by B. Janszen | Jun 13, 2021 | To what extent is the Universe conceivable?
“Understanding the Universe is like being in a boat in the middle of the ocean. In all directions, it appears as though the horizon forms a circle and thus creates a boundary. At the same time, it seems that the horizon continues infinitely in all directions. Yet, amidst all of this, we can fathom that there does exist a distant shore somewhere, and thus we feel at ease somehow. This is how I imagine the Universe as we can observe it. A multidimensional fractal that exists as a reflection of our minds and their limitations.
by B. Janszen | May 9, 2021 | What is the past?
“As I sat and thought about this question, I realized increasingly how unsure I was about my view. As I then turned to the all-knowing ‘Google,’ I realized that very few others had shed light on it either… Ironic, considering how much time we all spend dwelling in the ‘past’, that we would not have a clear theory on what the past actually is.
I think most people’s conception of past is that it somehow is moving backwards from the present. Alan Watts, however, introduced the metaphor of a ship and its wake – asserting that the past trailed off from the moment, but not quite as it may appear. The wake of a ship travels outwards and forwards, even while appearing to travel backwards. Perhaps this optical illusion is true of the past too – it is not a linear notion. When we remember ‘the past’, we do so through the lens of our own minds – in this moment – and subject to our own memories that have piled upon whatever the event ‘was’. This is pretty heady stuff, but makes sense if you really study your experience of ‘remembering a past event’. Thus, perhaps my theory is that the boat of awareness cuts through the ocean of universal consciousness, creating ripples and waves that trail outwards and forwards. That is what creates the choppy-ness of our memories – the turbulent waters caused by the ship’s wake.
Overall, the clearest understanding of the past comes when the turbulent waters begin to settle. Through mindfulness, meditation, quieting of the mind, etc, it becomes clear that the past is an extension of the ‘present’, the only thing there is. It branches off from here, now. If we insist that there is such a thing as ‘the past’, we must begin from the experience itself – here and now – rather than some philosophical babble such as what I’ve presented :).”
by B. Janszen | Oct 13, 2020 | What were you doing while the USA slid into a dictatorship?
“Watching in amazement, yet stuck in debilitating fear. Even as the seemingly inconceivable began to unravel as reality in front of us, I sat stunned, glued to the screen, completely disconnected from the reality of what was happening. It is easy to dismiss tragic events in history as a collection of human ignorance, but when it is happening in real time, the vantage point changes. I certainly did not give enough attention to the warning sirens blaring from certain folks. While it is still not guaranteed that we will slide fully into a dictatorship, those seeds have been sewn and the evidence is there that such a fate is still very much a possibility. Now as much as ever. Accomplished via a simple, step-by-step recipe.”
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