david lynch 2

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Meditating on Meditation

I read David Lynch’s Catching The Big Fish last week, his book on Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. He wrote it to raise funds for his Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace.

Yes, I’m talking about that David Lynch. You know — Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive? Purveyor of terror and nightmares most of us would prefer not to face? Eraserhead David Lynch?

David’s on a crusade of sorts to bring peace to the universe through transcendental meditation. While Catching the Big Fish does read like a tract written by a somewhat unconventional Jehovah’s Witness at times, it has a lot more substance to it beyond that. Plus some fascinating insights into Lynch’s creative process and opinions on film.

But the thing is — as he explains himself — David Lynch likes to explore the world from a state of bliss, and that certainly comes across. For someone who makes such dark and fearsome movies, he’s really a very happy guy. Subject for a whole other line of thought next week.

David believes he’s onto something by introducing meditation early into the education system, as he says has been done with some startling results in a number of schools in the States already. Producing some very positive results. Late in the book he mentions small groups of advanced meditators getting together to exert a positive influence on their immediate world:

     The theory is that if the square root of 1 percent of the world’s population, or 8,000 people, practices advanced meditation techniques in a group, then that group, according to published research, is quadratically more powerful than the same number scattered about.

     These peace-creating groups have been formed for short-term studies. And every time the advanced meditators got together in a group, they dramatically affected the area around them. They measurably reduced crime and violence. How did they do that?

Good question, David. I’m not one to buy into this sort of thing, but I have to admit, even reading his book seemed to put me in a positive frame of mind. I’ve been having some nasty nightmares lately — see future novels — but the night after I finished reading The Big Fish I had wonderful, positive dreams the whole night, and awoke feeling strangely refreshed.

I have given this meditation thing a shot in the past. David says when you really connect and transcend, you open yourself up to a much deeper state of creativity, and that’s when you can catch the Big Fish — the best, and deepest ideas.

David specifies that the relaxation technique alone won’t take you to a transcendental state, and I believe I have to agree with him on that. I approached the discipline using only the relaxation technique, since I don’t have a formal faith atom in my body, and I never experienced a state like those David describes. Except once, back in the eighties, which I brought myself to strictly through writing poetry. However even though I used a less than effective method according to David, I did have some surprising results.

I’m still alive for one thing.

There was one day back in early 2005 before I was diagnosed as having a tumour the size of a small pear in the left atrium of my heart when I was still trying to function as if I could live normally. Other miserable circumstances — since rarely does only one horrible thing happen to you at a time — put me in a situation where I had to walk ten blocks through a freezing Winnipeg winter to catch a bus. One wrong heart beat and I was dead from a massive stroke, the tumour blocking the blood flow to my body. As it was my lungs were filling with blood that couldn’t move through my heart properly due to the obstruction. Needless to say, about a block into the ten, I wasn’t doing so well …

So I meditated my way the full distance to the bus stop. I was not in good shape by the time I got there. But I was — and am — still alive.

When I first started practicing the technique I also found I could catch some little fish if not the Big Whopper by doing so. Here are a couple of the poems that came to me as I delved as deep as I could manage, then anyway.

Pondering Crimson

With arrogant charm I assure myself

of the immutability of colour and place,

but in the centre of my profound attainment

you disturb my complacency with a placid smile.

I retreat with fleeing self-assurance,

no longer certain — losing myself in crimson

assures my place in Arabian nights

generated by the distant, uninformed imaginings

that have always fuelled

my every desire of dreaming.

But I perceive no loss

in moving from complacent to complaint;

I give myself up to the changes

that must result from my recognition that

no object is stationary in this universe

— especially not your smile

— and I launch myself headlong

from the tallest peak of doubt

to fall gloriously

through vibrant space, deep, deep,

submerged and submerging

into the fathomless pool

of your oh so personal quiet ...

The Ancient Sands of Egypt

Beneath this sun, I cannot be — 

begin to fall, to crumble, to drift ...

fine, infinitely grained,

wind-tossed,

almost liquid, living ...

beyond thought,

slow as the desert

moving towards the tomb.

Ages pass. Another joins me.

In the shadow of the grave,

regaining form

we are lovers until the sunrise.

Then the 5000 gods of Egypt

render us sand once more

but mixed ...

each infinite grain

loving just as profoundly

each other infinite grain

as did the whole

as all the ages of man

pass by with a last, gentle

sigh ...

As a matter of fact, the title piece (and title obviously) for my published poetry collection, Destination Mutable came out of this experiment.

There’s definitely something to be said for goin’ fishin’.

*****

The MayWorks Festival of Labour & the Arts 2015 Presents the Book Launch of:

A Reader's Guide to the Unnameable

by Ron Romanowski

McNally Robinson Booksellers 1120 Grant Avenue Winnipeg

Monday, May 4th, 2015 7PM

In the Atrium

See the poetry video by Dylan Baillie: http://bit.ly/1JgD1Gf

More on MayWorks Festival events: http://mayworks.org

A book launch and literary thrill-ride for poetry fans and everyone else

by one of Winnipeg's most experimental poets.

Tickets not necessary. Admission is free.

A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable

is avant-garde Winnipeg writer Ron Romanowski’s sixth poetry collection.

His first, Sweet Talking, was published in 2004.

His work has appeared in journals and in numerous anthologies.

His poetry has been read on national CBC Radio.

Ron continues to work with, among many other cutting-edge themes,

definitions of authorship and identity in his latest collection.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

We’ve passed the halfway mark! The Electric Detective Chapter Nine posted Monday, April 20th, and the first part of (oh no — but I guess it had to happen) Shakespeare-Ish goes up Friday, April 24th! Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continuing at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Caroline has a name crisis thanks to an absent-minded author, and is the world really ready for … Hamlet the Barbarian?

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance. But there’s been some problems with the scanner, so appearances may be deceiving.