[This ode was a bit tricky to format appropriately for web, as it requires line preservation in order for its chiastic mechanism to come through properly. I decided to add line numbers in addition to the indents, as it appears some lines are long enough to wrap. When FOUR QUESTIONS came through, I had the sense in listening that it was a constellation of ~3000+ years of Indian schools of thought. It appeared in a series of reflecting couplet-type lines, where each couplet seemed to belong to a particular tradition or speaker. I recognized enough of them on receipt to start jotting down notes, which I then fleshed out with a few hours of research once the ode was finished. At the very bottom of this page I have placed a legend with my findings. I don’t think it’s necessarily exhaustive, but they do fit nicely. Perhaps you will recognize these voices too. As for the chiasm (ABCDEFEDCBA), I have found it interesting to look at both couplet-by-couplet as well as line-by-line chiastic pyramids. Each centers on the same place, though the line-by-line scheme creates some particularly amusing symmetries and oppositions that the couplet-pairings miss. I numbered the lines in such a way as to make it easier for your cross-referencing — they were not a part of the dictation, so I do not read them aloud in the recitation.
FOUR QUESTIONS is dedicated to two of my dear friends, Tom and Dani, and was presented to them last weekend in celebration of their union~ ] Received 9/4/2026 | 1:05am-1:46am; legend 4:21am
Companion Missive #39 - THE MEND IS HERE (3/26/2024)
THE MEND IS HERE
[I am possessed by the spirit of preparation, for the upcoming wedding ceremony of myself and my beloved partner, Calvin. We are now less than two weeks to the day, under the totality of the coming solar eclipse. Just about everything is all sorted, and yet everything remains unsettled. The curdling excitement of a coming large threshold. Union. The cel…
Listen to the Recitation:
FOUR QUESTIONS What is the relation between you and the absolute? What counts as knowledge? What is consciousness made of, and what is everything else? Is the body an obstacle or the vehicle? A. (1) The gods eat what you offer and the offering holds the year together (2) Order is something you do, correctly, at dawn (3) Salt dissolved in water is nowhere and everywhere in the cup (4) You are that, and the sentence takes a lifetime to finish (5) Trust the four senses and the skin (6) Heaven is a fee collected from a man who will not be present to complain B. (7) The words command rather than describe (8) Meaning lives in what your hands do at the right hour, and that doing is the law (9) Reality can be counted (10) Eternal atoms, six categories, a world that assembles itself by rule (11) Say how you know it (12) Perception, inference, comparison, testimony: no belief sits down without showing its papers (13) Nature dances for a watcher who never applauds (14) Freedom is noticing you were never the dancer (15) Still the turnings of the mind until the watcher stands alone (16) Diagnosis with a training schedule attached C. (17) Only the bare particular is real (18) And every word for it is a fence around what it is not (19) Nothing has ever happened. (20) No rope, no snake, no one frightened, no dawn in which the error is discovered (21) One awareness wearing the world the way a room wears its lamplight (22) Separateness is the longest-running optical illusion (23) Different from God and identical to God by nature, the way a wave is water (24) No illusion required and none offered D. (25) The world is real and it is God's body (26) Love requires two, so the second is never dissolved (27) You are your own, and never for one second self-supporting (28) Both halves of that are the entire doctrine (29) You and God never merge (30) The soul's dignity lies in remaining itself and loving what stays Other E. (31) The one you are looking for is in neither the mosque nor the temple (32) You have been carrying them around all morning (33) One name, no caste at the door (34) The work of the world is where the practice happens F. (35) The oldest metaphysics repackaged