But the truth of the matter is: we're saying it wrong. Because no one who only speaks English can say this word properly; instead they say it like "guitar." That's what the Announcer on NPR said: "when they told us how to say it, they said 'say simply:
guitar.'"
So that's how anyone who spoke both English and Arabic told people to say QATER.
In other words: "guitar" is what some old stinky English dude whose parents had the cash to put him through years of Arabic lessons thought he heard when he heard the word: "Qatar."
Well, anyone who really
looks at that word
can see:
you don't say it like "guitar."
You say
Katar.
2.
Now, this
is where this all gets
kind of strange:
The problem with guitar,
is that it's based on a representation
of a sound,
but the sound
is only
a representation
of a code.
The written word is the first representation
that we ever had
of what
Originally occured
because
the written word
is like a camera;
it is the apparatus through which
we see
the first utterance
ever made
which was a sound.
The first utterance
which was also
the first representation
was a sound,
the sound
came through our being,
this tiny shell
of our being, our bodies --
the sound came --
This is really strange:
as you read this, think
in a line like this:
So,
the first representation
produced by the Creative Being
when it sought to produce
Something Other Than Itself
was a sound,
a sound,
that,
in order to be heard
had to move
through an apparatus.
And that apparatus
aka: the material world
was produced as a
byproduct of
the first action of
production ==the reproduction
of the immaterial, and
that first reproduction
of the material world
went like this:
details right 'chere below:
I know this sounds
absolutely insane,
but try to imagine a scenario
in which
there was nothing,
and nothing sought to produce
something;
but in order to be able to
produce something,
nothing
needed an apparatus of communication
aka: the material world.
The impetus of that
initial production
went
this way:
The physical
world,
then,
is like a
pair of glasses
through which
we perceive
the initial production,
which is
sound.
So,
likewise,
that which has been produced
(aka: the represented)
has to use the Material World
to present itself back
to the force that produced it,
in the first place,
so that force
might see
itself;
yes the represented has to project back through the apparatus an impression of what the perfect looks like so the perfect can see it.
Try To Think Like This:
This is an image of
the represented
in its quest to show
the unrepresented
what it
sought to see.)
* ! *
Notably, there's a problem
if the apparatus
(read: The Material World, aka: Life, the Earth, the Universe & Everything)
is new.
A new apparatus doesn't
understand how to represent
the represented,
because the represented
is so abstract.
Generally, in the case of new apparati,
when asked to represent the initially represented,
it gets all hung up on
the representation
of itself (ie: the Material World)
that is all
it can talk about,
when in fact
the realm of the unrepresented
wants to learn more:
wants to learn all
that is conceivable.
It is the job of the representable to give it to them: the representable has to render into the language of the unrepresented exactly what it sees. That's right: exactly what it sees.
But the problem is: the first thing we saw occurred exactly at the same time as the first sound we heard, and notably the first representation was not of a visible; rahter; it was of an audible.
The visible came second because we needed the visible to see the representation we produced so the first representation was a representation of the audible:
But actually,
we hadn't conceived of any
of those symbols
at the beginning;
the best we could do
was
:
or something like this:
or this:
That was the first
representation
by
the apparatus through which
the represented needed
to travel
in order to communicate what it perceived
back to its origin.
That, only that,
the fragile
written word, or
the subtle, sung
note,
or the trembling, absolute
scream, or
the drawing or
the painting or
the photograph
all serve to show us
every absolute dimension
of both the created,
material world,
(and its creator),
but
this is where it gets hard:
it has to be heard,
because the first representation
was the word.
There was only one word,
only one language
for a long time:
the real problem for us today
occurred at the moment
of Babel --
when the world broke in half,
and new words and pronunciations
happened,
the further away we got
from the soure,
and we reached a point where we
couldn't understand each other, anymore.
For awhile, we (our different nations) were
adrift,
alone,
talking only
to each other
and pronunciations changed
so radically
over time
that when one of us
on this side of the word
met those of another place,
and heard them say:
"I'm from Qatar"
we wrote down,
the best we could
what we thought we heard,
and told others to just
pronounce it
"guitar."
But
Qatar
is pronounced
and
M - I - S - S - I - P - P - I
is pronounced
That's just all there is to it.
In the realm of all that is represented, the written word comes first, representing the sound of Knowledge. And Knowledge is the embodiment of the ineffible.
Oh, sometimes I imagine my entries are aggravating, as I sit and write the visions I have as my energies channel through me. For instance: the following, which I actually wrote on 11/21/2010, but I thought it was way out there, and then I went to write again last night and liked what I wrote but realized I have to post this one first, because, (if you dare believe I'm receiving some special insights as I channel, and if you dare believe I'm 425 years old) it appears the messages are coming in some kind of order. And so it begins:
Oh, sometimes
I imagine my entries
are aggravating, as I sit here
channelling my energies;
sometimes they're just
channeling, and there's
nothing coming through.
Just pure energy.
