PHILOSOPHY

The world is an illusion, but it is an illusion which we must take seriously, because it is real as far as it goes and in those aspects of reality which we are capable of apprehending. Our business is to wake up. We have to find ways in which to detect the whole or reality in the one illusory part which our self-centred consciousness permits us to see. We must not live thoughtlessly, taking our illusion for the complete reality, but at the same time we must not live to thoughtfully in the sense of trying to escape from the dream state. We must continually be on our watch for ways in which we may enlarge our consciousness. We must not attempt to live outside the world, which is given to us, but we must learn how to transform and transfigure it. Too much 'iwsdon' is as abad as too little wisdom, and there must be no magic tricks. We must learn to come to reality without the enchanter;s wand and his book of the words. One must find a way of being in this world while not being of it. A way of living in time without being completely swallowed up in time.

Aldous Huxley - words from his death bed, 1963




THE NATURAL WORLD


ROCK'n'ROLL

Keith, Keith! KEITH! What is it that we must never do? But he never tells us. So sometimes we don't keep ourselves in check and we go off and make a record with some South American rainforest people or decide that the electric guitar is too limiting in its ability to express the magnitude of our imagination. Of course, we make arseholes of ourselves and we come back and we are sorry; we pick up our guitar and some time soon see a picture of Keith, and those eyes of his tell us, 'I told you so,' and yes, he did.'

from Bad Wisdom by Bill Drummond & Mark Manning