One of the last conversations I had with Kris Hjelli before
he died has particularly influenced many of the thoughts I’ve had since. He
believed that beneath all the problems we face in the world is human
anthropocentrism, the species wide self-absorption that sees everything else on
the planet as existing for our consumption. It begins with the idea of a single
God in charge of all there is. The hierarchy is reproduced from top to bottom
and implies control over what’s below. Separation and status on the pyramid are
implicit in all aspects of the metaphor. At the pinnacle the image gives us a
bigger version of ourselves, the ultimate judge of our behavior and controller
of everything. The metaphor itself puts us down. Many people turn to Buddhism
to find a more enlightened view of reality that is connected and compassionate,
that’s respects the environment and every being as part of a connected whole.
All contributions are important to the underlying intelligent consciousness
that learns about material being through us. We all have a Buddha nature, the
same Self beneath the separate selves, and have only to realize it. Likewise, a
system based on that metaphor, that recognizes and utilizes all human gifts,
could cope with the complex developments of the current global situation.
I remember hearing of a scientist who when asked if he
believed in God, said
“No. What I believe is much bigger than that.”
The crisis of religions is a crisis of image. As a noun, the
word ‘God’ objectifies, reduces and personifies in a way that clashes with the
modern zeitgeist. So much religious art envisions God as a glorified human
male, forcing a set of metaphors based on the power of an ultimate single
authority that punishes deviance from his laws. But people have discovered that
they don’t need an authority to be good people. Being good feels good because
it connects us to others. The positive brain chemistry rewards and promotes
virtuous behavior because we’re societal beings connected in myriad ways. With
an image of a unified consciousness that flows through everyone, helping others
is helping our own deepest self. Visionary artists to a great extent are trying
to express these connections and find new ways to represent the divine flow of
energy. We’re part of continuous unfolding manifestation. As artists what we
show is the trail of our inquiry into underlying patterns. A recent student
created a triptych that represented spiritual qualities as pure continuous
energy, pulsing at many frequencies without a deity or any sense of separation.
Each artist offers a fresh vision of the primal intelligence reflected in the
elegant order of our material reality. It will take many different images
reflecting the insights of many different minds to help people see their
embeddedness in the unbroken continuum of waves and frequencies bearing the
patterns of information and intelligence. Humans didn’t invent the
relationships that science measures and describes, and description can get in
the way of understanding by limiting what is described, thus separating it from
the whole. Everything acts on everything else.
Likewise the descriptions in story-based religion can limit
our conception of the underlying intelligence that needs to be visualized in a
way recognizable to modern consciousness. Imagery can guide contemplation and
reflection, be the finger pointing to the moon. With multiple artists working
to envision divine intelligence we can build a multidimensional personal sense
of our connection with the fundamental consciousness we share and harmonize
with the universal flow.
No comments:
Post a Comment