Sometimes I chant alot and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I wake up, take my shower and just starting chanting while I'm drinking my coffee outside and reading the paper. This morning was one of those mornings. When I wake up and my brain is already spinning, chanting while going through my morning routine seems to get me out of my head and allows me to enjoy my backyard in the morning.
So I was doing that when a stunningly bright yellow bird flew low and fast across the grass, the pool and into the trees. We have lots of birds in our yard. I've seen at least 4 different types of hummingbirds, we have pheasants nesting there, grey hawks living right above us, owls, bluejays. But I'd never seen anything like this. The first thing my brain thought was that it was a sign of some sort from the universe that I was in a good place spritually, plugged in, so to speak (someday I'll explain what birds have to do with that). And so, thinking that the bird was a manifestation of my life condition reflected in my environment, I kept chanting and walked to where the bird disapeared into the trees.
It was right there, looking directly at me as I chanted. I didn't get too close but I chanted to it (in my brain I am chanting with it), bowed to it, and while continuing to chant went back to my coffee and promptly forgot about the bird. Which, btw, I consider an indication of my spiritual growth. Not too long ago I would have obsessed about it, I would have chanted with it for a long time, probably long enough for my wife to come out and think I had gone nuts, and then would have continued to look for bird signs all day. Which, as you'll see, in this case might have gotten messy.
So there I was chanting, drinking my coffee and reading about foreclosures and the Dodgers when I feel something drop onto my foot. I look down and, of course it's bird crap. Miraculously though it dropped directly onto the thin strap of my flip flops and not on my actual flesh. I look up and there's that same bird right over my head standing on the patio overhang looking down at me and I realize it's a parakeet. Maybe it was someone's pet. Maybe that person chanted and maybe the bird was just trying to say thanks for the daimoku by giving me the only gift it knew how to give.
All I know is that I enjoyed my morning immensely. I don't know if there's anyone else in the world who would have been as encouraged by that little bird as me. It gave me real joy, and reminded me of some of the strange experiences I've had over the years with birds and insects which, at least in my brain, helped to open the way for me. And probably most importantly, it helped me to see how much less attached to these sorts of things I am than I used to be. I actually like my everyday existence and I don't need to chase some special state of life but it is nice to have a little magic dropped in every now and then.
At the begining of the 20th century three Russian religious heretics created what has become the most influential school of mathematics of our time. The Moscow School of Mathematics. They created something called Descriptive Set Theory and their students went on to create a body of mathematical theory called Topology among many other achievements, which, is now one of the cornerstones of the math used to develop modern physics. Their journey, set against a background of persecution, first by the Russian Orthodox Church and then by the Bolshevik and Communist revolutionaries, is fascinatingly described in this short book.
I am not a mathematician and do not pretend to understand the actual principles described in the book, but the basic ideas are fascinating and easily understood and the story of Egorov, Luzin and Florensky is one with universal appeal and provides food for thought for any person interested in how spiritual bravery, imagination and personal integrity can change our environment and ourselves.
I found this book at the UCLA Book Fair. Jean and I go every year. We sort of wander around and go into booths which pull us in for one reason or another. I buy random books that just sound interesting. This time I found a book called Little Brother by Corey Doctorow about how society is saved from an overly aggressive Homeland Security response to terrorism by a bunch of teeanage video gamers. The title is a play on George Orwell's Big Brother. A fun and interesting read. I recommend it. I didn't find anything else in my random booth visits.
Then just as we were leaving there was a lonely booth on our path toward the car which was the Harvard University Press. I wandered in and saw a bunch of really academic and business oriented books and was about to leave when I saw a book called "Naming Infinity". I loved the title, read the back cover and bought it.
There's some math in there which can be pretty hard to follow but it's not essential in order to enjoy the book. The main point of the book is that Set Theory, which had originated in Germany and developed further in France in the late 1800s and beginning of the 20th century, had become stuck. There were directions which Set Theory intimated at but which the French and German Cartesian Rationalists refused to explore because such directions seemed non rational and implied things about the universe which could not possibly fit into their worldview. It took a group of young mathematicians completely unencumbered by adherence to the rationlist viewpoint, who were in fact motivated by a heretical Christian mysticism, to break the stagnation which Set Theory had fallen into. And it was this mystical/revolutionary viewpoint which paved the way for modern math and physics.
Dmitri Egorov, Nikolai Luzin and Pavel Florensky were all mathematicians who, through Florensky's influence, became practitioners of something called Name Worshipping. This was a practice deemed heretical by the Russian Orthodox Church. These men held a view of the universe motivated by this practice which they believed allowed them to experience direct union with God through the repetition of the name of God. It was deemed heresy by the church because the church said that God could not be contained in something finite like a Name. Ultimately, hrough their practice of Name Worshipping they gained insights which allowed them to see that infinity can be contained within subsets of the mathematical Continuum and that special sets can be created by the process of naming. Hence the name of the particular aspect of set theory which they created: Descriptive Set Theory.
I found this fascinating for a number of reasons. As I said I don't understand all the math but it seemed to strongly imply that a finite bit of an infinite sytem could be mathematically shown to be capable of containing the infinite within it. And, based on the experience of these mathematicians, the idea that a name, such as Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, could indeed be a means to contain the infinity which it names within it and thereby provide a means to fuse with the infinite. And, of course it raises the question of whether it matters what name we use; God, Bog(the russian version of God),Jesus Christ, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Namu Myoho renge kyo, Om Mani Padme Hung. It seems that what matters is the human imagination and whether we are capable of finding a name or description through which we are able to deeply imagine that name as a descriptive set which contains ultimate reality within it. If so, then we may be able to use that name as a means to practice toward fusion with that ultimate reality.
Anyway, check it out if you get a chance. It's also a fascinating look into the lives of these people and how they each dealt with a society which became increasingly anti-religious during their lives while at the same time becoming more and more covetous of scientific and mathematical achievements of the school which they founded.
Bill