Bodies of Relational Awareness: Musings from Beyond the Cultural Afterglow
Where are we... what is this shimmering dream...?
Where are we amidst these vast realms of disembodied information, these invisible conduits which connect and capture our collective awareness?
For a moment let's fall like rain
from the whirling clouds of this conceptual tapestry.
from the whirling clouds of this conceptual tapestry.
Do you feel the ancient and mysterious force of gravity steadily weaving
your physical presence into the earth below?
Do you feel your own structure
reaching in opposition to this force?
Take a deep breath
feel the expansion and contraction
the beating of your heart.
Again, take a deep inhale...
Lengthen through your spine.
Soften your gaze
let your shoulders fall away from your ears
Exhale
Where are you now?
Notice your surroundings.
Stand up and walk away from the screen, if you wish.
It's nice to get back in your body periodically, isn't it?
It's so easy to get lost in the matrix... one can so completely let go of bodily, and spatial awareness; of course, sometimes this is useful.
Increasingly, our modern society tends towards the abstract management of information, while less and less do we have a connection with the tangible elements which have defined our relationship to each other, and the earth, for millennia.
In the light, we have reached for new frontiers and have acquired a tendency towards the airy, ethereal realms. In the shadow, we have taken refuge in the afterglow of cultural imaginings, no longer aware of our surroundings.
While it is often necessary to our craft that we make distant explorations of the mind, in order that we might gather the precious materials with which we create, it is likewise necessary that we ground ourselves from time to time and come back into the full awareness of our body, and its relationship to the more tangible aspects of reality.
You know this, intuitively. Try as we may to expand beyond the physical confines of our existence, it is unwise to remain so for long, and yet we are often lured into persistent explorations which strain our capacity for returning to a state of balance.
[1]
What is this body?
It is our greatest instrument, our primary residence, our foundation, and vessel. It may indeed be more than these, perhaps we cannot speak with any certainty as to the limits of the body.
We know also, that it is temporary.
And so the body may well be the greatest illusion; however, I think it's safe to say that it's where you woke up this morning, and it's where you will wake up every day for the rest of your life, in one state of awareness or another.
Perhaps as the great sages of India would say, "There is no other", still, we proceed from the single-pointed awareness of 'I am'.
The body in relation to...
Our body is the intersection with our living, breathing, present.
Despite the technological wizardry which empowers us to communicate near instantaneously the world over, it is now more important than ever that we spend time looking both within, and without, towards relations very near to us.
Whether we choose to recognize it or not, in all our endeavors we are intimately tied to a multitude of communities. Your country, your neighborhood, the plants, and animals which yet survive in and amongst the density of modern human development, the communities of bacteria in our guts, are all in constant communication with their surroundings, with us.
We have traveled quite a long way, as though we alone possessed the knowledge to create the world as it was meant to be. Our genius so perilously close to hubris, we cannot so easily differentiate.
We have learned to be loud, to make our mark upon the world, but this life is also a listening art. We mustn't listen only to what we perceive to be convenient, in the immediate. If we wish to sail into the future, we must attend to the present. For many, we have been too enamored with the multitude of shiny things to notice the chronic neglect we have inflicted upon ourselves or the avarice we have cultivated in relation to the natural world.
If we allow ourselves to be further and further seduced by the modern bread and circus of a personal reality which excludes information from our bodies, and the whole diversity of our surroundings, we are in trouble.
The will to create a life in balance with all of our relations will take some time, and patience to cultivate.
We needn't simply invoke calamity to illustrate the value in our local connections. We have seen enough the power of fire. When we begin to recognize the potent synergies available to us, in close proximity; when we choose to pause and listen, to rediscover the ancient dialogue with the earth, and the waters, and ourselves... then, we will see our true capacity, and not lose our humanity, and our world, in the process.
[1] - Pixabay
All other works are original
your physical presence into the earth below?
Do you feel your own structure
reaching in opposition to this force?
reaching in opposition to this force?
Take a deep breath
feel the expansion and contraction
the beating of your heart.
Again, take a deep inhale...
Lengthen through your spine.
Soften your gaze
let your shoulders fall away from your ears
Exhale
Where are you now?
Notice your surroundings.
Stand up and walk away from the screen, if you wish.
It's nice to get back in your body periodically, isn't it?
It's so easy to get lost in the matrix... one can so completely let go of bodily, and spatial awareness; of course, sometimes this is useful.
Increasingly, our modern society tends towards the abstract management of information, while less and less do we have a connection with the tangible elements which have defined our relationship to each other, and the earth, for millennia.
In the light, we have reached for new frontiers and have acquired a tendency towards the airy, ethereal realms. In the shadow, we have taken refuge in the afterglow of cultural imaginings, no longer aware of our surroundings.
While it is often necessary to our craft that we make distant explorations of the mind, in order that we might gather the precious materials with which we create, it is likewise necessary that we ground ourselves from time to time and come back into the full awareness of our body, and its relationship to the more tangible aspects of reality.
You know this, intuitively. Try as we may to expand beyond the physical confines of our existence, it is unwise to remain so for long, and yet we are often lured into persistent explorations which strain our capacity for returning to a state of balance.
[1]
What is this body?
It is our greatest instrument, our primary residence, our foundation, and vessel. It may indeed be more than these, perhaps we cannot speak with any certainty as to the limits of the body.
We know also, that it is temporary.
And so the body may well be the greatest illusion; however, I think it's safe to say that it's where you woke up this morning, and it's where you will wake up every day for the rest of your life, in one state of awareness or another.
Perhaps as the great sages of India would say, "There is no other", still, we proceed from the single-pointed awareness of 'I am'.
The body in relation to...
Our body is the intersection with our living, breathing, present.
Despite the technological wizardry which empowers us to communicate near instantaneously the world over, it is now more important than ever that we spend time looking both within, and without, towards relations very near to us.
Whether we choose to recognize it or not, in all our endeavors we are intimately tied to a multitude of communities. Your country, your neighborhood, the plants, and animals which yet survive in and amongst the density of modern human development, the communities of bacteria in our guts, are all in constant communication with their surroundings, with us.
We have traveled quite a long way, as though we alone possessed the knowledge to create the world as it was meant to be. Our genius so perilously close to hubris, we cannot so easily differentiate.
We have learned to be loud, to make our mark upon the world, but this life is also a listening art. We mustn't listen only to what we perceive to be convenient, in the immediate. If we wish to sail into the future, we must attend to the present. For many, we have been too enamored with the multitude of shiny things to notice the chronic neglect we have inflicted upon ourselves or the avarice we have cultivated in relation to the natural world.
If we allow ourselves to be further and further seduced by the modern bread and circus of a personal reality which excludes information from our bodies, and the whole diversity of our surroundings, we are in trouble.
The will to create a life in balance with all of our relations will take some time, and patience to cultivate.
We needn't simply invoke calamity to illustrate the value in our local connections. We have seen enough the power of fire. When we begin to recognize the potent synergies available to us, in close proximity; when we choose to pause and listen, to rediscover the ancient dialogue with the earth, and the waters, and ourselves... then, we will see our true capacity, and not lose our humanity, and our world, in the process.
[1] - Pixabay
All other works are original
oooh that bee tulsi gif! my goodness!
Bees in the Tulsi! Glad you like it. =) Garden post coming soon!
Beautiful, a reminder we should all heed. I love the beginning. Followed
Thanks... I've been thinking about this stuff a lot... I need to remind myself as much as anyone.
Nice musing @lovejoy
Breathe... breathe... thank you.
my constant reminder as well... yes. =)