, whether by hallucination or the majestic symbolism we discern in photographs from a cutting-edge space telescope. It's not possible. Stick to love, or charity, or whatever you want to call it. Do you really think my dear domesticated feline Sully gives a shit about the slicing and dicing I have just laid down? Do not say "yes"; it is not time for jest here. Your hope is YOUR hope, and I pray it will be fulfilled.

Moving along. You are not stupid. You grasp ETHICS. The idea of one life, and one life only, with one historical and/or socio-political context, REPEATED, infinitely! or even ONCE repeated, God forbid! TERRIFIES me. It's tantamount to an exquisite idea of Hell and damnation. But ha! I am not afraid. Neither ineffable Karma nor The Almighty's judgment would produce that, and for a very simple reason: it would be meaningless; utterly non-progressive. Supposing to an Occidental: if it were damnation, damnation would have nothing at all to do with justice. Justice is an answer, and as an idea it is predicated on ethics; and ethics is meaningful before all other meaningful things. Both the context of freedom and the answer will always be new and unique.

THE ALTERNATIVE: How many manifestations of the Lord Christ are there? How many living forms of Him? Christ is interplanetary; intersolar; intergalactic; interuniversal; and more pertinently to us, I believe: Christ is interecosystematic. We got a sample. We got a sample in pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. And if your blood is red, reader, you got blood. And wonders beyond. But a SAMPLE, reader! Deep down, reader, I believe that you MAY witness the Christ's struggle again -- and PERSONALLY witness! you yourself, Christian! You may witness Christ in some phase of His at the bottom of an ocean of mercury on a far, far off planet that's never heard high or nigh of DNA, or you Christian may witness Him in the depths of a black hole in the crux of a parallel universe. You may witness Him deep in ice. You may witness Him in a jungle canopy. You may witness Him on a camel in a sandstorm. Christian: some things will always remain the same: He will SPEAK. He will FREE. And He will LOVE YOU.