I already did last night’s dishes! How is that for an energetic start? I’m finally a bit settled after my four day trip to Derrick over the weekend. I arrived in Victoria at 8:30am and left on Tuesday at about 6:30pm. Michelle was so kind to drive me in the morning on Saturday and Elisabeth to pick me up on Tuesday evening. Thanks ladies, all good karma to you, as Michelle says and my appreciation as well.

Thanks ladies, all good karma to you, as Michelle says and my appreciation as well.

Derrick and I had a very good visit. Upon arrival, Derrick drove to a coffee shop where we got stuff to go, then proceeding to the ocean side. There we found a bench in the sun, away from the traffic, where I related my family visits in Holland to Derrick, which was one reason to make this visit. For the evening Derrick took me along to the ‘annual’ potluck of his meditation group, where I met several of his friends and Heather even, where Els and I stayed in 2005 at SSI!

Sunday we visited the West Shawnigan trestle along the Cowichan trail at about an hour’s drive from Victoria and is a part of the trans Canada walk trail. The trestle has been reconstructed, is very safe to visit and informative as well. On Monday Derrick was off to his work and I took the bus downtown to have coffee at Murchie’s and to visit Monroe’s book store of course. There I located three Oxford’s ‘Very shorts’, to wit: African Religions, Ethics and Trust. This in support of my planned talks this year and next for the CLEC in Calgary.

As Monday was Derrick’s birthday, he had made dinner reservation at Vista18 on Burdett avenue, eighteen floors up! There we enjoyed the late afternoon view first and the evening one later. Very nice treat Derrick, many thanks. On Tuesday I made a family tree and I showed Derrick the slide show I’d made of my family visit in Holland.

Besides all this we had many talks and walks, made meals, did the dishes and ate out on the deck several time, enjoying the fine fall weather and each other’s company. I was over last in the spring of 2013 and am now quite familiar with Derrick’s place and the Victoria streets as well.

I noticed this trip that my focus of familiarity has shifted from Vancouver to Victoria. As a family we first visited Victoria on the way back from Hornby Island around 1976 and 1977 with my parents. After that came visits in 1994 [at Christmas with Derrick], 1997 twice [Tom; my sisters], 2003 [the tepee], 2005 [Els], 2013 and now in 2014. I know Victoria better then any other city except Calgary; this familiarity snuck up on me as I visited Derrick this time!

On Wednesday I forgot about the first session of my course with Herman, but I did my sorting that evening. Yesterday I met with Elisabeth for a coffee in Bridgeland at 9:15am! Then downtown for lunch with John followed by shopping for produce at DJ to restock my fridge! I closed the day off with skipping the dishes and reading several chapter’s in Hans Stolp’s Dutch book on his religious experiences, called in transliteration “Where do you get it from?”

While at Derrick’s this past weekend, I made a note in my Coptic style bound paper blanks ‘Celestial Planisphere’ note book pp. 35, 36, concerning existence. That morning, as I sat on the deck in the sun I gave some thought to the idea that existence has two characteristic forms, the energy form and the material form.

This idea surfaced as I considered Einstein’s famous formula: E=m*c*c, which relates energy to the mass of the material body. So, it occurred to me we can have existence in material form or in energy form, such as E-M or electro-magnetic fields, these two then forming these two modes of existence.

So, it occurred to me we can have existence in material form or in energy form …

This energy type existence can be in field form, such as the earth’s magnetic field. In this particular case magma changes in the earth’s core will alter the related field. So, some relation between energy and matter does exist and changes in the material mode can affect the energy (field) state, if there is one. I was left with the question as to whether the field state could affect the matter state? I could not think of an example right then and there.

On a different note I also want to comment on my reading in Stolp’s book. He refers to Pim van Lommel’s Dutch book ‘Infinite consciousness’ [Ten Have, 2007] as I transliterate this title from Dutch.

The concept of continuous consciousness is some thing I have been considering myself for several years. I frame this as a generalisation of the idea of re-incarnation and view re-incarnation as a consequence of the idea of existence having no end or beginning, that is of being continuous. I have called this mystery we find ourselves in ‘Existence Divine’, because of its mysterious yet also knowable nature, such as we humans experience that.

This is as far as I have come with these thoughts and concepts, but I am working on some extensions of them in an attempt to give them significance in our daily lives. As a hint, I am considering that our existence in the realm of humanity points to our bringing this continuous consciousness into daily awareness, to combine it with our discovery of rules of ethical behaviour, which is uniquely human, such as it is.

On second thought after lunch and a snooze, I want to add the following. Infinite is not the same as continuous. Infinite can be added to, subtracted from without increasing or decreasing it and remains undefined in that sense. Also we need to ask infinite small or large and what about the finite? Is that then excluded?

In contrast, the concept continuous simply means continuity of consciousness between two different states or modes of existence. It has no implications about the existential aspects that ‘infinite’ has. Continuous means to continue with what already is there. I find continuous a more functional concept than ‘infinite’ and thus will use it, as I have in the past.
<10:28pm as I close this entry off.