[MF] Dharmakaya Light

[Lorenz Gude]

Hi again all,

I find myself thinking about Ted Cole's Dad's painting 'The Prospector' 
so I'll just set down a few ideas before I lose them.

Broadly I see the painting  in symbolic terms as analogy of a prospector 
searching for something, indeed heading right for something very 
special, transcendent perhaps. A prospector searching for gold is a 
pretty comfortable fit for a philosopher searching for Quality.

The painting is not realistic, so Ted's father is giving us a pretty 
clear indication that he doesn't intend to limit the meaning of the 
painting to the literal. And however he thought of his subject 
consciously he was very aware that something very special was the object 
of the quest.

I also immediately think of Carl Jung for whom Alchemy was a major 
concern. Jung argued at length (Psychology and Alchemy) that Alchemy was 
not just a superstitious precursor of modern chemistry, but made much 
more sense when viewed as a guide to an inner process of psychic 
transformation. He found in the detail of Alchemy helpful information to 
map and understand the process by which human beings grow 
psychologically - particularly in maturity and especially to very high 
levels of inner attainment which he characterized as wholeness.

So in 'The Prospector' it is pretty easy for me to see  a man on some 
form of this inner journey as well as an outer one.  I think it is fair 
to say that he is clearly more than a beginner, but still a seeker. 
Given what Persig has suggested about the significance  of this use of 
light in paintings, we can say that this prospector  is 'on the way' in 
a process of some kind of transformation and not far from his goal. The 
painting says a lot about where Ted's Dad was when he painted it too. He 
clearly touched something important although he wouldn't need to know 
anything about Jung or what Persig was to write later. That is one of 
the nice things about art and creativity in general - the very process 
is a direct engagement of processes of inner transformation.

I also note in passing that  Persig and Jung were steeped in both 
Western and Eastern thought. Both are therefore to some extent 
synthesizers of the two, so it is  not entirely tangential to bring up 
Jung. I know that it is a key reason why I am attracted to Persig, but I 
am not enough of a philosopher to work how he  might be synthesizing 
his  knowledge of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy with Western philosophic 
thought.  (Has this been  much discussed in forums or in essays of which 
I am unaware?) I am much more a psychologist and practitioner of Eastern 
mysticism (Tibetan Buddhist Bon tradition mainly and Chinese  Taoist 
practices - google Mantak Chia.) so Jung is often more accessible for 
me, but Persig continues to seem important - to strike me as  a source 
of Quality worth my while pursuing.


Lorenz Gude