Unfolding consciousness or transcendence
On June 15, 2017 On Being Host, Krista Tippett had a conversation with the artist, philosopher, physicist Martînez Celaya. I have listened to that podcast and read over portions of that conversation several times. I am sure I will continue to revisit. Mr. Celaya brings to the conversation a sense of order and the friction between the “domestic spheres of our everyday lives – children, families - …and these larger movement of time and history and God…And the two of them rub against each other; and that friction between the domestic and the epic is a source of a lot of my work. So, what I’m interested in is always sort of the small – the small breakings, the small fractures.”
Still later Ms. Tippett says to him, “You sometimes say that artists should be prophets, and then often quality it and say. ‘minor prophets, at least.’…you wrote, ‘The prophet is not a martyr or mystic who seeks transcendence, but one who turns humbly and curiously toward the world.”
The terms art, unfolding, small fractures, prophecies are themselves living entities as I listen to and read this conversation. They open a place within me. I take the time to view, via the internet, some of Mr. Celaya’s offerings of art. I say offerings of art rather than his artwork because it seems to be that each piece is both a gift and an invitation to allow the relationship between what he calls the consciousness which is embodied in the art and that opening – that crack or fracture - within me to now connect to something which is more than the piece of art or the self I had known prior to this encounter. It is within the tension of this encounter that I think the prophet might make an appearance. It is what Mr. Ceyala refers to as that strangeness - that sense of otherness in us – of not being a local. Yet, in my experience I am at once both a local and a stranger. Just as the consciousness unfolds in the painting so does my own consciousness unfold. Perhaps this is the space in which the prophet appears.
I suspect that we all have the ability to transcend the present, but I also think that, for me, the paradox is that transcendence only occurs when I have the courage to be fully present. It is only when I am open to the friction between what Mr. Ceyala called the epic and the domestic that I catch a glimpse of the order which is always present – most notably in the midst of the chaos.
I further suspect that transcendence incorporates the past, present and future. It is that combination which then forms the new present (for lack of a better term). When I meet with a person, a painting, a bird, or anything which I think of as outside myself I have an opportunity to absorb something of that with which I meet. The result of this meeting then forms and informs the future. I would argue that if we are open we can never be passive observers. Yet, us humans develop many rituals and boxes which attempt to keep us disconnected from interacting with that which is thought of as outside ourselves. When preparing for war soldiers are trained to conceptualize the other as a non-human enemy – as someone who is unlike them – as someone on can kill as easily as many would crush an ant or a mosquito.
It seems that I am suggesting that it is only by being fully with the “other” – fully present - that one transcends what one normally thinks of as the present. Perhaps transcendence is not the best word to describe what I am thinking or saying. Perhaps I am really talking about opening to being more than I am or more than I experience myself in this second.
As we in the United States approach the day we have set aside to honor the role of Father’s Day, as a father of an adult child, I am aware of my role in both taking the risk of unfolding my consciousness and in supporting my son in his own unfolding. I think it is within that unfolding or rather in the midst of that unfolding that a new vision – a new prophecy - will emerge.
(I am indebted to Mr. Ceyala and Ms. Tippett for ticking my mind with the entire conversation and the particular quotes contained in this brief post. Yet, the wandering thoughts herein expressed are my own. As always I encourage the reader to listen and enjoy their own experience with the conversation contained in the podcast.)
Written June 16 and 17, 2017
Unfolding consciousness or transcendence
On June 15, 2017 On Being Host, Krista Tippett had a conversation with the artist, philosopher, physicist Martînez Celaya. I have listened to that podcast and read over portions of that conversation several times. I am sure I will continue to revisit. Mr. Celaya brings to the conversation a sense of order and the friction between the “domestic spheres of our everyday lives – children, families - …and these larger movement of time and history and God…And the two of them rub against each other; and that friction between the domestic and the epic is a source of a lot of my work. So, what I’m interested in is always sort of the small – the small breakings, the small fractures.”
Still later Ms. Tippett says to him, “You sometimes say that artists should be prophets, and then often quality it and say. ‘minor prophets, at least.’…you wrote, ‘The prophet is not a martyr or mystic who seeks transcendence, but one who turns humbly and curiously toward the world.”
The terms art, unfolding, small fractures, prophecies are themselves living entities as I listen to and read this conversation. They open a place within me. I take the time to view, via the internet, some of Mr. Celaya’s offerings of art. I say offerings of art rather than his artwork because it seems to be that each piece is both a gift and an invitation to allow the relationship between what he calls the consciousness which is embodied in the art and that opening – that crack or fracture - within me to now connect to something which is more than the piece of art or the self I had known prior to this encounter. It is within the tension of this encounter that I think the prophet might make an appearance. It is what Mr. Ceyala refers to as that strangeness - that sense of otherness in us – of not being a local. Yet, in my experience I am at once both a local and a stranger. Just as the consciousness unfolds in the painting so does my own consciousness unfold. Perhaps this is the space in which the prophet appears.
I suspect that we all have the ability to transcend the present, but I also think that, for me, the paradox is that transcendence only occurs when I have the courage to be fully present. It is only when I am open to the friction between what Mr. Ceyala called the epic and the domestic that I catch a glimpse of the order which is always present – most notably in the midst of the chaos.
I further suspect that transcendence incorporates the past, present and future. It is that combination which then forms the new present (for lack of a better term). When I meet with a person, a painting, a bird, or anything which I think of as outside myself I have an opportunity to absorb something of that with which I meet. The result of this meeting then forms and informs the future. I would argue that if we are open we can never be passive observers. Yet, us humans develop many rituals and boxes which attempt to keep us disconnected from interacting with that which is thought of as outside ourselves. When preparing for war soldiers are trained to conceptualize the other as a non-human enemy – as someone who is unlike them – as someone on can kill as easily as many would crush an ant or a mosquito.
It seems that I am suggesting that it is only by being fully with the “other” – fully present - that one transcends what one normally thinks of as the present. Perhaps transcendence is not the best word to describe what I am thinking or saying. Perhaps I am really talking about opening to being more than I am or more than I experience myself in this second.
As we in the United States approach the day we have set aside to honor the role of Father’s Day, as a father of an adult child, I am aware of my role in both taking the risk of unfolding my consciousness and in supporting my son in his own unfolding. I think it is within that unfolding or rather in the midst of that unfolding that a new vision – a new prophecy - will emerge.
(I am indebted to Mr. Ceyala and Ms. Tippett for ticking my mind with the entire conversation and the particular quotes contained in this brief post. Yet, the wandering thoughts herein expressed are my own. As always I encourage the reader to listen and enjoy their own experience with the conversation contained in the podcast.)
Written June 16 and 17, 2017
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