Thich Nhat Hagn's "Fear"

Monte Davis montedavis at verizon.net
Mon Jul 29 12:36:51 CDT 2013


Oh, it's downhill well before that. Samuel Beckett in a 1970 interview:
"Even before the foetus can draw breath it is in a state of barrenness and
of pain. I have a clear memory of my own foetal existence. It was an
existence where no voice, no possible movement could free me from the agony
and darkness I was subjected to."

 

And in _Murphy_, Neary curses the day he was born "and then, in a bold
flashback, the night he was conceived."

 

 

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of David Morris
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2013 11:51 AM
To: Ian Livingston
Cc: Keith Davis; P-list
Subject: Re: Thich Nhat Hagn's "Fear"

 

Yes. That is a clear way of explaining the root experience and its later
recognition/identification.

On Monday, July 29, 2013, Ian Livingston wrote:

Maybe the way to reconcile your perspectives, which both seem valid, is to
remove the labels. Birth is the first appearance the emotional sensation
that is later associated with fear, coupled with the sensation of emotional
resistance to that proto-fear that is later identified as desire.

 

On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 7:39 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com
<javascript:_e(%7b%7d,%20'cvml',%20'fqmorris at gmail.com');> > wrote:

Sure.  But birth is a stark initial lesson in separateness, even if the
"self" hasn't yet formed. And I think initial experiencing the sensation of
fear and desire is TNH's focus, something that precedes a self.



On Monday, July 29, 2013, Keith Davis wrote:

The only clarification might be that there is no consciousness of the fear
and desire until we reach the point where we become aware of a"self" as
separate from other "selves", where we develop an "individual
consciousness". 

 

On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 1:13 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

 

It starts with a description of each of us pre-birth in the "The Palace of
the Child." Everything we needed was done for us there.  Food, air, warmth,
in a big water cushioned bed, with great sound insulation.

 

Then we get pushed out into the loud cold world, having to cough out liquid
in order to take our own first breath.  Every aspect of this birth is
traumatic, and TNH says it is called the "Original Fear."  At about this
same moment we realize we want to keep living.  TNH calls this "Original
Desire."

 

I think this was all pre Freud.

 

David Morris




-- 
www.innergroovemusic.com 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130729/efd02955/attachment.html>


More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list