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I do enjoy watching Strictly Come Dancing on the television.. As a non dancer. I find the grace and skill of the dancers exhilarating. Watching the women in their first appearance I couldn’t believe that they could go from nothing to Ginger Rogers in two weeks. Has anyone seen the l film - ‘Strictly Ballroom’?
The only drawback is Brucie - I just don’t like him - in fact I put a message on the BBC web site to say I found him crudely out of place amongst all that grace and glamour. I don’t like his music hall smutty jokes - they don’t fit in.
Whenever he comes on I shout at the screen and tell him to get off - but he doesn’t. But then teelevision is only an illusion - all television is an illusion. I took part in a TV discussion programme last summer called ‘the Gloves off debate’ and we kept stopping for this and that and at the end we had to do special takes on smiling, agreeing, looking interested etc.
Years ago I went to see Stars in their Eyes being made - and all that bit about them going out and coming back through the door to perform is not real, you know - it is an illusion.
Now if you were a Hindu or a Buddhist you would know all about illusion - because they say that all of life is an illusion - they say you can no more change life than you can change the course of a film by shouting at the screen.
I am not so sure about that - but with their law of Karma, they believe it to be so - you have to deal with the challenges set for this life to have a better life in the next round.
I do believe in the world of illusion though - simply because each of us live in so many different worlds. Let me try to explain
The one thing nearly all of us have in common is the world of nature, the recognition of colour - but there is not much else. The world of nature and colour is fairly constant.
The other week we took a day off and decided to go and visit Settle which is just across the Lancashire border in Yorkshire.
The journey there gave us breathtaking views - one after the other. Our journey took us alongside the River Ribble and the railway line that eventually goes to Carlisle across the head of the river valley. The first touch of autumn was on the trees, there was the slightest touch of cold air, the distant moorland seem to go on forever, one hill rolling onwards from another, all bathed in the sharp brightness of the day. They too seemed held in suspense between summer and autumn - the colours were muted and the predominant glow was gold. In all the villages we passed through there was a sense of timelessness and history - the stone cottages and the village gardens and hanging baskets - still hanging on with colour. It was beautiful - but this was the physical world we could all share in.
But there are other worlds we each live in and do not share in- and they lay on top of each other like so many transparencies with their own particular engravings and colours.
There are many worlds inside our own heads. The worlds that are our very selves - the world of personal history and life - holding all the reactions to the experience of the outside worlds we live amongst - the worlds of family and people, work, travel, play and entertainment.
Within our heads is the world of imagination that is able to change and modify the world of the present - imagination may change a brief encounter into a hope of lasting friendship; and can change a loose word spoken by a friend into a slur and a cruel put down; changes what seems impossible into something which is achievable. The world of imagination is the great engine inside our heads which interprets the world in ways both positive and negative. They say that for those who suffer with autism, this world of imagination does not function.
Then there is the internal world of emotion - a world sometimes of self doubt and fear, sometimes of exuberance and confidence; sadness or joy. It is a world that responds to both the inner worlds and the outer worlds of nature, people and experience.
Add to this the spiritual world of beliefs and faith - the worlds of heaven and ancestors and gods. The world of visions of how things ought to be set against how things are so wrong.
Each of us has all hese many worlds to live in - we use them all - but for each of us our worlds are so different.
It reminds me of those eye sight tests at the opticians where a series of lenses are dropped into frames and you have to look at lines and letters and say which combination gives the clearest vision.
You can see why Hindus can say that life is an illusion - or that people are deluded.
It is the eternal religious quest to look through all these overlaid transparencies and lenses of worlds and see clearly - to see some kind of truth that makes life both understandable and bearable - even joyful.
Some religions will say that yes we are all deluded and we must put in front of our eyes one more big frame which is the world they say is true - make that the central world of all the other worlds - as long as you live by those rules then you will be OK - but I can’t help feeling that that is only a way of blinding people - some might stay blind forever but others will get their sight back and never look on that world again.
I believe that those who have the lens of the spiritual world within them have a need to explore and discover such a world - because when it comes clearly into focus, then all other worlds come into focus too - and a true sense of life - and reality is achieved -- and it is not a truth and reality about the outside world that has changed but a truth and reality within the many internal worlds of our own heads and minds.
The pilgrimage towards spiritual enlightenment begins - by looking at all these internal worlds rather than simply through them.
Looking at the responses we make to what goes on around us - responses to friends, family, situations. Checking what the world of imagination is saying - whether it is being too imaginative or not enough; Checking the world of emotions - keeping them in check and looking clearly at the light in the messages that are coming through.
The spiritual world is a true world, I believe but it can never be the only world. All the others exist and always will. What clears the spiritual lens is being able to be in control of all those other worlds within us. It is then that the true far sighted and clear sighted self emerges.
Perhaps as we go along on this pilgrimage of self discovery, we see more clearly how the whole world really is and we learn to accept it and love it for being what it is - and pour love will begin to change it. It is a far surer way than shouting at the action on the cinema screen or ranting at Brucie on the tele and telling him to leave the floor for the dancers
amen
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