...because it involves ‘others.’
This fear always manifests as condemnation and distrust of others, as you avoid entering that 'space,' while becoming more estranged from your 'self.' Time can serve two purposes, to come closer together or to move farther apart.
On which path do you travel?
It is not the space between thoughts that must be explored in your meditative reveries or contemplative musings. It's the space between minds that is the final frontier yet to be explored. Consciousness is shared and all exploration must be a joint venture.
However, be forewarned, in that ‘space’ you will not find your ‘self,’ nor will you find the other. However, what you will find is beyond comprehension because it is does not conform to egocentric conditions.
It has been referred to as the unified non-duality of Christ Consciousness.
World change requires collective access to this ‘space.’ However, two minds engaged in the mutual goal of seeing each other differently can become immersed in a conceptually indefinable experience rarely encountered and impossible to describe in words.
Perceiving the other without the past literally alters space/time, simply because physical reality is an interior experience that the ego splits itself off from by superimposing exterior concepts. Joint minds create and this is the world we all experience together, because we make it "real."
Yet, because the ego fears and deeply distrusts others (more than any other experience) it attempts to go alone to some imagined netherworld of the 'self,' and this has always been defined as the individual “hero’s journey”.
Alone nothing will be found because nothing is created. We create together as components of the same composite consciousness. You can imagine yourself as alone, but you can never BE alone.
In misunderstanding our function we constructed the experience of an individual ‘self’ that is known only through relationship to other selves. The irony is that ‘we’ collectively constructed "individualism" and although we are transfixed by the individual ego-self, we cannot deny the force that pulls us together. But we can resist that force and it is this resistance that often makes us feel exhausted in the form of all our personal conflicts and mental ills.
To experience the space between minds is to dive in head first with whomever you are close to in the moment. There was no coincidence in those you chose and chance does not play a role in this infinite game. Free-will is at your disposal. Denying that choices were made does NOT deny free-will.
This time, instead of moving ever farther away, stare fear in the face…and jump in!
Artwork by Naoto Hattori - "Multiform"
Every time I want to assign some complex of standards, rules, or even basic symbols to the idea of 'self' and 'other', not only do they get further apart, but the idea itself loses meaning in my mind. The constructs I use to bridge the gulf between "my" mind and "your" mind fall apart, and it always seems more infinite. The only time I've ever felt the gap close was sharing in silence. It's why I can sometimes feel closer to a complete stranger. I used to feel guilty about that, and maybe that's OK. It would be nice to just exist in that indefinite silence with the people I'm closest to. To be naked like an ancient tribe, without trying to paint everything with words.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, eventually we need to get to the wonderful meaninglessness of 'self,' so we can play infinitely in a seemingly finite world.
And it seems to me that sharing in the silence does NOT even need 'bodies' be in the same vicinity. But then, even with bodies near, to share in the silence does certainly remove one from the imposition of concepts onto each other.
but I can understand why an ego-self would feel guilty about that. I know people who refuse to allow silences come between. Such a fear of that...
Thanks!
mikeS