Mina Loy - Stories and Essays of Mina Loy

The flesh cannot say be the flesh we suffer — because the flesh is the flesh— Yet the flesh and the soul can say to one another — we suffer.

Sensibility explores the nervous system and reports to the soul.

Yet the soul cannot suffer. Yet it is the audience without which the body has nothing to which to convey its suffering—

And happiness is inherent to the soul — the flesh cannot be happy without contact with the soul — but happiness is in the soul—

Pleasure is an operation of the body to allow somewhat of the joy of the soul to filter through it.

As it is possible to cure suffering so it is impossible to cure happiness.

You can say be happy although you have not got the love you desire — you cannot say be unhappy because you have got the love you desire.

Happiness is then the rightful condition — the condition “expected” by every human soul — because there can never be any need for its illumination—

It is the thing that must ever of necessity be rightly, “allowed to remain.”

There is some mistake to the declaration, “Man’s inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness”—happiness pursues man — and man in his unconsciousness is continuously running away from it.

Conceptions of events are more intense than the events per se. Because conceptions gain intensity from having no duration in time — while the event itself is prolonged and disintegrated by reason of its duration in time.

If I read of a woman starving to the point of death I get an intense concrete impression all wrapped up in the parcel of one moment of the agony of starving to death— I may weep over the social injustice — at the least it entirely holds my attention.

But if I myself experience the process of starving to death — I go through none of this agony of mind — there is no similarity between the simple poignancy of conception of starving and the complex protractedness of the inside information on starving to death—

A thousand and one things are occupying my mind — I notice that my shoulder blades are bobbing through my jersey dress.

I remember all the unfinished beefsteaks I have ever left on a plate.

The sight of canned food in shop windows takes on a sudden and under all other circumstances non-existent glow — an aspect féerique .

Death — it is the only thing that at the moment is happening in my mind.

I have no waste energy for bemoaning social injustice for I am overwhelmingly aware that it would be as impossible to extract a peso out of anybody as to travel to the moon.

The man who is starving to death — feels nothing but an awful fool—

And the inevitable law of compensation steps in—

When one becomes too weak to stand up — the relief of lying down becomes so tremendous that it is almost worth the starvation to be able to indulge in it.

IV.

lo

But you may say that the blind back of man is the shutter on the fourth dimension.

But I say that that it is the arresting plane on which the universe like a cinema on the screen, through the medium of the senses, projects itself.

mi

But the universe is of the third dimension — and therefore still the shutter on the fourth dimension.

lo

But take away that shutter and the projectiles of phenomena traverse the man, who is then to all intents and purposes “not there.”

mi

I have said that man is the medium for knocking phenomena into shape. So if he was no longer limited by the blind back he would be rounded out to the fourth dimensional contacts.

It is possible that the fourth dimension would equal zero if we were unable to retract to the third dimension in order to have something focussed to compare it by—

lo

On the assumption that God without his creation would cease to exist.

V.

mi

Morality is the accurate mathematics of life.

lo

But what is morality?

mi

Morality can only be attained through a perfect understanding, domination and utilisation of the senses.

Any man who has lied has inserted a two for a one in the calculus of his life, and therefore his life-sum must add up wrong.

He cannot present an accurate computation either to himself or the cosmic mathematician.

Yet in an illogical society there is often the necessity for a temporary lie for the sake of ultimate truth.

In the ultimate analysis morality is clarity.

VI.

lo

Do you believe that any extra-ordinary consciousness can be obtained through what is known as meditation — and if there is any demonstrable value in what is known as enlightenment? Or illumination?

mi

It is extremely difficult to distinguish in meditation where physical phenomena end and lucidity begins.

The first semblance is that of exceeding the confines of the body — the feeling of the dissolution of the physical load — but the reality of this is difficult to disengage from the results of the cessation of visuality.

Be that as it may, it is undeniable that the un-use of the eyes — in a state of complete wakefulness — sets up a sublimation of sight outwards to an intensity of sight inwards.

Life originates in the fourth dimension and is projected into the third dimension. It has been explained that a man aware of the fourth dimension, if enclosed within a room without exits, could get out of the room.

That is because he in the fourth dimension — can follow the procedure of the universal involution.

The introspector is aware that he is connective with infinite distance—

That is he can in the third dimension be aware that life is unlimited in what we call space — although it appears to be limited in time.

He is aware that life que lui est disponible —is unlimited — but that the three dimensional organism at his disposal can only make a limited use of it.

And all men of ample consciousness find third dimensional phenomena to be barriers to the following of their consciousness up or back to its source.

If there were entities whose conscious rhythm coincided with the intervals of atomic matter and time — it would be possible for other entities and another universe with different phenomena to inhabit the identical space occupied by ourselves—

A universe superimposed upon this universe.

Reality is the seal of the creator on nothingness.

The introspector in trying to catch the process of his mind is conscious of a certain restriction — not of the property of his mind but of his manipulation of it. He is insistently disturbed by the oppression of not being able to avail himself of all there is there.

This is a good deal owing to the slowness of intellectual process — the protractedness of educational exercise — and the paucity of events or aims in individual life. It is also caused by the absorption of information through single-sensed organs — in which the impression is flat instead of globular—

A globular impression.

VII.

mi

It were erroneous for one by whom all things are understood to encumber himself with an opinion—

lo

Yet is not that understanding an attainment to the consummate point of view? Is not point of view opinion?

mi

In so much as opinion is the defence of a situation? Whereas he who understands is he who immovably identifies himself with — –