Buddha is in the eye of the Beholder

And in this case the beholder is reflected in the Buddha!

I've recently been reading The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. In it he describes a view of the universe which I find rather appealing. Although he is very clear that few scientists accept the concept of the universe as a holograph - or holomovie - it is a model derived from particle physics.

When I was at university I took a course called quantum effects. I was studying mathematics and one aspect of the quantum effects course that really bothered me was that one of the important equations was derived by canceling infinities on each side of the equals sign - and what's more they were different kinds of infinities! Don't worry I don't recall the detail and my grasp of maths and physics these days is too limited to attempt to replicate the reasoning or even look for a suitable reference on the web. The result was that I was left wondering that they even bothered to show us such an unsound derivation - yet it was an equation that predicted useful things.

In Michael Talbot's book I've not come across any equations at all but his suggestions are wonderfully mind-boggling and definitely tease the mind of someone brought up in the scientific tradition. He also describes some of his own weird and wonderful experiences, somewhat hesitantly as he knows how hard they will be for most people, especially scientists, to credit. He is clearly looking for a scientific(-ish) explanation for psychic phenomenon and he's looking for that because of the strange things he's personally experienced.

I'm enjoying reading it.

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As most people who've read any of my blog will know I'm rather fond of synchroniciites. They are probably my favourite weird thing. When I first came across the idea I gave myself all sorts of reasons for how they must happen - from the psychological to the magic. Now I've stopped looking for reasons and just enjoy them. I also don't care if I'm stretching anyone else's sense of what might be a connection - they are synchronicities for me, you may disagree.

For the first three weeks of this month I was feeding these cats that belong to one of my neighbours whilst she was visiting her sister in Australia.


The ginger is called Ralph and the grey tabby is Ted. Ralph is quite bold, large and fluffy. Ted is much shyer but now he knows me he demands ALL of my attention. His is not cupboard love. When I was going over to feed them Ralph was very keen to be fed whilst Ted usually ignored the food and just waited for cuddles.

During the three weeks I was feeding them someone commented on a photo of one my other cat pictures on flickr he asked "Is that Ted ? Bishopston's friendliest cat !" It certainly is a friendly cat but isn't the same Ted that I was feeding at that time in Bishopston... and its the only comment I've had on that photo since I uploaded it in October.

I also noticed these in a car in our street:



A ginger and a grey koala. As I take photos of most of the things I see in cars around these streets (In-car Decorations a photoset on flickr) I know I hadn't seen them before. (And I've not spotted them since either). Can you see why I see them as an echo of Ralph and Ted? Especially since (ginger) Ralph seemed to me to be pining for his owner whilst (grey) Ted was demanding my attention.

Today my neighbour emerged from her jet lag to reclaim her key and she brought me a little present. It too was a synchronicity as it had a lizard on it as did this vase which I'd found in a charity shop last September:



I'd forgotten the synchronicities that went with the finding of the vase but luckily I'd written them up on the photo's flickr page. They also involved another lizard design though in that case of even further South - Maori. It was of a lizard tattoo that I wasn't allowed to photograph... doing a google image search on Maori lizard tattoo I found this page which says:

I chose this design mainly because I used to live in the Cook Islands, where the word in the local language for lizard is moko. In the related language of New Zealand Maori the word moko refers to the tattoos traditionally used as a form of identification, rank, genealogy, tribal history, eligibility to marry, and marks of beauty and/or ferocity. That’s the kind of play on words I love ;)

And this is the kind of loose series of synchronicities that I love!