Circles of Infinity
A Meditation Inspired by the Work of Nimi Wariboko
Circles in a Circle
by
Wassily Kandinsky
"Circles in a Circle" is a compact and closed composition. Kandinsky began a thoughtful study of the circle as an artistic unit starting from this painting.
The outer black circle, as if the second frame for a picture, encourages us to focus on the interaction between the inside circles, and two intersecting diagonal stripes enhance the effect, adding a perspective to the composition.
...Circles in a Circle...reflects [ Kandinski's] continued belief that certain colors and shapes signify emotions that can be codified and combined into a whole, reflecting the harmony of the cosmos.
For Kandinsky, the circle, the most elementary of forms, had symbolic, cosmic significance.
He wrote that "the circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the excentric in a single form, and in balance."
Emily Hage, from Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Impressionism and Modern Art (2007), p. 136.
"The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and finally impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended."
Wassily Kandinsky
Image and text source: wassilykandinskly.net
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
''Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge''
A means of gaining inspiration, at any time of the day, and with little effort, is meditation. One approach to meditation is visualization.
Meditation, as I understand it, is a style of using the mind that emphasises a balance between passivity and action. It stimulates mental creativity by drawing on the power of the mind to feed on mental silence, on images and ideas, with different degrees of action from the more active powers of the mind.
Visualization is the act of mentally picturing something. It can be used as the active component in meditation.
I have been inspired by various meditation techniques from diverse religious and non-religious contexts and have developed mine. One of the methods I have composed is a form of what is known in Buddhism as Guru Yoga, identification with a guru, a teacher about ultimate values, as a means of pursuing a relationship with ultimate reality.
This approach draws upon the embodiment of inspiring values by such a teacher in order to empower one's own aspiration to such values.
An approach to this is to visualize the guru in a setting or in relation to activities that represent the goals aspired to, or imagine oneself as engaging in activities the guru is known to have engaged in. One may also imagine oneself as merged with the guru and sharing the same identity. The guru may also be seen as conjoined with an image of ultimate reality and oneself as physically and mentally absorbed in the guru, thereby immersing oneself in these images both human and ultimate.
Such a method unifies Deity Yoga, identification of self with a deity, with Guru Yoga, identification of self with a guru. A Christian construct of this technique is the Stations of the Cross, in which the devotee mentally travels with Christ on his way to the cross, a method in which Christ is seen as both guru and deity.
These contemplative techniques, however, are best understood imaginatively, not literally. They are most helpful if not taken to mean the literal idea of a guru as being identical with an idea of ultimacy or oneself as operating at that level on account of such meditations. All humans are travellers on a road of infinite distance, those admired and those who admire them. Balance is crucial.
I discuss such ideas further in ''Deification and the Individual,'' inspired by a debate provoked by another adaptation of Deity and Guru Yoga by myself in ''Stanzas of Thanksgiving Inspired by Wariboko, Milarepa and Abhinavagupta.'' The Buddhist hermit poet Milarepa, the Nigerian-American philosopher, theologian and economist Nimi Wariboko and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant being currently my primary figures of inspiration in Guru Yoga.
My direct inspiration for adapting this method comes from Bernard Bromage's Tibetan Yoga, in which he advocates such a form of identification with an inspiring spiritual figure, living or departed, in the understanding that the creative powers such an individual represents transcend time and space.
One may employ various inspiring personages in one's meditations, opening the day shortly after waking with one of these meditations, and ideally performing another one at a particular time in the middle of the day and another before going to bed.
One could use the same contemplation for different times of the day but could combine them when one feels like. One of such reflections I have shaped may be called Circles of Infinity, and is derived from the writings of Wariboko.
One morning, I found myself moving from my customary Milarepa meditation, seated at the mouth of a cave as I watch the sun rise above distant mountains, illuminating the world in which are visible my fellow humans in a town in a valley below the cave, solar illumination of human activity evoking the Buddhist Bodhisattva vow to which Milarepa was dedicated, summed up particularly exquisitely by Santideva in the Bodhicaryavatara, ''As long as space abides, as long as the world abides, so long shall I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world,'' a vow I adapt in my own way to reflect the cognitive focus I share with Milarepa, a quest for understanding of the meaning of existence, and through one's lifestyle and more explicit effort, helping others cultivate their own understanding of such ultimate values.
