Dialogues of Nodin and William

The Mystic #10

(PD) Casper David Friedrich - The Cross on the Mountain

Larry Neal Gowdy

If science implies "to know",

then who decides

what is to be known?

And through what means?

And used in what manner?

Nodin: Spring; I do love being here today, sitting among the budding trees, enjoying the radiant glow of newborn leaves, and feeling the renewed energy in the air, for it renews my own energy of body and mind. The air flows with the sounds and aromas of spring, that of happy birds, soft breezes, and newborns of many species, plant and animal, and I am pleased to be alive, to be here perceiving existence, and I can think of nothing more beautiful than to perceive Nature through my five senses. If you listen closely, you can hear a musician's melody, a pleasing and soothing one, that is as if it were the reflection of a liquid mind. Ah; life is good.

William: It is a curious thing to me Nodin, that now that I have been giving additional mental focus to my sensory perceptions for several days, it feels as if my mind is awakening, and I am beginning to recognize the presences of attributes of Nature that I before never knew might exist.

Nodin: Ah, and please tell me William, what things have you noticed that before you did not give mind to?

William: One thing that is rather remarkable to me, is that I am now with a conscious awareness of the differences in temperatures, even when I am within a dwelling. Though a room of a dwelling may be closed, still I am aware that the floor is cooler than the air, as well are many objects in the room of a lower temperature, and at times I am puzzled with what I perceive. You see, Nodin, I am feeling the radiance of temperatures from a distance of several cubits, similar to how we can feel the heat of an iron stove from several cubits away, but it is not the heat that I am feeling, but rather the cold, and it feels peculiar, as if coldness also has a manner of radiance, and yet it is not a radiance, and yet it is. I am positive of what I sense to be true, but I cannot as yet comprehend what it is that I am perceiving.

Nodin: Give it time William, for we should not expect to awaken from a slumber and immediately know what we could not know the moment before. In time, the perceptions will accumulate, and within the quantity of memories formed upon conscious perceptions, will the logic then have sufficient information to begin rationalizing what it is that is being perceived, and upon that time will the logic begin recognizing the nature of Nature.

William: But, well, I am hesitant to express my thoughts on this topic, for as you well know, Nodin, in school it is taught that heat radiates or is conducted to cold bodies, a law of thermodynamics, and we are not taught that coldness can radiate. Within my mind is a conflict of knowledge, between that which I was taught in school to be true, and now what my senses tell me what must also be true.

Nodin: Let us place the perception of temperature into a different manner of observation. Tell me William, what do you presently perceive about the temperatures around you at the moment?

William: I feel a warmth of air, and a coldness of soil.

Nodin: Is that all that you are presently aware of?

William: Yes; I am not aware of anything more at the moment.

Nodin: If you compared the present temperature of the air to the temperature of the air from four hours ago, what would be your description of the air's temperature?

William: Oh, I would then say that the air is warming.

Nodin: And if you had remained constantly aware of air temperatures since this time last year, how might you describe the warmth of the air now?

William: That is an interesting concept Nodin, for if I had remained conscious of each variance of air temperature for a year, then I would be capable of logically weighing the averages of air temperatures, and I would also be with a recognition of the cycles and rhythms of how air temperatures rise and fall relative to the seasons.

Nodin: Very good, and what if you had remained conscious of the soil temperatures as well; what might you then recognize about how the air and soil temperatures relate to the other and to the seasons?

William: Ah, that is also an interesting thing for me to ponder, but at the moment it appears that my mind does not yet know how to associate air temperatures with soil temperatures and seasons, and to derive an answer for what I do not yet know the question of.

Nodin: Does the soil remain of one temperature year-round?

William: No, the soil cools in winter, and warms in summer.

Nodin: And what about the air? What might the variances of air temperatures be?

William: The air warms daily as the sun rises in the sky, and the air cools nightly as the sun is hidden behind the earth. But as the sun remains longer in the sky during summer, the air warms further, and so with winter, the less sun there is, the less warmth of air there will be.

Nodin: Is the rhythm of changing temperatures of air and soil the same?

William: No, for air is lighter, of less density, and it can heat and cool quicker than the denser soil.

Nodin: So then hold within your mind the two rhythms of natural cycles of warmth of air, and the cycles of warmth of soil, compare the rhythms side by side as they flow through time, and then describe how the perceptions create a knowledge of seasons.

William: I apologize Nodin, for this is new to me, and I do not know how to apply the knowledge even though I am certain that the knowledge within me is sufficient to be applied towards achieving the answer, but I must confess that I simply do not recognize what manner of conclusion I ought to be discovering.

