Embracing Life...

Who Are We?

2012-01-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

If put to the test kindly, who would be able to prove that she or he is perfectly unique and, therefore, existing independently from everything else? Who could prove that personal existence is not an integral part of the restless movement of existence as a whole? And who would dare argue that personal consciousness is conceivable outside of its peculiar cultural moorings, or the unquiet particular brain something apart from the interpenetrating and rather impersonal material reality of the Universe?
Are we just multiple sets of insubstantial personal and tribal memories driven by the same foolish desire for exclusive self-realization and, therefore, ultimately condemned to destroy ourselves? Or is it the case that, being nothing in ourselves personally, together we constitute the point of awareness (or one of the points of awareness) of the unthinkably complex mental and material reality of the cosmos and, beyond even that, the very timeless and formless ground from which all form comes into being and into which all form goes to die?

A Real Angel...

2012-01-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

The Gateway to All Understanding...

2012-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

The Simple Mind...

2011-12-30T08:03:00.000-08:00

"That which is eternal cannot be sought after; the mind cannot acquire it. It comes into being when the mind is quiet, and the mind can be quiet only when it is simple, when it is no longer storing up, condemning, judging, weighing. It is only the simple mind that can understand the real, not the mind that is full of words, knowledge, information. The mind that analyses, calculates, is not a simple mind..." Jiddhu Krishnamurti

THE TORRENT OF COSMIC LIFE...

2011-12-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

Everythingchanges with the realization that one belongs primarily to life andonly secondarily to culture and society. Life is all there, and so itis incorrect to think that one has a life, or that life is in one.Cultural formulations, societal structures and personal identities are trenches andparapets separating us from life and from each other in exchange fora false sense of security in particular identity and social status.

Allour mental and social problems are the result of this psychological and tribalalienation, so it is naïve to expect theirresolution from new or revamped forms of personal change andinstitutional reform that leave intact our collective separation fromlife. It is the very experience and aspirations of different socialgroups and individuals, that blind humanity as a whole to the fact ofits seamless integration with the whole movement of life.
We generally refuseto see the extent to which our organismic reality is deeply enmeshedin the boundless torrent of cosmic life, and are frightened to deathby the loss of personal identity implied in yielding to theundifferentiated embrace of the totality. This wrongheaded denial ofour fundamental nature preserves the conflicted segmentation of humansociety, not just through tradition and habit, but by cruellyburdening every newborn child with the same illusory sense ofphysical and mental separation. Thus conditioned, we take life to be a battle in which everyone is compelled todefend and fulfill his personal identity by following the dictates ofparticular desires and fears. To simply realize the falseness of this sense of life, does change everything. Nothing else does.

Inside Itself

2011-12-12T11:15:00.000-08:00

Self-Centered

Endlessly revolving,

appropriating everything

that comes into its sphere

as identity.

Caught in its own cage,

enough openings to relate,

not enough to escape

solitary confinement.

Accumulation

The psychological self is made of images,

ideas, and memories of:

past relationships

wife, mother, daughter, friend, enemy,

lover, boss, teacher, pets

places

countries, states, towns, neighborhoods

possessions

houses, mortgages, clothing, cars

titles and degrees

Professor, Doctor, BFA, MFA

professions

teacher, architect, accountant

ideology

religious and political

accomplishments and failures,

desires and plans,

addictions and pleasures.

Each new layer of attachment adds to the sense that I exist, I have continuity,

I am related, I am important in relation to what I associate with and disassociate from.

Falling Away

We have all seen this phenomenon,
a pile of papers,
books or blocks,
stacked so high
that the structure is no longer balanced and the whole pile starts to fall down.

Imagine if these layers were
assumptions and expectations,
world views,
accumulated stories of who,
what, when and where.

If the layers are light,
they might just float away.
No chasing,
no picking up,
no worrying about where they might go,
just an unexpected opportunity
to dismantle and be free
of the accumulation.

Inside Itself I

A sacred liveliness animates the parts within the whole.
There is no division between what is perceived to be the interior and the exterior form.
Inside Itself expresses the love and interconnectedness of the totality.

Inside Itself II

An element existing within something else, while separate and particular,
is still dependent for its existence on the larger form.

The organs of the body can be seen separately with specific and highly specialized functions,
but it would be absurd to say that they exist independently from the body.

A flock of birds, a school of fish, and a swarm of bees all move together
as if they were a single organism guided by the same mind, and yet the individuals
in each group are vitally connected to the environment in which they live.

