Within

I always have the sense that the words are coming out of my body, not just my mind. (…) There’s something about the rhythms of language that correspond to the rhythms of our own bodies. An attentive reader is finding meanings in the book that can’t be articulated, finding them in his or her body. I think this is what so many people don’t understand about fiction. Poetry is supposed to be musical. But people don’t understand prose. They’re so used to reading journalism - clunky, functional sentences that convey factual information. Facts… just the surfaces of things.

Paul Auster, interviewed by Jonathan Lethem (the Believer Book of Writers talking to Writers)

Romantisch I

The thing about humans is that we yearn. We yearn for that great Life component. But what differs individuals in this yearning or search, is the extreme passion seeking for that great Life component. Maybe the very entity and component itself.

When Romanticism bloomed in the late 18th century, young German scholars were driven over individualistic notion ever since the Renaissance. Kant was absorbed into their daily philosophies. Das Ding an sich. Or the Thing in itself. These fellow Romantics believed that the Ego, much like Freud's das Ich (the Ego) facilitate greatly in one's knowledge and cognition. They worshiped the Ego. They believed in the most romantic things like the Soul, yearning, imagination, feeling and experience. And believe me, they are beautiful, egocentric and romantic Souls!

But please do not confuse Romanticism with your modern chic literature rubbish.

So what these fellow Romantics (e.g. Beethoven, Goethe, Kant, Schiller, Byron, Coleridge) believed was that art has a deeper meaning to it. When one bridges the link between the external and internal worlds, a significant masterpiece of the internal world is being portrayed.

They were Souls who yearn for the most distant, abstract and metaphysical things. Not your usual face-value affections. They were in a search for something deeper than the seven seas. They believed in Perfection and completion. I dare to bet they'd take lines like Muse's Hysteria "Give me your Heart and your Soul" seriously.

Goethe, a romantic himself, introduced the concept of 'unrequited love' in his The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).

So what happens when they do not achieve their perceived Perfection? Or when they do not attain their great Life component to Perfection and make them feel as a whole?

Integral.

You know what is wickedly right? The Clot (Read) or al-Alaq.

As you grow older, your perceptions grow with you. Of course, we develop at different rates. And may God bless the poor souls who aren't able to move beyond their egocentric nature. Or see the world and Life from a much beautiful view. The best part is, the beauty never stops!

Now now, individuals develop at different rates. Why of course, in accordance to one's lifestyle and exposure. Maybe even area of interest. But then again, that doesn't really matter because when you have that panoramic view, you'd know it really is about Integration. One interest correlates to another. As Gestalt says, the whole is greater than its parts.

My point is, before I write any ridiculous posts further, I'd have to double check my facts to avoid inaccuracy, plagiarism and the sort. Such action my friend, contradicts my old writing habit, and I'd like to view this as personal growth.

To our Life search!

Archeology of the Soul(s).

Dear all,

Ah! I know I have been missing for what seems forever to me. But to you, it's probably nothing but just a brief absence. Even if I had updated, it was just a paste copy of my Facebook note. Hence, I felt I have lost personal touch with this particular channel of writing. Or maybe it was a phase that I had to go through, considering Life goes in stages. At one point, I was even determined that I was not going to write anymore in the near future. To be exact, I thought it was much better to keep the internal world from being expressed.

What a foolish Soul I have been!

It occurred to me, it was that bridge that needs to be fixed. The bridge that connects the events of Life with my inner world. Or my Soul. Maybe the whole absence was just a Soul vacation. I seek meaning. But meaning would not come to me, unless I commute between the External and the Internal world(s) using that particular bridge.

In Philosophy, there is a dedicated school of thought that promotes the search of Life's meaning through Art. Somewhat like a transport for our good Souls to a deeper meaning of Life. Maybe to even seek your Self. Art and Meaning. It was my favourite topic in the Philosophy text book.

So like many of our destinations, we need that route and the mean of transportation. Only this is a bit more abstract, and metaphysical.

Welcome to a new phase of my search. It's good to have you and my Soul back.