The crack in everything

[lizzytysh]

Hi Jack ~

Because I like watching and seeing [not necessarily the same as understanding... though not necessarily not, either; but, moreso observing] how your mind works, I would like you to elaborate. I am particularly interested in how/why you seemed to decide to put your theory to the test in the park. Was it a park filled with people or simply nature? Was it the people you looked to... or, I guess it would have to be both, wouldn't it? Still, I'd like you to elaborate on your single sentence.

Thanks.


~ Lizzy

[lazariuk]

I am particularly interested in how/why you seemed to decide to put your theory to the test in the park. Was it a park filled with people or simply nature? Was it the people you looked to... or, I guess it would have to be both, wouldn't it?
~ Lizzy

The park was across the street from where I lived and I think it seemed a good place because it was open. It wasn't so much that I wanted to test a theory but simply that I wanted to see the crack in everything. It wasn't like I went to the park to do something but rather as I walked into the park I found myself involved in the process.

I think the openness was the key. I had just accepted the idea that I couldn't see myself and so letting go of the idea that I would be included in what I was looking at, I looked.

But I like the idea of you asking about the details of how I got there and why. It gets me less interested in describing and more interested in just having people look with me at what is easy to see. What interests you more Lizzy? the description or the experience? Do you want to see the crack in everything or do you want to read about it?

[Manna]

If we each walk around for a while with the question in our pockets, "What is the crack in everything?" we all might come up with different answers. Then we can come back here and hash it through it. Maybe every person has his own crack in everything.

All perfect things having a flaw. But the flaw isn't what makes them imperfect, it's what makes them perfect. Perfection is imperfect, 1 + 1 = 3, The Nameless Name, convex requires concave, etc, etc, on and on forever, or maybe only half that long. If something were perfect without an imperfection, it couldn't exist, or rather, we couldn't know it. Maybe imperfection is the Mother of All Cracks. Maybe that is the big crack for me, but it doesn't say anything Leonard didn't say.

I was also interested to hear some examples of what things we all have in common. Any two people will have things in common, and maybe that is what you mean, but I wonder if there is anything all humans have in common? We were all born on Earth. Maybe I don't understand your idea of the Big Crack in Everything. It sounds a bit like you're saying that humanity is the crack in everything.

Wait, no, I think you've turned it around. I don't think you're pointing to something and saying, "That's the crack." I think you're saying "What the waking have in common is the crack in everything." You're telling us we all have it. Is that what your intention was?

[daka]

My Big Crack

In 1994 I was listening to a teaching about the nature of reality and being guided through a meditation. All of a sudden there was a fireworks display in my head, as if I had just started "getting off" on orange four-barrel LSD.

I had contemplated the fact that during my whole life I was under the impression that when I walked down the sidewalk and passed 10 people they all saw 'me' (one person), the same person. It dawned on me like an atomic bomb, that they saw ten people, and also that the person I saw (or perceived/conceived) was impermanent, and not the same person (1) that they saw (2) that I saw the previous day etc. Some people saw an old guy, some a young guy, some a good looking guy, some, a flaky unattractive guy, some a dodgy guy, some a trustworthy guy. There was no objective me out there to be seen!

I remembered a university study that pointed to the same truth. They showed a picture of an ordinary looking character, a man, to 200 university students and asked them to write a few words about this character. They received everything under the sun: rapist, murderer, priest, car salesman, convict, etc. etc.

To me this is the big crack, that all phenomena depend on the apprehending consciousness (completely).

I love this thread.

Anthem is my favorite song, I think, of all time especially the tribute version done by Leonard's backup singers. I suspect, Jack, that that version could also be preferred by Leonard to his own version.

daka

[lazariuk]

as if I had just started "getting off" on orange four-barrel LSD.

orange four-barrel LSD is pretty serious stuff.

To me this is the big crack, that all phenomena depend on the apprehending consciousness (completely).

So do you think my saying "The crack in everything is what the waking have in common" is wrong ?

I love this thread.

I am glad to hear that. I was starting to feel that it wasn't going to go anywhere but then Lizzy came in and then Manna and now you. I hope we do well with it. The line is from a song that Leonard said stands for something very clear and true in him and so I think the focus is worthwhile in this forum.

[daka]

So do you think my saying "The crack in everything is what the waking have in common" is wrong ?

I think
your 'crack'
about the crack
is correct
Jack

daka

PS

I remember you asking me about whether there was a crack in something in another thread and intend to answer that particular question when I have the opportunity. Right now I am out of retreat trying to repay the kindness of a friend and benefactor who is experiencing an economic business crisis (although I know nothing about business). I am pretty busy trying to find a 'crack' in his crisis.