One morning, I found myself moving from my customary Milarepa meditation, seated at the mouth of a cave as I watch the sun rise above distant mountains, illuminating the world in which are visible my fellow humans in a town in a valley below the cave, solar illumination of human activity evoking the Buddhist Bodhisattva vow to which Milarepa was dedicated, summed up particularly exquisitely by Santideva in the Bodhicaryavatara, ''As long as space abides, as long as the world abides, so long shall I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world,'' a vow I adapt in my own way to reflect the cognitive focus I share with Milarepa, a quest for understanding of the meaning of existence, and through one's lifestyle and more explicit effort, helping others cultivate their own understanding of such ultimate values.
I found myself moving from the Milarepa meditation, based on accounts of Milarepa's life, and on my own need to harmonize the love of solitude I share with Milarepa with the social orientations I find vital, to a Wariboko meditation, adapting his focus on social bonds in relation to intimacy with nature, to the unborn and the creator of the universe, a movement between meditations provoked by the sense of a need to enrich social sensitivities in the context of a ceaseless quest for knowledge in the context of the ultimate. Hence, I am further developing and sharing this meditation based on Warboko's description of his own contemplative practices.
The meditation helps cultivate sensitivity to other people as well as to the larger contexts of existence, combining the development of emotional awareness and interpersonal attunement in relation to the cosmic context of existence, strategic qualities of Wariboko's work.
The meditation is facilitated by sitting still, ideally in a quiet environment, to aid concentration, and closing one's eyes.
Short Form
Opening
Imagine yourself seated in a comfortable home. Yet, you are able to see and hear around you the beautiful sights and sounds of birds.
Next, imagine a circle surrounding you, representing the various people who contribute or have contributed creatively to your life.
Visualize another circle surrounding that one. This circle stands for the creator of the universe, if you believe in one.
Middle
Stretching from your feet into the unseeable distance, imagine a road, a road leading into infinity.
Coming down this road, in the air above you, imagine you hear the footsteps of those in the present and the future whom your life and work inspire, the footsteps of present and future generations.
Conclusion
Hold these images and ideas for as long as you like, allowing the mind to soak them in, and then let go of them.
Open your eyes, relax for some time to help accustom yourself to returning to your daily life as your mind absorbs those images and the ideas they represent.
Longer Form
Opening
Image yourself seated in a comfortable home. Yet, you are able to see and hear around you the beautiful sights and sounds of birds.
Next, imagine a circle surrounding you, representing the various people who contribute or have contributed creatively to your life.
After the circle representing those who contribute to your life comes a circle indicating the fact that you exist.
After that appears another circle representing the existence of the universe within which you live.
After that imagine a circle symbolizing the possibilities that enable the existence of the universe. These could be understood in terms of the physical structure and dynamism of the cosmos. They could also be conceived in terms of metaphysical conditions, beyond physical reality but underlying it. These two possibilities may be combined as one idea.
Finally, if you believe in a creator of the universe, comes another circle enclosing all the others, indicating this ultimate creator.
Middle
Stretching from your feet into the unseeable distance, imagine a road, a road leading into infinity.
Coming down this road, in the air above you, imagine you hear the footsteps of those in the present and the future whom your life and work inspire, the footsteps of present and future generations.
Conclusion
Hold these images and ideas for as long as you like, allowing the mind to soak them in, and then let go of them.
Open your eyes, relax for some time to help accustom yourself to returning to your daily life as your mind absorbs those images and the ideas they represent.
Inspirational Sources
These images and ideas come from the acknowledgements pages of various books by Wariboko, his acknowledgements pages being amongst his best writing, at least one of which, that of The Split God: Pentecostalism and Critical Theory ( Albany: SUNY Press, 2018. ix-x) merits equating with the classics of world literature.
The concentric circles image is from The Pentecostal Hypothesis: Christ Talks, They Decide. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade, 2020, xxi. The image of birds is from Nigerian Pentecostalism. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2014, xvii. The idea of the footsteps of coming generations is from The Split God: Pentecostalism and Critical Theory. Albany: SUNY Press, 2018. ix-x. The concept of infinity recurs in various books of Wariboko's.
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