The Flow of Sustainability
April 25th, 2010April 18, 2010 – Music and Message by Ishak Kang
As a preface to Earth Day, I wanted to delve into the concepts of sustainability illustrated by the works of both Emanuel Swedenborg and William Blake. Although Swedenborg’s writings had quite an influence on the younger Blake, he eventually rejects much of Swedenborg’s moral doctrine. However, the following quotations reveal their shared view on the holographic nature of reality.
“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
-Jerusalem, published in 1804, William Blake
“The visible universe is nothing else than a theater, representative of the Lord’s kingdom.”
-Arcana Coelestia, 3483, published 1749-1756, Emanuel Swedenborg
What is this “Vegetable Universe” Blake is referring to? And, does it matter if its not real? What are our responsibilities to shepherd this world? Is our physical environment a mere representation of celestial patterns and truth? Buckminster Fuller defined these ephemeral truths as “pattern integrity” in his lengthy tome, Synergetics. His most basic example of this was his deconstruction of a simple overhand loop knot in a piece of rope. He explained that it was the ephemeral pattern that had “tensegrity” not the material. It did not matter if he used a hemp rope or even a piece of cooked spaghetti. It is the pattern that matters.
The opening stanza of William Blake’s Augeries of Innocence is one of his most famous…
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
As the congregation joined me in a song repeating this verse, I remarked on the final scene of the movie, “Men in Black.”
Click here for the scene from Men in Black (dubbed in French!)
Of course, there are more direct pop culture references to William Blake. Here is the scene from Bull Durham.
The value of poetry and art is that because of pattern integrity, they offer us more accessibility to complex concepts. Thanks to these movies and the popularity of Aldous Huxley and Jim Morrison, I have heard of William Blake long before I learned of Emanuel Swedenborg. I appreciate the value of learning more about the true flow of sustainability.
I close this blog post with a description of flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihaliyi…
Flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.