[daka]

orange four-barrel LSD is pretty serious stuff.

I remember injecting four hits of 'orange four-barrel LSD (= 16 normal hits)

I was a rather serious LSD fanatic.

I often say that poor old Timothy was my first guru. I used to drop acid and read 'Politics of Ecstasy' by Guru Tim. Unfortunately Tim didn't look as peaceful and blissful as Leonard when he was approaching death's door. I heard that he was on an 'IV' of cocaine and heroin..... don't know if it's true, but during his self-arranged filming of his 'near-death' experience (which I personally found horrifying), he looked and sounded like a searcher who never found what he was looking for. I have not been able to come across that TV presentation of Tim's pre-death home video again since I saw it many years ago. If anyone knows where I can access it again please let me know. I also saw a rather disturbing but very interesting documentary debate between Timothy Leary and Gordon Liddy many years ago but have been unable to locate it again. This was also very revealing, in that Timothy's wife at the time, was involved in a very natural way, along with Liddy at morning breakfast conversations. Again, I have tried hard to localize this TV production (public debates between Liddy and Leary) without success.

Maybe Timothy Leary found cracks and fell into them. I believe that Ram Das found them and meditated on them and allowed them to become even bigger.

Timothy was a very Irish American. Maybe he is one of the holes in our culture? (Although he did inspire and encourage many seekers, including Ram Das.... I just wish he could have found Leonard's bliss and peace without the dope)

daka

[lazariuk]

Wait, no, I think you've turned it around. I don't think you're pointing to something and saying, "That's the crack." I think you're saying "What the waking have in common is the crack in everything." You're telling us we all have it. Is that what your intention was?

Hi Manna

I used waking to distinuish from sleeping.
The crack in everything is what the waking have in common.

There are a lot of things that Leonard has written or sung or said that might be out of range for people to understand. There are people I love who I hope will never be able to understand certain things because I wouldn't want to have them go throught the kind of pain that would have the words make sense.

"There is a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in" I think is different.

I think it is so simple and pure and clear and true that every single man woman and child would be able to understand clearly what he means. No matter how stupid they think they are, no matter if they never put their ass on a meditation pillow during their whole life, no matter what. I think the line is open for us to be able to say as Leonard does that they can stand behind it completely.

No matter what country we are from, or religious background, or scientific background or whatever these are words from an anthem that we can all sing.
And I think that if we really play with it here and not let go until we are absolutely sure we all know what each other is speaking about that we can all get to the point of feeling confident that we are referring to the same thing when we sing together the words "There is a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in"
It seems like it just has to be that way.

Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world. - Buddha

If Buddha saw the crack in everything do you think the crack is bigger or smaller now that when he saw it? What from our experience do we know about cracks ?

[lazariuk]

I was also interested to hear some examples of what things we all have in common.

When we say "toward the center of our planet" it is a center that we all have in common.
If we say "up from the planet" up is something that we do not have in common.

if someone laying beside you says in their sleep "we are breaking through the orange jellow" that is likely not something that you have in common. If upon waking they say " Hey it's 9 am and we are still in bed" that you would have in common.

[Manna]

what the waking have in common seems too specialized to be The Crack in Everything. it seems to be only about relating, and relating isn't everything, though it is a pretty darn big crack too. the center of the earth is common to people who are sleeping and who are waking.

[Manna]

...and relating isn't everything...

is it? I don't mind being wrong.

[lazariuk]

the center of the earth is common to people who are sleeping and who are waking.

I don't know what it means to be people when you are sleeping. I don't know what the earth is to the sleeping. It is not something that we can talk about and be completely sure that we are speaking about the same thing. When we wake we can experience something that we call earth and know that who we meet and address is experiencing things in common, like that "in" is unidirectional and out is omnidirectional. There might be things that we do not have in common even thought we may think we do, like what certain things taste like, or look like.

[lazariuk]

...and relating isn't everything...

is it? I don't mind being wrong.

The word relating seems more related to the word living than to the word everything.

[lazariuk]

what the waking have in common seems too specialized to be The Crack in Everything.

I think it is going to seem that way. That is part of the baggage we carry for thinking we know more than we actually know. On the other hand the big bunch of knowing that we thought we had didn't provide us with much confidence.

[Manna]

...and relating isn't everything...

is it? I don't mind being wrong.

The word relating seems more related to the word living than to the word everything.

waking seems more related to living than to everything too.

and I also get to ask you now if you think life is an infestation in a dead universe.

??