01
What is blocking your way? Holding you back? Dragging you down? Obstructing your life? Except for what you would be free to do what needs to be done? Our obstructions are excuses. Paraplegics have the same chance at Original Personhood as anyone else. It is not what stands in our way. It is our attitude about all that stands in our way. How we see what we look at tells the tale. Joseph Campbell would ask us to imagine the Star of David-- which before it was called "The Star of David" is the six-pointed symbol "that appears in India as the sign of Chakra IV"-- the Heart Chakra. the center of empathy, compassion, sympathy, love, according to the system known as Ayurveda. This is from the Johns Hopkins website: Ayurveda, a natural system of medicine, originated in India more than 3,000 years ago. The term Ayurveda is derived from the Sanskrit words ayur (life) and veda (science or knowledge). Thus, Ayurveda translates to knowledge of life. Based on the idea that disease is due to an imbalance or stress in a person's consciousness, Ayurveda encourages certain lifestyle interventions and natural therapies to regain a balance between the body, mind, spirit, and the environment. This underscores the importance of "balance and harmony" and their central place in the service of The Way throughout our life. The two equilateral triangles melded into each other are equivalent to the yin/yang symbol of early Taoism, with "aspiration" and "inertia" cancelling each other out in a static and eternal kind of way. Which is the static and eternal way of interpreting the symbol. Another, equally possible, interpretation is to see the Fourth Chakra as a veritable map of life, much like the cross symbol of Christianity, suggesting that the present moment is always a compromise/collaboration between the forces of light and darkness, or duality in all its manifestations. We proceed as a "mystery of conjunctions" all along life's way. We walk two paths at the same time all the time. We do so by walking one path with an eye on the other path, aware of the validity of both paths, discounting, dismissing, denying, ignoring neither path ever. The ascending triangle is enabled and assisted-- Not! cancelled out or nullified-- by the descending triangle, resulting in progress, not stagnation. Moving forward/upward is propelled by our interest in/exploration of our desire for the opposite direction. We examine the downward thrust of our journey for it's insight/input/contribution to our overall wholeness/synthesis/union/completion. In our quest for upward/forward/achievement, what are we ignoring/rejecting? What insight/realization/awareness are we abandoning/banishing by our one-sided desire for conquest/subjugation/acquisition/success/glory? The two triangles meet at the center for conversation/dialogue/communion in a mutually accepting/appreciating/honoring/admiring/unifying kind of way. Consciousness expands/enlarges/deepens/develops through its recognition of and compassion for the wealth/treasures/value of the Unconscious that is with us to balance the desires/will of our conscious ego always to the end of the ages. What we know is aided and assisted by what we do not know. What we do not know is always trying to get our attention by interfering with (According to our interpretation) our plans and agendas and what we want to happen-- but the interference is always in our own best interest, if we would but take the time to empty ourselves of our idea of the good, enter the stillness and silence, and open ourselves to a good beyond our idea of the good. As Meister Eckhart said, "The final leave-taking is leaving God for God." And Joseph Campbell said, "Where you stumble and fall, there lies the treasure." There is nothing like the fall from grace to invite us to graciously receive the fall from grace, and all that it opens for eyes that see, ears that hear and hearts that finally understand. And awakening never ends. Thus, Heraclitus eternally reminds us: “Traveling on every path, you will not find the boundaries of soul by going; so deep is its measure.” And on we go! As One, together with ourselves and all other selves, one self many journeys, merrily, merrily all along the Way. Balancing, harmonizing, unifying, consolidating, synchronizing, synthesizing, bringing together all that happens, day by day.
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02
We are on our own. What are we going to do about it? I recommend listening, looking, seeing, hearing, inquiring, exploring, investigating, experimenting, evaluating, reflecting, hypothesizing, theorizing, testing, revising, with all conclusions being tentative awaiting further evidence, and all certainty being circumspect, and nothing being assumed or inferred without awareness and inspection. Trusting ourselves to know what's what and what is called for through the right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence regularly turned to and experienced/received for the clarity it offers and the direction/guidance provided thereby.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 