Nodin: Imagine in your mind that there are two highways, one placed upon the other, and both are circular with no beginning and no end. Visualize in your mind's eye that the upper highway's hills and valleys are many, that rise and fall daily. Visualize the lower highway having one hill and one valley, each being a length of half the circle. Also imagine that there is a vehicle on the upper highway. Now imagine yourself in the vehicle, and that it is traveling around the highways at a speed that requires a year to complete the circle. Please tell me, in your mind's eye, can you visualize the vehicle as it rises and falls at different intervals?

William: It is difficult for me Nodin, for my mind is not accustomed to thinking of so many different things acting simultaneously, but I believe that I can visualize the two highways and the vehicle in motion.

Nodin: And so then, remove the vehicle from the visualization, and in its place insert your tactile sensory perception of temperatures, of what you feel when you perceive temperatures of air, which rises and falls daily, and the felt perception of the temperature of the soil, that predominately rises and falls once a year.

William: That I cannot well do, for my mind too quickly loses focus for me to retain the visualization.

Nodin: Ah, but remove the visualization from the mind's eye, and instead place the perceptions back within the body from where the perception originated. You can recreate the memory and sensation upon the skin of having felt heat and cold, can you not?

William: Yes, when I direct my focus upon a memory of heat, and how it felt upon the skin, I can then use the method to recreate a perception of heat, but Nodin, along with the perception of heat is accompanied an emotion of unwanted pain, for the heat that I remember was from a burn that caused much pain.

Nodin: Do you not have many memories of pleasant warmth, such as we are feeling today?

William: No, unfortunately my memories of sensory perceptions are almost all of an extreme nature, ones that were accompanied with gross emotions of sorrow, laughter, or pain, and none except my most recent memories include a quietness of emotion that would allow me to recreate a sensation of warmth without my also recreating the unwanted emotion, and it is the emotion that drives my mind into not being capable of retaining focus on the sensorial memories themselves.

Nodin: Ah yes, you have well-described what happens when an individual does not have a reign upon their emotions, and nor does the individual have the needed memories of sensorial perceptions to use for reasoning the nature of Nature. An aware mind is necessary to remain conscious of all moments of sensory perception, but the perceptions must also be accompanied with an awareness and stability of the emotions. Your sensory perceptions are growing increasingly present within your mind William, but you will also need to learn to quiet the emotions so that your perceptions will not be clouded.

William: Then I will begin to give effort towards learning to further quiet my emotions, for I am pleased with my new discoveries within sensory perceptions, and I wish to continue learning more. But I ask you Nodin, what is it that I should be recognizing within the perceptions of temperatures and cycles and rhythms?

Nodin: Within each sensory perception is included an emotion, one that the individual may or may not recognize, and when reapplied as a memory of a sensory perception, the memory is brought back to life with a vividness of emotional detail. The individual that remains in constant awareness of his world around him, he will recognize that warming air over cool soil implies that the cycle of spring is approaching, or that cooling air over warm soil implies that the cycle of winter draws near. To the man of awareness, there is not a thought of a calendar of dates, but rather the man has become as one with the rhythms of Nature, and he is aware of the cycles that bring seasons of change, of new life in spring, and of death in winter. To the aware individual, there are no gaps between moments of life, for all of life is of one stream of aware observation, and the cycles of his environment become as his own cycles, and his very thoughts, tuned by the emotions of his perceptions, become as the thoughts of Nature. But now I must explain further, so as to not mislead you, that the simplicity of being mentally and physically sensorially conscious of only the temperatures of air and soil during the duration of a year, is not what I am pointing to, but rather I am only using the example of the two variables that rise and fall in rhythm to allow you a glimpse into how all cycles of Nature are in rhythm together, and it is proper for me to ensure that you are with the knowledge that the aware mind will not only hold within conscious awareness the felt sensations of rhythmic air and soil cycles, but of countless other cycles as well, of all things experienced and sensorially perceived, all of which are rising and falling at different frequencies while all flow in parallel side by side. So you see William, what I am speaking of, is not a mind comfortable with observing a mere two cycles in rhythm, but rather a mind that is with a constant flow of analyzing millions of highways and hills and valleys and speeds and intensities and colorings and pastels and hues and tints; and the quantity is held within the consciousness of the body's sensations, and not merely that of the mind's eye.