If you imagine the earth, do you just see the rocky sphere of the planet,
or do you include the sky and clouds, the oceans, rivers and glaciers,
the soil, the animals and plants? Does Earth end at the biosphere?
Could we exist without the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe?

As a human being, do we exist separately from the natural environment or the social connections
which sustain us? Physically and psychologically, where do we begin and end?

Who's Looking?

Who is the one who is looking?
Can I keep stepping back while asking the question until it is apparent
that there is no individual apart from Life?

Is it not Life that is the observer all of the time,
even when the conditioning of thought creates a lens of distortion?

Imagine what would happen if that lens could be taken off completely.
What would Life see?

Would there be a new clarity, a new intensity,
an awareness of relationship that we are currently missing?

The Great Unfolding

We are product,
and part,
and one with
the continuously generating source.

Our understanding of life continues
to unfold, with a greater awareness
of the unity of the whole.

This unity denies our individuality, our isolation,
our separation.

We are able to move beyond both the despair of self-centered withdrawal
and the desire for personal success.

There Is No Separation

As I walk the path from the house to the garden, I can see the bright yellow
Rudbeckia blossoms moving with the wind. The birdhouse that protected a chickadee
and her young this spring, is now empty, except for a spider that is busy making its own
webbed nest. As I pass through the gate and into the garden, I stop to look at the squirrels
chasing each other in spirals down the trunk of one of the many Black Walnut trees surrounding
this small garden. The air is full of the sounds of crows, woodpeckers, small song birds,
crickets and cicadas. The sun comes and goes under the clouds. I move through the garden
in an almost trance-like state, not in any hurry, nor with any real purpose, except to see what
is there. It occurs to me that nothing in this garden is aware of its own beauty. The flowers
don't know their power of attraction, they just attract. Each flower comes from a seed in
the ground, unfolds its beauty, petal by petal, attracts and is pollinated by bees and wasps,
and eventually drops the seed that it has created so that the next part of the plant cycle will
continue. Are we, as human beings any different from this cycle of life? While we may get
caught up in our own vanity and drive for individual identity, are we not carried through
each stage of life, our body growing, changing, transforming, without our control or initiative.
Isn't it true that just like the plants, we must have the sun, water, minerals from the earth, air,
warmth, and the interaction between us and other beings, in order to fully develop and survive?
Where are the boundaries between the body and nature? Where are the boundaries between
the human being and Life?
There is no separation.

This exhibit is currently showing at the Community Arts Partnership, ArtSpace, in Center Ithaca, on the Ithaca Commons, until December 22. Books with the images and texts are for sale ($35) and will help us in covering some of the costs of the exhibit. E-mail schragk@gmail if you are interested.

Update: I have added a link at the bottom of the blog page, so that you can order the Inside Itself catalog directly from Lulu books. If you would still rather order the book from us, send us an email. schragk@gmail.com

News from the world not created by thought...

2011-11-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

Let it Be Here and Now

2011-11-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

There is No Separation

2011-10-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

As I walk the path from the house to the garden, I can see the bright yellow Rudbeckia blossoms moving with the wind. The birdhouse that protected a chickadee and her young this spring, is now empty, except for a spider that is busy making its own webbed nest. As I pass through the gate and into the garden, I stop to look at the squirrels chasing each other in spirals down the trunk of one of the many Black Walnut trees surrounding this small garden. The air is full of the sounds of crows, woodpeckers, small song birds, crickets and cicadas. The sun comes and goes under the clouds. I move through the garden in an almost trance-like state, not in any hurry, nor with any real purpose, except to see what is there. It occurs to me that nothing in this garden is aware of its own beauty. The flowers don't know their power of attraction, they just attract. Each flower comes from a seed in the ground, unfolds its beauty, petal by petal, attracts and is pollinated by bees and wasps, and eventually drops the seed that it has created so that the next part of the plant cycle will continue. Are we, as human beings any different from this cycle of life? While we may get caught up in our own vanity and drive for individual identity, are we not carried through each stage of life, our body growing, changing, transforming, without our control or initiative. Isn't it true that just like the plants, we must have the sun, water, minerals from the earth, air, warmth, and the interaction between us and other beings, in order to fully develop and survive? Where are the boundaries between the body and nature? Where are the boundaries between the human being and Life? There is no separation.

My existence or yours...

2011-10-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

There is Thought...

2011-10-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Life Itself

2011-10-10T07:41:00.000-07:00