I just came across a very readable interview of Peter Porter (poet, aged 80) by Craig Sherborne on The Age. It has a rather wonderful title, 'Love of the perfected thought' – which while enough to lead me to meditation on the idea of a perfect thought; also brings to mind my gorgeous niece, Ihaana, whose name means ‘most perfect condition a mind can be in.’ Most perfect state of the mind? I always thought was that of no-mind, the non existence of mind. The mind, I have always read, is like a river of thoughts. A calm mind, one that is not restless, is a still mind. But who has heard of the river being made of still waters? A still river is a pool and it soon dries up – a perfect mind is no mind.
So, the idea of the perfect thought… again, whatever do you mean by a perfect thought? A thought is just a thought – “the forest is big”, is a thought – how is it perfect or imperfect? It is the series which is of interest to most of us (those of the, yet, imperfect mind) – ‘the forest is big’, followed by, ‘so I could cut it and get a lot of wood from it’ or followed by, ‘which is rather rare.’ It is the nature of the following thought that is the difference in the different people. It is not what you think, but how you think that matters.
And that is just the title!
The interview itself contains some very quotable quotes, of this kind - “Sometimes I think poetry exists to provide novelists with their titles."
And this is something else that I am going to try and use, “And his routine remains this: write 40 poems a year, of which 10 survive his end-of-year culling.” I might do that with my blog, go thru the end of year culling, so that, blog remains something that can be visited again sometimes. By keeping the bad with the good, I realise, I end up deleting the rare good ones as well… which is sad.
So, I say Aye to end of year culling! And now go and read the interview!
5 comments:
The most perfect the mind can be in is just a beautiful concept.
Its a beautiful thought, which would have different connotations for different people, just like we all are, different for different people.
Just like your entries would also be, different for different people.
A still river is not the perfect state for a river to be in.
The perfect state for the river is that of flow, while staying within its boundaries, bringing bounty and prosperity to those who come in contact with it.
The river again behaves differently in different terrains, it freezes, it gushes, it flows, it meanders, it turns blue and it turns green, it changes with its surroundings and still acentuates the beauty of those surroundings, its environment is a better place because of that river.
Simmilarly, the perfect state of mind is not necessarily that of calmness, it is essentially a state which is in agreement with its environment. It is a state of beinb responsive, to your environment, to your surroundings, to yourself.
I guess, my reply will necessarily have been on the defensive. But I do think as names go, it is a wonderful name, because it gives us, if only the briefest, yet still a glimpse beyond the world we are caught up in. :)
We are caught up in a world of the mind, at present, we simply cannot go beyond it. Our perceptions, thoughts and actions, are all affected by the mind. If there is something beyond it, at the moment, we do not, in the real sense of the word, know it.
The perfect mind would percieve perfectly, and for that it will have to know itself. And what would it find then?
Any simile can only go so far; when I compare the river with the mind, I mean that the river is a flow of water, and similarly the mind is a flow of thoughts. Similarly, a mind is compared to a mirror; and to so many other things.
And I think you confuse a calm mind with a numb mind.
I guess, my reply will necessarily have been on the defensive. But I do think as names go, it is a wonderful name, because it gives us, if only the briefest, yet still a glimpse beyond the world we are caught up in. :)
We are caught up in a world of the mind, at present, we simply cannot go beyond it. Our perceptions, thoughts and actions, are all affected by the mind. If there is something beyond it, at the moment, we do not, in the real sense of the word, know it.
The perfect mind would percieve perfectly, and for that it will have to know itself. And what would it find then?
Any simile can only go so far; when I compare the river with the mind, I mean that the river is a flow of water, and similarly the mind is a flow of thoughts. Similarly, a mind is compared to a mirror; and to so many other things.
And I think you confuse a calm mind with a numb mind.
Replying to your earlier comment, yes indeed, the idea of perfection can be either absolute or relative. Of the absolute a discussion is impossible - because finites never add up to infinite.
Of the relative, it entirely depends on what we believe is (a) the mind, (b) it's role, and (c) it's environment. Relative to that, there is an idea of perfection of the mind.
what say you?
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