for a world of nations (36) Translated into English and shipped back (37) Ask who is asking (38) Follow the question all the way home (39) Evolution has not finished (40) Consciousness is still descending into matter (41) Matter is still learning to hold it (42) Truth is what is undergone (41') The body is where the argument is made (40') A religion that assigns you a birth is an arrangement wearing religion's clothes (39') Take the dharma, leave the rebirth, keep the justice (38') Truth is a pathless land (37') And every method handed to you was the obstacle E'. (36') The world is God's real play and no illusion to flee (35') Grace carries you, effort only tires you (34') One with God and apart from God are both true (33') The contradiction is inconceivable, which is the point; surrender rather than solve D'. (32') Carry Shiva on your body (31') No temple, no priest, no caste; equality is the whole of the spirituality (30') Soul, world, and Shiva all real (29') Impurity binds you; grace alone cuts the knot (28') Reasoning rebuilt with instruments fine enough to measure the difference (27') Between a thing and its absence C'. (26') Do not leave the body (25') Perfect it -- until breath and posture forge something death cannot collect (24') One blissful consciousness plays at being everything, including you (23') Recognition is the only work there is (22') Desire and body are fuel (21') (given that you know which direction to point them) (20') Ultimate reality is feminine and active (19') Raw power is itself divine rather than a tool in divine hands B'. (18') The word came first (17') And is still holding the world in shape (16') What you take for a world is consciousness reporting on itself (15') Having forgotten that it filed the report (14') God descends in graded forms (13') So that finite beings have something they can actually reach (12') Four chapters of sutras (11') So terse that every school after could read its own face in them (10') Court disgrace deliberately (9') Shame burned in public is the shortest road to being rid of whoever was feeling it (8') Nothing carries its own being (7') Emptiness is also empty; this sentence is scaffolding to be taken down A'. (6') No potter, only the turning (5') Suffering has a cause, and a cause can be cut (4') Every claim is true from where it stands and false one step over (3') Injure nothing, the truth included, and the soul rises by weighing less (2') Fate has already dealt the hand (1') Striving is theatre, well performed, moving nothing Is the body an obstacle or the vehicle? What is consciousness made of, and what is everything else? What counts as knowledge? What is the relation between you and the absolute? FOUR QUESTIONS
Legend for FOUR QUESTIONS
A = Archaic
1-2 | Vedic sacrifice
3-4 | the Upanishads
5-6 | Charvaka, Brihaspati
B = Classical
7-8 | Purva Mimamsa, Jaimini
9-10 | Vaisheshika, Kanada
11-12 | Nyaya, Gautama Akshapada
13-14 | Samkhya, Kapila
15-16 | Yoga, Patanjali
C = Early Medieval
17-18 | Buddhist logic, Dignaga and Dharmakirti
19-20 | Ajativada, Gaudapada
21-22 | Advaita, Shankara
23-24 | Bhedabheda, Bhaskara
D = High Medieval
25-26 | Vishishtadvaita, Ramanuja
27-28 | Dvaitadvaita, Nimbarka
29-30 | Dvaita, Madhva
E = Early Modern
31-32 | Kabir
33-34 | Guru Nanak
F = Modern
35-36 | Vivekananda
37-38 | Ramana Maharshi
39-41 | Aurobindo
42-41' | Gandhi
40'-39' | Ambedkar
38'-37' | Krishnamurti
E' = Early Modern
36'-35' | Shuddhadvaita, Vallabha
34'-33' | Achintyabhedabheda, Chaitanya
D' = High Medieval
32'-31' | Lingayata, Basava
30'-29' | Shaiva Siddhanta, Meykandar
28'-27' | Navya-Nyaya, Gangesha
C' = Early Medieval
26'-25' | Natha, Gorakhnath
24'-23' | Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinavagupta
22'-21' | Tantra
20'-19' | Shakta, Mahadevi traditions
B' = Classical
18'-17' | Sphota, Bhartrhari
16'-15' | Yogacara, Asanga and Vasubandhu
14'-13' | Pancharatra
12'-11' | Vedanta root, Badarayana
10'-9' | Pashupata, Lakulisha
8'-7' | Madhyamaka, Nagarjuna
A' = Archaic
6'-5' | early Buddhism, the Buddha
4'-3' | Jainism, Mahavira
2'-1' | Ajivika, Makkhali Gosala
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