William: But Nodin, I have difficulty holding only the two rhythms of air and soil temperatures within a temporary felt sensation, and it appears all but impossible for anyone to hold a million times more within a constant unending flow. How is such a thing possible?

Nodin: Emotional control, for if all sensorial perceptions are received while the individual is experiencing a similar emotion, then it becomes a simple thing to hold all experiences in memory. Remember the firewood, and how your mind was subconsciously aware of the variances of weights of wood, as well as the comparative weight of stone; for what I speak of is of the same lesson, that is to become aware and within constant analyses of how all things relate and compare to all things else. Weights of objects vary relative to their temperatures, and the rhythm of the cycles of seasons has also within its bosom the sensory perception of wood and stone; all things are one, nothing is disconnected.

William: Then, if an emotion accompanies all sensory perceptions, then what sort of emotion should I attain that would allow such a memory that holds no distracting influence upon my reasoning? And did you not say that the emotions must be quietened, and if so, then what emotion can be quiet?

Nodin: The awareness arrives naturally, by itself, and without effort, when an individual is with love for all things, and within his felt love of all things is the focused attention towards Nature and all of its variations.

William: I have before heard of love, spoken by the many religions and philosophies, to be an ingredient necessary for the attainment of what they refer to as an enlightenment. But I ask you Nodin, how can a man that feels no love, attain such a love?

Nodin: Yours is a legitimate question William, and I must confess that it is not an easy question to answer. For as you know, nothing in Nature exists alone by itself, for there is always an influence from other things, and for a man whose soul is hardened with greed and selfishness, the soul alone is not capable of breaking its own shell. For most people there must first occur a mental conviction that their deeds are incorrect, and there then must follow a repentance to himself that the individual's previous deeds were improper. A conscience must be born, and not all men are capable of possessing a conscience. The lack of a conscience is perhaps the most sure sign of a defective mind, for not only does the mind not cross-light memories as like what is already known to be a cause of mental inferiority, but the mind also does not illuminate thoughts through discrimination, that is, the mind does not apply the logic and reasoning upon itself. But the final answer will always sum to the need of the individual to choose love.

William: I thank you for the information Nodin, and I promise that I will ponder on these things at length during the days to come.

Nodin: Look towards your left, William, and you will find that Daksi has sat himself upon an outcropping of rocks.

William: Oh! I have only seen Daksi a few times in my life. He is said to be a mystic, and very reclusive. He is very gentle and quiet, and rumor has it that he recognizes things in Nature that the common man cannot perceive.

Nodin: Let us go speak with Daksi, for I am with confidence that you will learn a great deal by listening to his words, and please let me remind you to not bring-up the subject of science as you did with Gary, for not all men are as tolerant as Gary. And too, there is a need for you to use great restraint in your words, for remember that every syllable you speak carries with it an emotion, and every emotion you express will become an emotion experienced in Daksi's life. So please be with the greatest of gentleness, and realize that one wrong word can cause great harm.

William: I agree with your restrictions Nodin, and I learned well my lesson with Gary, one that I sincerely do wish to not repeat. As you before explained the manner, I will pause before speaking anything, and within the pause it is hoped that the emotion of my thoughts will be quietened, which will allow me to be quiet of tongue.

Nodin: Daksi; my friend.

Daksi: Nodin. Welcome. Please, sit.

Nodin: This is William. He is learning the path.

Daksi: Bless you William. Your soul is happy. Thank you.

William: Thank you Daksi. Thank you.

Nodin: Daksi, William is not yet with knowledge. He does not know why you know his soul is happy.

Daksi: Yes. I know.

Nodin: You are a treasure in my eyes Daksi. My tears show my love for your soul's heart.

Daksi: To answer your questions, William; look, behind me. In four breaths, a man of over sixty years of age, and a woman slightly younger, both of lowering health, will walk to within sight, about fifty steps from us.

William: Thank you Daksi, for allowing me to observe your observance.

Daksi: Your questions, William, reside, in your aura. To answer one; male and female are of different radiances; male is less complex; female is different. Yes, William; I do not have to see with eyes, what is felt upon the skin, and within the heart.

Nodin: So that William can hear my words, and then understand your words Daksi, I will explain. William, what we spoke of earlier, of constant sensory awareness, it is in part what permits the ability to sense details at unseen distances. The aura that Daksi spoke of, is the radiance of life energy, not too dissimilar to what you are learning about temperatures. Too, within the felt perception of the radiance, is information about age, health, and spirit. There was also the aroma of the unseen couple, and within the aroma were further details that described the individuals' age, health, gender, and spirit. Your soul, gender, age, history, personality, thoughts, and likely future exists now, perceived in your aura. Daksi and I have no need to speak, to know the other's hearts; but we speak now for your benefit.

