eThoughts : The Art of Emptiness and Form

Introducing space or emptiness into our lives is utterly important I think—as I once read (Lao Tzu?), it is not the house where we live, but the space in the house (I can’t quote it since I may not be rendering the statement in its original form). Too often we gravitate towards form and ignore the importance of emptiness, using emptiness as a place to put more form, instead of learning to be in the emptiness itself.

All right, I am sharing some thoughts, and not new ones at that. And I must make it clear that in no way am I preaching or thinking I’m on the cutting edge of some important concept. Furthermore, I am not attempting to upend any belief or faith—this is not a competition, it is a thought, and maybe a conversation. “Winning” is not the issue, awareness and communion are.

I’ve been giving some consideration again to multiculturalism. In combination with some reading, it is interesting to me that “multicults” seem to be polarized in two different directions: one is the common ground of us all and the other is that there is no way to generalize human behavior because it is grounded in a very different cultural stew, since humans have so many different cultures that influence, like imprinting, their manifested beings.

One thing that had occurred to me previously, and recently resurfaced because of some reading, is the tendency of humans to gravitate towards centric views. Egocentric is but one facet of course, as is ethnocentric, or Gaiacentric (worldview), or holocentric—everything that is, is in everything.

It seems to me that any centric view represents a reality and that some realities are more inclusive than others (broader, deeper?). Obviously if one really needs to eat (starvation is apparently an encompassing reality), that reality probably excludes any wonderings about the meaning of life or does he or she like me and so on (clearly this is a generality—“enlightenment” can spring from any form I think).

So, the picture here is of unfoldings, or of manifesting forms. Centric views may be attempts to stay in one form, even if those forms and their reality are perfectly clear and manifest at times. But holding on to one view, may be the equivalent of trying to continuously enjoy eating.

This is not to say that de-centric views are the way to go either. The same problem of a different stripe will likely occur—as in one cannot make a decision because there are so many potential realities, not just the one presently in mind. The result can be an incapacitation or regrets if one does decide something.

So, it seems to me that what we’ve got is that as one thing becomes clear, it then departs as another form emerges. Of course humans seem to spend a great deal of time and energy trying to maintain the status quo. Perhaps the real trick (and it’s a tough one in which to become proficient), is to move in and out of manifest form, or to let things emerge and to engage awareness in the emergence, rather than steadfastly hold on to what was or will be.

In that world, all we need is what we have—awareness, and the ability to become better at polishing that awareness. The world of form obviously keeps changing, so what’s the point of getting stuck in some form (and I don’t mean just physical form, but mental and spiritual as well, etc.), even if it is fun to be in and engaged in form? It is also fun to be in and engaged with the oneness of everything, where subject and object do not exist (there is no you and the food, just taste; no us and God, just beauty), but to get stuck there is to not be engaged with the obvious reality of manifesting form. Either kind of stuckness can be a bit psychotic.

The journey may be from one to two and back again, in perpetuity. Maybe that’s the eternal, in slippery form! The triad is completed by the given, the common ground to it all—awareness (in nondual formatting, Emptiness). I guess that’s the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in biblical terms.

I have a caveat when I hold forth like this: I could be all wet and everyone should keep their own counsel. Please do so. I think that makes it safer, rather than testier, when we become “border crossers” and explore awareness as it is manifesting in others. In Emptiness, there is no “I” and “you” to begin or end with, so no worries (Emptiness, in this context, is not a separate “state” (form) from other “states”—that would be manifesting subject-object again).

So, let’s keep an eye out that the process of centration and decentration is the landscape of our experience, and that our innate gift of awareness and attention, which are inherent in both Emptiness and Form, is both the essence and the work of our existence.