Self-Centered
Endlessly revolving,
appropriating everything
that comes into its sphere
as identity.
Caught in its own cage,
enough openings to relate,
not enough to escape
solitary confinement.
Accumulation
The psychological self is made of images,
ideas, and memories of:
past relationships
wife, mother, daughter, friend, enemy,
lover, boss, teacher, pets
places
countries, states, towns, neighborhoods
possessions
houses, mortgages, clothing, cars
titles and degrees
Professor, Doctor, BFA, MFA
professions
teacher, architect, accountant
ideology
religious and political
accomplishments and failures,
desires and plans,
addictions and pleasures.
Each new layer of attachment adds to the sense that I exist, I have continuity,
I am related, I am important in relation to what I associate with and disassociate from.
Falling Away
We have all seen this phenomenon,
a pile of papers,
books or blocks,
stacked so high
that the structure is no longer balanced and the whole pile starts to fall down.
Imagine if these layers were
assumptions and expectations,
world views,
accumulated stories of who,
what, when and where.
If the layers are light,
they might just float away.
No chasing,
no picking up,
no worrying about where they might go,
just an unexpected opportunity
to dismantle and be free
of the accumulation.
Inside Itself I
A sacred liveliness animates the parts within the whole.
There is no division between what is perceived to be the interior and the exterior form.
Inside Itself expresses the love and interconnectedness of the totality.
Inside Itself II
An element existing within something else, while separate and particular,
is still dependent for its existence on the larger form.
The organs of the body can be seen separately with specific and highly specialized functions,
but it would be absurd to say that they exist independently from the body.
A flock of birds, a school of fish, and a swarm of bees all move together
as if they were a single organism guided by the same mind, and yet the individuals
in each group are vitally connected to the environment in which they live.
If you imagine the earth, do you just see the rocky sphere of the planet,
or do you include the sky and clouds, the oceans, rivers and glaciers,
the soil, the animals and plants? Does Earth end at the biosphere?
Could we exist without the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe?
As a human being, do we exist separately from the natural environment or the social connections
which sustain us? Physically and psychologically, where do we begin and end?
Who's Looking?
Who is the one who is looking?
Can I keep stepping back while asking the question until it is apparent
that there is no individual apart from Life?
Is it not Life that is the observer all of the time,
even when the conditioning of thought creates a lens of distortion?
Imagine what would happen if that lens could be taken off completely.
What would Life see?
Would there be a new clarity, a new intensity,
an awareness of relationship that we are currently missing?
The Great Unfolding
We are product,
and part,
and one with
the continuously generating source.
Our understanding of life continues
to unfold, with a greater awareness
of the unity of the whole.
This unity denies our individuality, our isolation,
our separation.
We are able to move beyond both the despair of self-centered withdrawal
and the desire for personal success.
There Is No Separation
As I walk the path from the house to the garden, I can see the bright yellow
Rudbeckia blossoms moving with the wind. The birdhouse that protected a chickadee
and her young this spring, is now empty, except for a spider that is busy making its own
webbed nest. As I pass through the gate and into the garden, I stop to look at the squirrels
chasing each other in spirals down the trunk of one of the many Black Walnut trees surrounding
this small garden. The air is full of the sounds of crows, woodpeckers, small song birds,
crickets and cicadas. The sun comes and goes under the clouds. I move through the garden
in an almost trance-like state, not in any hurry, nor with any real purpose, except to see what
is there. It occurs to me that nothing in this garden is aware of its own beauty. The flowers
don't know their power of attraction, they just attract. Each flower comes from a seed in
the ground, unfolds its beauty, petal by petal, attracts and is pollinated by bees and wasps,
and eventually drops the seed that it has created so that the next part of the plant cycle will
continue. Are we, as human beings any different from this cycle of life? While we may get
caught up in our own vanity and drive for individual identity, are we not carried through
each stage of life, our body growing, changing, transforming, without our control or initiative.
Isn't it true that just like the plants, we must have the sun, water, minerals from the earth, air,
warmth, and the interaction between us and other beings, in order to fully develop and survive?
Where are the boundaries between the body and nature? Where are the boundaries between
the human being and Life?
There is no separation.
Update: I have added a link at the bottom of the blog page, so that you can order the Inside Itself catalog directly from Lulu books. If you would still rather order the book from us, send us an email. schragk@gmail.com
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