Creative Wordshops Newsletter October 2020

Ancestral Karma
Let’s begin with numbers 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
These numbers = ancestral multiplication. We are at the bottom, the vortex, the focal point of an expanding V. Two parents, four grandparents , eight great-grand etc. etc. In 10 generations over 1000 people are alive in our cells, directly. Singing the chorus of our bodies. We are a choral work.

In Present Moment Wonderful Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us ‘If you look into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. You are the continuation of each of these people.’

One day we too will be ancestors. If we extend the other way, passing on genes and DNA to those who come after us, we’re into diminishing fractions – ½ ¼ 1/8 1/16 1/32 – half of us in our children , ¼ in our grandchildren, etc etc. Most of us concede that genetic influence, physical attributes, disposition, unresolved issues run down-hill, given that the past influences the present. This is so yet if we move beyond linear time, there are those ever-present moments that TS. Eliot writes of in his oft-quoted meditation:

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

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