BRIDGING INTERVALS

BRIDGING INTERVALS

Studying the two intervals in an octave, mi-fa and si-do, the mi-fa interval is characterized by the law of accident entering the octave. If the third force that made the octave possible is not strong enough, then this is where the octave deviates. Either it’s forgotten about, or valuation wanes and the octave ends. When we think about octaves and intervals, most often we associate it with moving centered activity. A mi-fa interval may be characterized by incomplete household chores. How many times have we left dishes in the sink, or not made the bed in the morning, or vacuumed only a part of the house, and so on.

Also, a lot depends on the do note of the octave. If it is strong enough, bridging the mi-fa interval poses little problem. But there’s also beginning an octave on too strong a do. If the do is too active, when mi-fa is reached, the gap between mi and fa is so great that the octave just fizzles out. We begin an octave with loads of enthusiasm and then the passion just seems to vanish. Hobbies or pet projects sometimes end like this. Or we’re infatuated with our latest flame and then the attraction seems to fade. Nat King Coles paints that picture all too poignantly when he sings ‘Too many moonlight kisses, seem to cool in the warmth of the sun.’

When an octave reaches si-do, the nature of the denying force for completion seems to increase logarithmically. Intense negative I’s or negative emotions in relation to the octave enter. By succumbing to them, that is to say, believing the I’s or being submerged in negative emotions, the octave deviates, often into it’s own opposite. Because we believe the i’s or justify the negative emotion, we are unable see the deviation and further justify ourselves to ourselves. The pithy expression ‘Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ accurately describes not being able to bridge the si-do interval. Describing the nature of bridging the two intervals, we can say that self-remembering is a mi-fa experience and transforming suffering is a si-do experience.

Through the ages many artists have painted scenes with bridges in them. Whether or not an artist had a connection with the esoteric, in classical art, a bridge was always a depiction of the means, not only of traversing from one side of the bridge to another, but also of the passing from one state to another. The effort to reach higher centers, while herculean in nature, is inconspicuous and discreet. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa subtly portrays this process. From what looks like a wild and somewhat hazy landscape, as if to portray the tumultuous efforts of the steward in the second state striving to bridge the si-do interval, there’s a discreet, almost inconspicuous bridge that connects directly to the lady. Her visage is a serene and direct gaze with an expression of ‘neither preference nor denial’ as Walt Whitman described his experience of higher states. Indeed, the contrast of the size of the bridge in relation to the scale of the face of the lady, is yet another subtle reminder of the order of magnitude that higher centers encompass in relation to the efforts that are needed for them to emerge, whatever the intensity of that effort may have been.

The question we come to naturally is what about octaves and intervals in relation to the process of awakening? This is where school and three lines of work ensure that conscious evolution proceeds in a straight line, with no deviations. So long as we are active on all three lines, when an interval occurs on one line, there are other lines of work that bridge the intervals.

This is what makes a conscious school successful at producing consciousness in its members. A school is designed to bridge intervals, not fail them.

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