The Epitomes of Openness

Artwork: “Rose”, Devin Becker, 2017 (source)

Let me begin with Repetition. Unseen metronome. Seconds, minutes, hours. Days & nights. Sun & Moon. The Wildfire of Bodies breathing the Spark of Life. Unchosen birth. Unchosen body. Awareness & memory. Sleeping & waking, always this same body. Aging & Death? 

Many have words, but who can show us why? I don't know why. It is all, a Great Mystery. 

Memento amaris. On towards death, Self.

Artwork: “The Lovers” (section), Remedios Varo, 1963 (source)

I confess to you that ultimately, I am uncertain. I don't know what's going on or why or what it's like to be you. That I might be wrong. I can only perceive the world through my Awareness. That words can deceive, even my own. We choose definitions. That, everything changes. That, your Awareness & mine are still, the greatest of mysteries.

Artwork: “From the Cave of the Heart”, Tomás Sánchez, 2005 (source)

Being open to what is. Listening. Admitting when we don't know. Questioning certainty. Noticing preferred stories. Imagining what might be true. Suspending judgment. Sitting in the discomfort of uncertainty. Holding yet not clinging, allowing space for the flow of The Mystery to unfold. Deciding & acting when we must, but ever returning to Openness.

Artwork: “Coupled Spirits of the Half Moon”, Andy Kehoe, 2023 (source)

"The Mystery", two-words confessing, "for I know I do not know". My imagination, pointing at the infinite star sky of Possibility, the dangers of the dark woods, the river-truth of tears, at the Source of Life & Awareness. At what comes next. 

Many can tell us words, but who can show us if our Awareness ends? Or where it came from? Or why, even for the innocent, there is sickness, suffering & death? 

The Mystery is endless. The Mystery is everywhere.

Artwork: “Reflections from the Other Side”, Chema Mendez, 2024 (source)

"Awareness", the word pointing at the spheric open spaciousness enveloping the unseeable inner eye & ear, the river of embodied feeling. At my perceptions, my subjective experience, which I imagine others similarly experience. Who also, can but only imagine others' Awareness?

Why is my Awareness only in my body? Others appear to have Awareness, but if we can't experience others' Awareness, how can we be certain?

Artwork: “Rushing Water”, Richard Mittelstadt, 2020 (source)

Truth is the river, white-water rapids, raw chaos unfolding. Sensed instantly yet infinitely wordable. We begin believing we know the river, but all we really know are the river banks. Endlessly changing form & content, can any words or forms ever fully express the river?

Not knowing is sitting in silence by the river, noticing how in time, even the river banks change.

Artwork: “The Riddle”, Jake Baddeley, 2012 (source)

There is but one Truth which can be told, that we can be certain is not a lie: that we have all been lied to, that we will be lied to & that this lying will never stop. None of us chooses it, but lying & deception are fundamental to the nature of being human.

When someone tells us words, who decides if they are true? If we trust others to decide what is true, who chooses who we trust? If an intentional lie is told & we don't question it & repeat it to others, who is to blame?

Artwork: “Self Reflection”, Stuz0r, 2024 (source)

Artifice is the manifestations, not of Nature, but of our collective & individual desires. All human spaces are made of chosen forms. Artifice is the mirror, which pretends itself to be Nature, in whose reflection we choose to deceive ourselves.

Have your eyes, ever seen your own face, as others' eyes do?

Artwork: “closed minded”, Chema Mendez, 2024 (source)

A Blind Certainty doesn't listen. It won't consider questions. It has no doubts. Its mind has fully merged with its choice & it has become blind & unaware of itself. It doesn't seek opposing views. It ignores counter evidence. It sees only what it prefers. It doesn't care if it's been deceived. It never admits who benefits. It has seen itself decide, in the mirrors of others' minds & its heart has closed. It has forgotten the sky. 

Who hides from us all that is uncomfortable & undesired? What words can reach us when we stop listening to what might be true? How are hearts returned to wonder?

Artwork: “Crossroads”, Sander Bos, 2015 (source)

Possessed by a Blind Certainty, the Libido Dominandi imposes its will on others. It uses words, not to clarify, but to confuse & control. It ridicules & shames. It lies & deceives. It corrupts & coerces. It silences with fear, seizing the collective will. It demonizes & harms others saying, "For the greater good of us all. Any who disagree, stand against us. There can be no other way."

Allowing others the greatest latitude to be as they are, there is peace. Yet at the root of all evil is a Blind Certainty, which must question itself. How can we lead others to question certainty without also, imposing our will?

Artwork: “The Great Comet of 1843”, Charles Piazzi Smyth, 1843 (source)

If no one can show us where Awareness goes after death, how can we be certain Life has no higher purpose? That our choices have no higher consequences? That hurt, loss & struggle have no higher meaning?

If Life has a higher purpose, then being uncertain, not knowing precisely what that purpose is or what exists outside the context of our lives, is an essential part of that higher purpose. Faith is trusting the vital darkness of the sky, whose daylight otherwise conceals the higher lights of the heavens.

Artwork: “The Divine Migration”, David Seidman, 2019 (source)

The planks of concepts built into the Ship of Self, allowing Awareness to experience, interpret, learn, evolve & navigate the deepest waters of The Mystery. To thrive even in the chaos & uncertainty of the storm. All these ideas, planks.

Who chooses the planks of the Ship of Self?