Letter to Dov 1

Dov:

Does a an abstract painting have a single concept? How about an abstract piece of sculpture? How would one translate these into another artistic medium? Into another language? You can't. But what about abstract expressionist writing? Now there's a challenge. It's like translating rapidly shifting poetry. That's why my work is challenging to translate. The register keeps shifting. The translator is translating a translation process within the home language onto his or her target language. This is going to be different in Hindi, French or Chinese. This is experimental translating of an experimental piece of writing. I discussed this long, long ago.

The experience is key. Not just the ideas. It's like music. That's why the younger translators are fanatics about my work. Obviously you enjoyed the writing or you wouldn't have stuck it out this long. But when you tried to analyze it with your left-brain you got into trouble. Language is a very left-brain subject. McLuhan, Joyce, and Eliot tried to break this straight-jacket. It's a stream of consciousness technique. I throw in Buddhist and Hindu ideas. Each chapter is a mandala and all of them together make up one huge mandala. This is how the work encompasses everything and nothing. I took you dead seriously in your interview spoof. You were talking like a Buddhist and you didn't even know it.

I would love to see the Israeli publishers at an Indian raga concert. They probably would go CRAZY. Instead of a deepening subtle fugue. They would just just get frustrated by the seeming sense of drift....

A presto,

Michael

Letter to Dov 2

Dov:

Buddhism is a science about mind recycling. Everything is impermanent. The body goes and the mind finds a new body. Karma. The thoughts of any particular mind get recycled and transformed from life to life. When you do serious meditation the pure flow of thoughts is unceasing and they hop from level to level. Each individual meditator will have different associations to these levels. It’s kind of a free association thing. Much like Freud what pioneered. But the ultimate meaning of any particular thought flow depends on the intention and karma of the person.

What does he want to do with this information now brought up from the psychic excavation? It might be of great use to the individual or society if it can be refined enough. The ultimate aim of Buddhism is to empty out the mind of any thought. Both good or bad. This emptiness is not nothing. It has a pregnancy to it. It has a deeper knowingness. It is the gateway to bliss. You have to live with a Zaddik to fully understand this. After much meditation the mind is opened up and it starts to drop all kinds of silly and unnecessary boundaries.

This kind of mind is subtler, plastic, and more open to all kinds of different points of views without grasping them. Not just other cultural or religious ideas, but also other psychic realms. This open mind needs to be stabilized however. This is why a teacher is so important. A surrender is necessary, but it also must be pursued under a canopy of spiritual protection.

In Harvest and all my works, I chose a particular literary device of a superfical adolescent mind fighting itself and also other minds. This tension pushes the narrative along. I throw all kinds of ideas, sensations, and mind pits for this “ green mind “ to travel through. The objects the subject confronts keep changing and the subject retains his autonomy even as he blends with the multiple subjects. This is what’s called duality. Without it there is no thought, no language, and no literature. It’s the world of TWO. The world of ONE is empty and has no thought, language or perception.

Obviously Harvest has nothing to do with the world of ONE. But it tries to point in this direction. It uses the world of TWO in every way imaginable. It shifts and shifts the mind and hints that someday it will simply get exhausted and surrender to a bigger psychic kind of openess. Then it is taking its first baby steps towards the world of ONE.

The stream of consciousness technique is good for this form of beginner and intermediate mind excavation. It captures a piece of the mind-stream with all its levels. You can keep going back for further explorations.

The Tibetan method captures this kind of mindstream activity with a more structured approach. The mandala is like a house with many rooms and certain kinds of psychic energy locked in these rooms are invoked purposely for a given psychic transformation. It’s like alchemy. But a Tibetan Zaddik will have an “ empty “ mind when doing these operations. It has to be for a beneficial reason. Theravada and Zen Buddhism dispenses with this kind of particular alchemy which is directed towards many different psychic realms symultaneously. Theravada and Zen Buddhism is much more geared towards the individual’s transformation.

Obviously, most Westerners go to Buddhism for the wrong reasons. They are looking for psychotherapy. Buddhism is not psychotherapy. It’s a rigorous discipline. You become a mind “ TSANHAN . “ But Buddhism appeals to many Westerners because it’s very logical and mind oriented. But from my own experience faith and surrender to some kind of higher protective force is still needed even in Buddhism. Westerners try to just go it alone and get into serious trouble.

The Jewish religion has undergone serious evolution since 4000 years ago. Originally it was primitive. Like the Mesopotamian religions it did not believe in mind recycling. You went to SHEOOL and that was that. Regardless of your actions in this life. The Yaweh theologists then because of social pressures during the exile opted for a limited kind of recycling: resurrection. Then there could be some kind of justice meted out. Finally the Kabbalists embraced more recycling with GEELGOOL. Karma was recognized. Most Orthadox Jews and Christians and Muslims are still stuck with the limited recycling concept. That’s why my father was not cremated. His bones will rise up during the day of judgement.

Because of the free association in Harvest. The translator has to make some personal judgements. They maybe good and they maybe bad. But there is an organic structure to the work. The voyage, the meetings with the witch, the Zaddiks, the religious wars and the final test at the end. This is the mythological scaffold. But I use this scaffold to explore other kinds of mind states and this makes the work richer and some great ideas pop out from all the unusual juxtapositions. But how deep the translator or future reader goes depends on their multiple-life accumulation. A Zaddik will see more in anything than someone less attuned. He probably also has no need for my books.

I hope this helps....

Michael

Letter to Dov 3

Dov:

The great paradox that Israel and the West do not understnd. You want commercial and economic development in the Middle east and Asia? Guess what? Modern military development follows this aswell. Peres wants a common market? His company TEDIRAN has heavy ties to the Israeli military-industrail complex. Israel is a major weapons dealer.

Many Asian countries will reject commercial development, but they will embrace modern arms gladly. Forget about " democracy. " The west developed commercially and economically at a quick pace and its military might galloped along with this quick pace. Result? WWI and WWII and the Cold War.

Why should Asia be different? Now Iraq or Iran can take atvantage of globalization and buy whatever they need abroad. Developing nukes from scratch is not necessary. MacDonald's hamburgers and Nike shoes are not an antidote for this military problem. Asian culture is DIFFERENT from Western culture. Asian nukes can be used just like Western nukes even if Asian culture is different.

Sharon is not a serious player. Islam is. Peres is not a serious player. Nukes are.

The Isreali right and left are bankrupt. So are Western ideas of liberal capitalism and socialism. A strange new world is dawning. One which we barely understand. It's global and it' s complex. It's quite a surrealistic movie. Lynch would have loved this global and schizophrenic movie. Let's see how many sequels come out of it.

Michael