We’re not doing any of it.
Well sure we’re experiencing it. It’s coming out of our mouths. It’s expressed through our bodies. We feel it.
But what is it? And who are you?
If you don’t know the answer to the first question, I’m not sure you can ever fully know the second (which is maybe one of the most important things to figure out on our journeys here). Sometimes people don’t even bother going deeper to find out.
It’s understandable in a way. We are so deeply identified with our physical-ness, how we look, who we tell ourselves we are, where we came from, and being consumed by our likes and dislikes and opinions and fears and hates that build our lives ”“ that we almost completely delude ourselves into thinking that’s all there is.
If that’s all there is, what happens when those things are taken away from you? Or are challenged? Or fall apart? Or change? Or prove to no longer sustain you? Or are disproven?
You’re sort of fucked.
But you then simultaneously become liberated (if you’re willing to search) because you realize without some sort of understanding of self (other than the self you constantly identify with) ”“ life is very treacherous.
What creates music, art, poetry? How is love expressed? Where does compassion or empathy or hope dwell? If it’s in a person ”“ for sure ”“ these qualities are expressed somehow by us and through us ”“ but are they not also impossible to locate, as they are also ephemeral, mystical experiences that happen to us?
A song comes pouring out of us. We can’t say that we made that. I mean, where does inspiration like that come from? If you think about the word inspiration ”“ which means to be in spirit ”“ then somehow, the exalted experiences we’re all after in life having nothing to do with us after all.
They have more to do with how well we can get ourselves out of the way to have more and more experiences of the transcendental here-and- now. If our heart is opened, there is space for these things to enter. Openness means welcome. Openness means to be filled.
Closed means no occupancy. No room. No space. For anything.
Divine. Maybe that’s too strong a word. Energy. Creativity. Impulse. Intuition. Life force. Love. Purpose. Source. Whatever you want to call it, to be in its flow ”“ in its embrace ”“ is to be fully identified as a human being and a spiritual conductor.
To conduct is to direct and orchestrate. Facilitate. Enhance.
But have we ever considered what our lives might be like if we allowed something else to do the orchestrations? Some other energy to move us in the direction of where we truly need to go? I mean, it’s happening regardless of whether we’re conscious of it or not ”“ as there are always signs and maps for us all along the way. We most often ignore them in favor of controlling our own way, our own agenda.
Womp. Womp.
It’s interesting that no other animal species creates such turmoil, havoc or suffering in their life like that of humans. We just have this uncanny ability to mess with the Chi. Fuck up the flow. Stop the energy. Close the door. Shut out the source.
And that’s why art is maybe still a sacred place where we do that less. Oh . . . we still do it. And boy do we do it! Ugh. We overthink things. We shut down. We judge. We compare. We hold ourselves back. But, we often have more moments of pure joy, freedom, and letting go of the reins in our work than we allow in our day-to- day life. We channel.
This is another reason why art is so important. It keeps us grounded and connected to that life force that is alive inside us and all around us and in everyone and all things and at our disposal if we would only surrender just enough to let it in and do it’s magic. Art does that. We allow that to happen in our art when we become conscious of what that is.
But you aren’t doing it. You aren’t making the magic. And that’s the thing about magic. It’s the illusion that it’s something else that makes it magical. And real magicians know that.
Actors in video: Hunter Cross and Frances Roper