CHESMAYNE
Vision
View
of corner of stone-floored kitchen
01 The average chess player
looks without seeing. Your eye’s are a
remarkable visual instrument containing 100+ million light
receptors each of which can handle 5+ photons of light per second and can
discriminate 1,000,000+ shades of colour.
It is the most sophisticated Single Reflex Camera on the planet. An example of this is ‘reading speed’ (words
per second), and ranges from about 1.5 words-per-second for a slow reader to
about 1000+ per-second for a very fast reader.
The act of seeing with the eye - the act or power of perceiving what is
not actually present to the eye, whether by some supernatural endowment or by
natural intellectual acuteness, ‘to lack vision in dealing with great problems’
- something seen or presented to the mind otherwise than by natural, ordinary sight in the normal waking state -
a mental view or image, whether of supernatural origin or merely imaginative, of
what is not actually present in place or time - a sight seen in a dream,
ecstasy, trance, or the like.
02 Visionary: unreal or
imaginary - purely ideal or speculative - one who is given to novel schemes or
ideas. Vision refers to the goal, seen
imaginatively and to which all your efforts are directed. Passion is the degree of desire to accomplish
your vision and has been described as a burning hunger. Faith/belief in your own mental power is
also an essential attribute and is often attacked by those who do not
comprehend a visionary. Jorge Luis
Borges 1899-1986 was referred to as ‘the blind visionary’ and also a chess
player and explorer of the meaning of words.
Subjective experiences occurring during sleep, (dreams) or when waking
or, in a trance-like state (visions).
In many religions, these may be interpreted as messages from God or
the gods, or inspired prophecies concerning the future eg, Joseph (Genesis 37:5), Isaiah
(Isaiah 6), and Peter (Acts 10:9), Joseph and Pharaoh, and Daniel and Nebuchadnessar
or, linked with the call of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John (Revelation). Other dreams or visions were associated with
the birth of Christ. Gabriel is
said to have helped Daniel interpret visions (Daniel 8, 9) and foretelling the
births of John the Baptist and of Jesus (Luke 1). Ezekiel: had a vision and a revelation
calling him to the task of prophecy. A
grave near
03 Jnana (
04 Jnana-Murda: the ‘sign of
insight’. The Buddha is often shown
holding up his hand with the thumb touching the tip of the middle index finger, forming a circle
signifying all-round knowledge of the three worlds.
05 Prajna (
06 Vimalanatha (
07 The name ‘Aisling’ means
dream or vision - ‘speir-bhean’ or vision-woman. Speir-Bhean (Irish): the spirit or
vision-woman encountered by poets who wander in lonely places. Poems of this kind are called
‘Aislings’. The speir-bhean takes on
the form of the sorrowing
08 Hagar: she had a vision of
the race that would spring from the child she would bear by Abraham (Ishmael) and from whom the Arabs trace their
descent.
09 “Where there is no vision, the
people perish”.
10 Joel 2:28 – “I will pour out
my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old
men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions”. Some have the view that God was revealed in
the gospels and that no other direct communications between God and humankind
are to be expected. However, there is a
rich tradition of visionaries, from the early Church onwards ie, Saint Claire
who assisted Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Therese of Lisieux and Saint
Bernadette of Lourdes, have become venerated members of the hagiarchy.
11 The Tempest:
Our revels now are ended. These
our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and, Are melted into air, into
thin air, The clowd-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples,
the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like
this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff, As dreams are made on, and
our little life, Is rounded with a sleep
(IV.2).
13 The book of Revelation was
expressed to John in visions. Jung
postulated a common mental substratum which he called the ‘collective
unconscious’. He found a common theme
in the fairy
tales, mythologies and
sacred literature of the world. Edgar
Cayce saw the visions of John as archtypes of the collective unconscious ie,
the internal processes and structures within us all.
14 Visement: consideration,
deliberation, reflection, thought.