It was lunch, and I was faithfully fulfilling my teacher lunch duties outside by supervising the students. It was windy and a bit chilly. I gave a trustworthy 7th grader (Yes, they do exist!) my key and asked him to get my jacket. He came back with the jacket but said the key was stuck in the lock.
After lunch I returned to my room and removed the key. No problem. Now, why was that? I was familiar with the locking mechanism, having unlocked the door many, many times. I was familiar with locks and keys in general--at least more so than my twelve-year-old helper. I was patient and persistent, not a quality youngsters are always noted for, especially when they are eager to return to the playground.
This is how we live our lives. We experience, learn, expand our territory of influence, become proficient. And this is true for both outer and inner experience. Daniel Boone said he had never been lost but was once "a mite confused" . . . for several days or weeks, depending on who's telling the story.
Knowledge and experience bring contentment, bring confidence and competence. We learn through doing but often can only do according to our level of knowledge and experience.
Because I practice the Transcendental Meditation program, I am experienced with the silent depths of the mind, like the waves of the ocean settling. I'm not going to make any claims as to what that means for my experience. (Probably false advertising--after all, writers make stuff up.) You can look at the scientific research if you like. However, I believe there is a unity to existence; there is a Unified Field. Even physics tells us that, so there must be a connection to inner quietness and the quiet depths of the physical world. Perhaps that is a great leap, but my experience tells me that it is so; my intuition feels there is a connectedness of experience.
What if, just as one can be familiar with keys and locking mechanisms, one can also be familiar with the mechanics of the structure of existence, one can know the order and intelligence of existence from the direct experience of the fundamental nature of one's own creative intelligence?
These are some of the ideas I'm exploring in my fantasy writing: not artifact-based magic or spell-based magic but consciousness-based magic. We structure our own reality. The world is as we are. Knowledge is structured in consciousness.
To be good writers, we are supposed to write from our experience. How ironic that the action of my novels is based on non-action, or silence in motion.
It's a dark and stormy night . . . I guess I just start with is and take it from there.
Copyright 2011 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved
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