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Re-re-re-re-reading The Invisibles right now. This morning I read issues 3-6 of volume 2, collected in Bloody Hell in America and Counting to None. There's a really interesting thing in here about "White Flame Meditation", which I can't currently find any links about... Anyways, in this particular scene we see Jolly Roger and King Mob (among others) being trained in this form of meditation. Jolly Roger's dialogue is in italics, and is only there to make the rest of the explanation make sense (since this is a conversation happening).
..."I am an optimist," we say. Or "I am unlucky." Or perhaps "I am an American,""I am a Jew,""I am a homosexual,""I am heterosexual." We call the following the white flame meditation.
There. Can anyone tell me exactly what this object is?
It's a chair.
Is that all? Does that describe the entirety of this object?
It's an object with four legs and a thing to hold up your ass so you don't have to sit down in the dirt like the rest of us dickheads. Chair.
Yes, a partial description. But if you were an antiques dealer you could also describe this object's agreed worth – somewhere in the region of a quarter of a million dollars.
If you were a specialist, you could describe the intricacies of the craftsmanship in detailed jargon.
If you were Van Gogh, you might attempt to describe its soul.
But where in all of this description is the essential chair? Have we yet come even close to a full description of it?
Ded we even mention that several hundred years ago, it wasn't a chair but a tree? Where is it now? Here? Or in memory.
We cannot even fully describe a chair and yet we say "I am." "I am...".
Understand. There is no "I am." Nothing "is."
Try to describe all that you are. Simultaneously discern the logical flaw in what I've just said. Now! Feel the white flame.
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Currently reading through this slide show about time and this really interesting post about Lost.
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Also, check out this map of a planned layout for London. I'd love to live there.