It pulls sideways on my
body,
the energy I channel,
like one of those long heavenly beams of sunlight,
That's kind of what the channel
I'm connected to looks
like.
We're all connected to channels,
wide open impulses
from our source; they
tell us how to move,
how to act;
they are like rainbows;
mine is shaped like this:
They generally say good things,
but sometimes a spot of blue,
or that which we interpret as blue,
passes our spectrum, and
our spectrum dulls,
and so too
does our spirit.
The beam pulls down;
it pulls, in my case,
from the upper right,
and down my side,
and sometimes,
it seems to be pulling me up,
pulling me toward it.
What I'm feeling when that happens
is the compulsion
that pulls us from life until death;
it shoots us
out,
and we
and we
and we
start trying to get back,
but it says
NO,
you can't come back yet,
you're not perfect yet.
You can't come back until
you feel you're perfect,
can't come back until
you perform at your very
highest level,
in the skill in which
you're required to perform.
You can come back when you're perfect.
It just so happens that
this particular draw
is getting harder right now for everyone,
saying: I demand you I require you to be good ----- if you cannot be good, well, either you're going to carry on here on earth in pretty grim conditions, or not at all.
So learn to live on this earth properly, in collaboration with her, if you intend to stay on her.
That is the word I receive right now ---
profoundly and clearly:
Learn to live on this earth,
with these intended earthmates
properly
if you intend to stay here.
If you're fighting; if you're
arguing; if you're
not talking; if you're
raping; if you're lying; if
you're stealing;
if you're doing any such thing,
this is the time
to stop.
I tell you right now:
this is the time to stop.
The consequences of stopping:
an effortless transport to the
next realm of humanity. And you don't
have to do anything more
than be fucking good.
You don't have to put
a dove in your front yard,
or a bumper sticker on your car;
you don't have to vote democrat or republican,
labor or conservative,
you don't even have to blog;
you don't have to picket;
no
you just have to be good,
and absolutely honest
with yourself and the rest of the world.
You don't have to wear
tennis shoes and drink
Kool Aid,
just keep being good;
the transport is
prepared, just keepbeinggood
be the best you can be,
and your journey to the next level will be easy,
more or less,
like Space Travel.
However,
however,
if we're being awful
at the end of time,
we'll feel it like a searing
hot -- poker isn't a strong enough word --
but it'll hurt like hell.
For those of us who
haven't been good at all,
the searing hot pain will last
a very long time,
but
if we're lucky
we'll come out the other
end of it
kind of unscathed.
Kind of.
We're going to look like
shit
but there we'll be,
embodied,
yet again.
If the earth survives
the end of this cycle of time as we know it,
we'll live on earth.
If
the earth survives
at all.
That's really up to us. The earth
is our only vessel.
There may be other vessles
like ours
with other creatures
on them,
all waiting
to return to
our shared source
and all doing it
in their own special way.
~ ~ ~
Now, there is another concept
I've talked about before:
the idea that we are all already occupying
avatars
right now.
Each avatar is designed to protect
and preserve
the aspect of the eternal
it is its duty to house.
Humans are, by nature,
beings of spirit;
the spirit
is one of our essences.
We enter the physical plane
in a most peculiar way, through
these lovely
extraordinary
physical beings;
we're all really sort of like
plants
on our earth's core,
feeding
off of her. If we
feed her well in return, she will live,
maybe could live forever--
That was the magic
of the Garden of Eden:
Adam, Eve and the Gang
all knew that they were
just part of
the organization;
they were
the intellectual part
of the organism,
but they knew
their place
and their duty, and
they kept to it,
and
did it.
Since one of their essences
was/is
knowledge,
and part of knowledge
was/is
confidence,
this particular group of avatars
- Adam, Eve & the Gang -
had a tendency to occasionally decide
they were the only extra-special avatar,
and when humans decided
we were the only ones,
we ushered in the reign
of the material world.
As long as humans believed
that the material world
was made FOR them,
to SERVE them,
and
as long as humans believed
they were the greatest
creature on the earth,
well
the material has reigned,
and humans
have reveled in it,
like a pig in shit.
Anyway, so we live
in the Material World
as we feel we possess it,
and as long as we feel
we possess it,
we will continue to live
in time
(and we'll continue to experience
the cycle
of birth, life and death)
However, the second
we realize
we are required to live
in harmony and cooperation
with every other sentient being
on this planet,
when we accept the fact
we're not the only ones,
and instead,
we're all in this together
(and when I say
we,
I mean:
humans,
animals,
plants,
fish,
rocks,
rivers,
sand,
sun,
sky,
fire,
planets,
etc.)
well,
when we realize we're all meant to work
together
equally,
we'll move out of the realm of the
United States of Materiality
and into a true
America.
I've been silent, I know,
and it's killing me.
For more information on why,
please see my September 18 entry, called
"The Scholar".
I am an academic in an American College
where folks
get little time for scholarship,
as we struggle to teach
all those Children
that were not left behind.
