Seeing Through the Veil

 

Seeing Through the Veil, Honolulu Museum of Art (unknown pieces of art in storage), Honolulu, HI, December 2016,
Nikon D600 with FX 28-300mm VR lens, 160mm,1/15 sec @ f5.6, ISO 1000, -0.67 EV, no flash © Steven Crisp

This morning I was sitting at my desk, listening to the multitude of birds that begin their singing at the crack of dawn.  I'm not complaining ;-)   They all have different songs, and songs within songs, even discordant clicks and cackles, perhaps warning of this human illuminating their space so early.

One of the birds we are blessed with is the White-Rumped Shama, a local visitor that we've coaxed into singing, and a virtuoso performance I observed while hiking elsewhere on Oahu.   These formerly Asian song birds were brought here to be caged in local gardens.  Eventually released into the wild in the late 1930s, they now bless us daily with their melodic songs as they seem to celebrate their freedom.  Anyways, something about the immersion in this avian chorus, and the glistening dew that emerged after sunrise, brought me into another way of being.  Bubbling up in my head were the words "it seems as if" and the recognition that how we usually perceive the world is not "reality," which became "but it is not."

And in this case, on this morning, that led to the emergence of these words.  I hope they are as interesting for you to read and perhaps ponder, as they were for me to write (and edit and tweak and tweak some more) until they captured the essence of the unfolding flow.  

Oh, and about the photo above, which I picked from my photo library based on my first draft of these words.  This was from a trip with an "insider" to the Honolulu Museum of Art, and while my wife and our friend were roaming through the art displays, I was roaming far and wide with my camera.  And I stumbled upon a location where various pieces of art had been collected together and covered with plastic (perhaps it was "out with the old, in with the new").  Anyways, when I saw this photo, the words "seeing through the veil" came too me as this Buddha is meditating with his iPhone behind plastic, or so it appears.  Haha, somehow, it seemed appropriate, and prompted yet more revisions ;-)

                Seeing Through the Veil

           (It Seems As If … But It Is Not)

It seems as if … 

You were born into this world

To learn and to love and to live your life 

With various struggles and occasional triumphs

With the only guaranteed certainty of life, being death

… But it is not

It seems as if … 

You are a unique individual, with a name, and a face

And tell-tale characteristics, as different from me as from

The White-Rumped Shama's melodic birdsong at dawn 

And this morning’s cool glistening dew just after sunrise

… But it is not

It seems as if … 

You find comfort and control in categorizing and dividing up the world

Preferring, labeling, judging, or prejudicing your "sense"

Of friend or foe, right or wrong, saint or sinner

And good or bad (or maybe even evil)

… But it is not

It seems as if …

You are searching for that great insight; that "aha" moment

On a path, perhaps, to find some spiritual truth, or at least some inner-resonance

Seeking God or Nirvana or Enlightenment, or maybe just a respite from your own mind

To bring you inner peace, compassion and joy

… But it is not

But what if …

You and your life were much simpler than all of that?

What if ... you already are enough, exactly as you are now, and always have been?

What if ... you and me and everything, including that melodic birdsong, are simply one?

One what, you may ask ... one thing?    No.    No  thing.    Nothing.

Quite simply:  "Just This" ... Life, emerging, creating, flowing, dancing, loving, smiling

And what if …

Words are fundamentally inadequate to express this interdependent totality?

What if ... duality is but an illusion, no subject or object existing in isolation?

What if ... there is NoThing for the self to examine, because the whole is always emerging?

What if ... the “10,000 Things” are illusory, for there are “not two” nor is there even “one”?

But even this it is not 

        ... it is so, so much simpler (and mysterious and amazing)

                … it is what it is 

                        ... not you or me 

                                ... just dancing, behind the veil

                                        ... now, eternally now 

                                                ... within the flow

                                                        ... ahhh, resting, breathing, smiling arises

"What If?" is a Beautiful Question

What If ... Dogs Could Learn to Tango?, Lanikai Beach, Lanikai, HI, April 2020, 
Nikon D600 with FX 28-300mm VR lens,160mm, 1/500 sec @ f10, ISO 400, -0.67 EV, no flash © Steven Crisp 

"What If?"  It's a good question, don't you think? 

Or you might call it a way of questioning.  Of contemplating.  Of looking more deeply.

I've been doing that recently, having reinvigorated my spiritual inquiries.  And I must say it's all pretty fascinating.  Those who know me have heard me say "I'm spiritual, but not religious."  Indeed, I have called myself a-religious, and have some issues with a personified God.  I was not entirely sure why that issue was so visceral for me, but I guess that's just my karma (no, that's not irony, just some humor ;-)

During my recent investigations, I came upon a physicist named David Bohm.  I had heard the name before (as a wannabe physicist myself), but really knew nothing about him.  And then I stumbled upon this movie, Infinite Potential.  I think it's well done, and ties together some complex physics topics, with the drama of the A-bomb development, McCarthyism, and a scientist looking deeply for the fundamental underlying mechanisms of the cosmos.  Which ultimately brings him in touch spiritual insights from past millennia that help guide his thinking.  Here's the movie trailer (and by all means, if any of those topics sound interesting to you, you may want to purchase the movie, like I did, even having watched it twice before):

So anyways, "What If?"

What if our scientific world view, with its remarkable progress using experimentation to prove out theories, is still not the whole story?

What if underlying all that we can detect and classify, still lies something that would be able to explain some remaining conundrums, like entanglement (non-local effects), like wave-particle duality, like Schrödinger's cat (paradox), like dark matter/energy that is vastly greater than observable matter/energy throughout the universe?

What if consciousness, which remains poorly understood, has some role in this, and/or applies beyond one's physical body?

What if it's not only possible, but repeatable, and trainable, for individuals to gain control of their own mind-bodies, and realize the truths of impermanence, not-self or egolessness, and equanimity or non-reactivity, and then enter states of non-duality.

I think the biggest take-aways from the movie and from these sample what-if questions are that we really need to keep our minds open, alert, and inquisitive.  While it might temporarily "feel good" to think we have an answer, opinion, belief, or even an orthodox interpretation on these or other important questions, we should never close our minds to the possibility of new information or direct experience that might tell us otherwise.

And in the end, a recurring question we can ask is:  

Will we try to protect ourselves 

from the vicissitudes of life?

or

Will we accept and fully participate 

in Life, with Life, and as Life itself? 

Accept Life as it comes, 

in each moment, 

and remain grateful 

for each breath, 

for each smile, 

for each relationship, 

for each beautiful question,

and for each chance to Tango! 

😉