Loosen the Chains

 

“The known is accidental, the unknown is the home of the real. To live in the known is bondage, to live in the unknown is liberation.”
— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

In our human experience there is a limit to what we can know. Oh I’m not talking about peak or mystical experiences where the whole picture for brief instances lie open before us but the rest of our lives, the parts where we chop wood and carry water. Yet so many seem happy with these limits, they learn a brief bit and believe they know it all. They cement this with conviction, certainty and faith and use these weapons to take on all comers.
In any fight between what I know and what is possible to learn I will cede the battle always. I want to know more and to understand more and if that means sacrificing what I know now for something better than so be it. Have to at my convictions. Throttle my faith and stamp on my certainty. I will always thank you for it. If you can loosen my chains and expose me to the infinite of the unknown, you will have my eternal gratitude.
Blessings, G

 

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DescendingDescent by G A Rosenberg

 

Electric Skull MandalaElectric Skull Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

In Praise of Confusion

 

“Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities — the political, the religious, the educational authorities — who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing — forming in our minds — their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself.”
— Timothy Leary

 

I like being confused. Not so much because I like what it does to my face as that I like what it does to my psyche. Every time I am sure I have the definitive answer to something, I am more than likely wrong or am settling because I am not looking deeply enough into the well of the question or the well of myself. When I am confused as I often am by the way to settle conflicts or even which way to proceed on a picture or a poem, I know that I must go deeper until I have found a solution which at least feels more right for the moment than any other. Even then the chances are that at a later point I will return to picture or writing and tweak it according to my best guess at the moment.
When I look at political situations with conflicting narratives, whether it be one of the messes in the middle east or the local teacher’s strikes I also want to be confused. It is when I have a clear vision of who is right that I shut myself off to the other narrative. All too often choosing a side does not nor will it ever resolve things. There is always greater truth and greater flow to be found. I would rather be confused and questioning than right and settling.
Blessings, G

 

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Goat Mask PerspectiveGoat Mask Perspective by G A Rosenberg

 

Strange Playground labyrinthStrange Playground Labyrinth by G A Rosenberg

Training the Mind Towards Openness

 

“It is the mark of the mind untrained to take its own processes as valid for all men, and its own judgements for absolute truth”
— Aleister Crowley

 

There is something comforting in believing that one has found the answer to ourselves and how we fit into the universe in which we liveWhen I was younger and just starting out on the voyage of spiritual (and self assuming they are two different things) discovery, I thought I had found the answers many times. At first, rejecting the religion in which I was raised, I became an atheist. I found all kinds of convincing arguments that there was nothing outside the realm of science and that anyone who believed otherwise was delusional. Then I started learning a bit about extrasensory perception and also meeting people who had faith in various things and I found it beautiful. I started questioning my lack of belief. This led directly to a series of experiences first with the Unification Church, then to Chrismatic Christianity then into various other schools of belief. Each time I found an answer, convinced myself that it was THE ONE AND ONLY ANSWER and that all others were mistaken. Eventually tho I would find some inconsistency, some flaw in the belief and I would if not reject it when the next ONE AND ONLY ANSWER came along, would bury it in the junk room of my subconscious along with the books I would someday write and old dreams I had about what I would do when I grew up (I am still waiting for this to happen).
Each time I had the conviction that I had found the answer, I had an equal need to tell everyone else they were mistaken and would shoot down any arguments to the contrary. It was much later on during the time that I all but gave up on finding answers, convinced that there was one but it could never be found that I stepped down from being the personification of certainty.
When I once again started an awakening of awareness, so different from being a truth seeker but sharing certain of the same intellectual quest aspects, I came to realize that the best anyone can have is approximations. As Ken Wilber says, everyone is right but partial. If everyone is right to some degree, you can question their assertions but you cannot tell them outright that they are wrong or mistaken. These days I become greatly puzzled when I find people whom I respect, unwilling to challenge their beliefs. They become quite offended when someone suggests something outside their truth and when challenged, they tend to devolve from reason to intractability. They so identify with their beliefs that they see every question as a personal attack and react accordingly. I welcome challenges to my process as each question brings me greater understanding. I doubt that I will ever have more than rare glances into absolute truth (and those during peak experiences) and so any that I put into words will have some degree of inaccuracy. That’s Ok though. I have learned to enjoy the lack of certainty as much as I enjoy the quest.
Blessings, G

 

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Star Man's DreamStar Man’s Dream by G A Rosenberg

 

Radial CallRadial Call by G A Rosenberg