William: Thank you. Daksi and Nodin; thank you.

Nodin: An hour has now passed since the last word was spoken, and I appreciate your wisdom Daksi. William has learned an unforgettable lesson.

Daksi: Your other questions, William; answers will come, when your soul is ready. Learn love.

William: Thank you Daksi. I want; to be, proper.

Nodin: We will take our leave now. Bless you Daksi. Thank you for being within our presence. Your memory is my warmth.

Daksi: When your work, is fulfilled, Nodin; you know, that I know, that you know.

Nodin: Yes. And as you also know, it must be done.

Daksi: May goodness dwell among you both. We will meet again; soon.

Nodin: Until then Daksi, my friend.

William: Thank you Daksi. Thank you.

Nodin: Now that we have walked a good distance from Daksi, know William, that your thoughts and heart are not hidden, nor of sufficient distance for Daksi to not know. Now that your heart is known to Daksi, your aura can be perceived and recognized at any time and at any place at any distance.

William: When I desired to speak to Daksi, to ask questions or to give gratitude for his words, about all that I could utter was to say thank you. I am with a concern that I may have offended him by my not speaking more.

Nodin: Oh, but what you said was the most proper, and most important of all, your words were with the emotion of caring for the wellbeing of Daksi. You were able to quiet your emotions before speaking were you not?

William: Yes, and once the moment of emotional rush of questions passed, so did the need to speak in abundance. And it did feel proper to me, for what reasons I am unsure, but within me my heart was glad that the mouth was tamed.

Nodin: Daksi already knew your heart, and there was no reason to speak words of what he already knew to be true. What did your emotions tell you about speaking quietly and with respect?

William: My emotions were quite enraptured! Surely this thing that you speak of, of quietening the emotions before speaking, and instead giving aware attention to the perceptions of the senses, surely this is a wondrous thing, for it has not only created within me a happier state of joy and peacefulness, but I sincerely do believe that it allowed me to communicate with another person without my causing harm. Oh Nodin, please forgive me of my rashness of tongue, but I am so very pleased for the experience of today, that of having the rare opportunity to speak to Daksi as well as for me to have learned such a marvelous lesson!

Nodin: And you may now ask the question that has been on your mind since your youth.

William: I am transparent am I not, and I do now recognize how it is that individuals such as yourself and Daksi can so easily recognize what is on another person's mind. Yes, I do wish to appease my curiosity, one held since a child, and that is, what exactly makes or allows such an individual like Daksi to exist? What I mean is, is such a man born that way, or does he learn to become that way, or perhaps is it just an uncommon natural response to a individual's environment?

Nodin: That is an excellent question William, and I must confess that I am shamefully humored at the response that I must give, and that is that you must discover the answer for yourself. But do understand, that I must not speak words; for the answer you yearn for can only be understood through firsthand experience. It is a thing that you must discover alone, and I would only harm your search if I were to implant mere words into your thoughts.

William: Very well, I accept your answer. And Nodin, I am now aware of the differences between following a teaching, and the becoming of the teaching. Some individuals follow a teaching of silence, while other individuals become silent. Is this not what you have alluded to when you speak of the polarities of external and internal?

Nodin: Yes, very good. A master might speak of how a thing is profitable, such as a stillness of the tongue, but he is not speaking of the act, but rather he is speaking of the nature of the inward self that produces the external act. The master speaks of 'becoming', not merely 'doing'. All things exist in the having been, being in the now, and the becoming of what they will be. Individuals who follow teachings of silence, their external behavior may appear similar to the man who is silent due to a quiet soul, but the follower remains his old self inwardly.

William: Excellent Nodin! For that explains to my mind why I had held a discomfort of why people may participate in a religious or social activity, all of the individuals performing the same mannerisms, and yet only a few of the individuals were perceived by me to have been sincere.

Nodin: True; accepting the external to guide the internal, is incorrect, and it will not better the inward self. That is one reason why it is unprofitable for me, and damaging to you, for me to explain too much through words, because the learning of words and then the following of the words would be a following of an external thing. Always it is the desirable thing for the inward self to guide itself, and to achieve the self-guidance that produces the desired traits, for once the quality traits arise naturally from the inward self, so will the quality traits exhibit a quality soul.

Dialogues of Nodin and William - The Mystic #10