That's right:
we're beginning to see, in the American university system, the results
of the Bush Administration's
illustrious education plan called
"No Child Left Behind"
and guess what?
They're almost all
way behind.
But that's for another entry --
for now,
I wanted to check in,
and say
I'm thinking of this blog,
and of all the patient people who read it
regularly,
and I'm looking forward to the weekend
when, hopefully,
I can spend a little more time
on this here blog,
and perhaps on yours,
too.
By then,
perhaps,
I'll have a little time
to read
Wikileaks.
~ ~It is very pretentious, I know,
to call one's self
a diva~~
Beyonce calls herself one:
Now, I'm not going to say
that Beyonce is not
a diva,
in fact I do think she is,
but I want to contemplate,
briefly
the way the meaning of this word has changed.
A hustler, of course, is a cheater,
or a pimp
or a prostitute,
someone whose primary motivation
is money and sex.
But is that truly all
a diva is?
Now, diva is a word
that for a long time
has had somewhat negative connotations:
Divas do have a reputation
of being tempermental
and willful,
but that willfulness
coincides with a tendency to be
a top performer,
someone who gives their all.
Anyone who finds opera
to be excessive or weird,
or criticizes divas
for being too testy
doesn't understand one key point:
to give one's self to a piece of music like that
means making one's Self
somewhat vulnerable.
You surrendor to the music,
you surrendor to your art,
and the outcome,
if you don't protect yourself
with a fiery temperment
or a good manager,
can be fatal.
Even Wikipedia acknowledges
that the definition itself
has its roots
in something far more
perfect and pure:
"The word entered the English language in the late 19th century. It is derived from the Italiannoundiva, a female deity. The plural of the word in English is "divas"; in Italian, dive[ˈdiːve]. The basic sense of the term is "goddess",[1][2] the feminine of the Latin word divus (Italian divo), a male deity.[3] The word is thus distantly related to the Hindu term deva and the Zoroastrian concept of the daevas."
( wikipedia/diva )
Thus, in both the West and the East,
the etymology of the word
is distinctly grounded
in the notion of divine.
"The word divine has its origin in the Sanskrit word Deva, which also means divine. And yet the root of this word means light, which explains that the divine is that part of being which is illuminated by the light within."
I find Inayat Khan's message to be
the most satisfying these days,
because he sought to preach a
oneness
across belief systems,
and it is a oneness
that acknowledges
the existence of
the divine.
He goes on to say:
"Therefore, though in man there is light hidden, if not disclosed, he is not divine. If the hidden light were divine, then the stone could be divine too, for the spark of fire is hidden in the rock. All life is one, without doubt, and all names and forms are of the same life. But that part of life from which light springs, illuminating itself and its surroundings, and bringing recognition of its own being, is divine; for in this is the fulfilment of the purpose of the whole creation, and every activity is directed towards achieving the same purpose."
A deva in the Hindu tradition
is an angel, any benevolent spiritual entity,
and there are many
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, it is claimed there are 33 celestial devas, and the Vedas tell us that those 33 devas are reflected in Nature, in the world we live in.
Inayat Khan continues: "How calmly the mountains and hills seem to be waiting for a certain day to come! If we went near them and listened to their voices, they would tell us this. And how eagerly the plants and the trees in the forest seem to be waiting for some day, for some hour, the hour of the fulfilment of their desire! If only we could hear the words they say! In animals, in birds, in the lower creation, the desire is still more intense and still more pronounced. The seer can see it when his glance meets their glance."
The average human, caught up in the hustle of the day (the diva is a hustler???) cannot hear them, but those who have opened their extrasensory eye or ear, they can be perceived.
In all these traditions, the deva or diva is she - and he - who has taken the next step on a journey to the divine
, and this individual gains this stage by opening up something essential to that individual--
Inayat Khan adds: "But the fulfilmment of this desire is in man [and woman]: the desire that has worked through all aspects of life and brought forth different fruits, yet always preparing a way to reach the same Light which is called Divinity. But even man, whose right it is, cannot reach it unless he acquire the knowledge of the self, which is the essence of all religions." ( from:"God the Infinite" The Unity of Religious Ideals )
The knowledge of self, in this sense, has little to do with money or sex and everything to do with accepting your true voice opening yourself up and truly singing --
a vulnerable position, to say the least, but it is the position of the true diva the one who will take the risk of letting their light really shine . . .
(follow this link to 80 year-old Janey Cutler -- those who have posted her videos on YouTube have wisely not enabled comments or posting.)
I would dare say a true diva today is one who is not afraid to open up and let their inner light shine.
Notably, though, many divas today in the U.S.A. feel it necessary to wrap their divinity in pretentious disguises, or to only settle for children who do it naturally, because in the West, at least, we don't smile upon those who forefront their talent. We prefer to elevate the mundane, and the absurd, to give rewards for just being present, and to applaud the hustla.
And meanwhile, the natural world, the earth, waits, waits for the coming of the divine
and the sad thing is:
the divine will come from nowhere if it does not come from us.
