Friday
May132011
Sight/Space
May 13, 2011 * * * * * Posted by: guest blogger 
Sight. For most human beings it’s their main sense, the largest channel to pick up information that comes from outside the body. It's not by accident that our culture is so exquisitely visual. And it's delicious, drinking all these wonderful imagery with our eyes. Images speak to us in a very dense and intense way. The message and impact of it enters our brain as a clenched pile of so many layers of meaning. And it all becomes clear to us in a nanosecond. It just shamelessly skips ratio and appeals directly to a deep level of consciousness and intuitive comprehension.
Right there. That level. When sight changes into vision.
Sometimes when in front of a painting, I can feel the whole world fall into place. I cannot explain in words what has entered my consciousness, I cannot tell how the world is working, but I do feel it. It's like I can feel the Universe inside and understand it because I understand myself.
And all that because of a painting.
It’s exactly the experience that has been claimed by religious and spiritual traditions. They extracted spiritual experience from daily life and assigned it to a select group of human beings. And they accorded words to it. Big words. Enlightment. Communion of the Self and the Universe. Words that sound like you need to seriously, seriously, walk a loooong and painful path and carve your way into your deeper self until finally, you reach the ultimate experience.
I believe that the experiences they seek are right before our eyes in life. But no one ever told us it’s that simple. I don't believe in the words difficult or painful. They are created states of being that are not natural to us. They make us feel like we can never attain what we want and that. is. so. exhausting.
I believe religion, a word descending from the latin "religare" which means "to connect", is natural to us. We are wired for connection. Connection with our soul, connection with the other, connection with nature, with the Universe. We don't even need to try hard. It's not difficult, it's not painful.
We just don’t need to sell all that bullshit around it. Not make it so big. Not raise all those walls of words and theories.
Imagine all that space.
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Special guest post today comes to us from Belgium by Nele Baert– whose inspiring creativity can be seen over at her Baubo Dance Blog. Thank you for joining us here today, Nele, and for sharing with us your thoughtful and inspiring words.
Reader Comments (14)
That would be infinite space Nele... what a great post today. Loved it... as I did the photo. Aren't we lucky to be invited from time to time to post here as guestbloggers?
What wonderful thoughts about our sense of sight and its spiritual roots and connections. So much to think about here.
And..thank-you Nele for joining us today!!! Great to see our global community expanding!!!
The honour is all mine, Marcie. I agree with Chantal: I'm a lucky woman to be invited. Thank you again for that, it is so great how community is such an important item here, I love it. It's like a deep breath of fresh air in this society of boxes and performance requirements.
Glad you guys are enjoying the post! And looking forward to the new guests of this expanding community!!
imagining a life of infinite space and possibility is quite a vision with morning coffee. a lot to drink in, and i thank you for making it all sound easy and simple and right in front of me. indeed.
" wired for connection" ... that makes so much sense to me, love it!
I enjoyed your post and image, Nele, thanks so much.
Thank you, Nele, for your provocatgive words here, along with your image. I'm immediately reminded of what Jesus says from Mark's gospel: "Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?" It's so true. Everything we need is right there in front of us but more often than not we don't SEE, even with our eyes wide open. Thank you for guesting with us!
Wonderful vision and verb ! thank you for sharing and guesting with us.
@honey: love your words, it's exactly what I was aiming for as a reaction when reading my post ;-)
@Susan: thanks, Susan! love to hear that!
@Ginnie: I think those words are a -if not THE- clue to society today. we've spent so much time trying to capture it all with our ratio that we forgot to simply look around and SEE.
I've read your words a couple of times and will likely read it again to fully comprehend their meaning (I'm just a bit tired right now, not slow). :) I do like your thoughts about being wired for connection and I agree completely and love your plain spoken words. Thank you for joining us here for the day!
so much to think about, imagining all that space. i love the idea that it can be much simpler that we tend to make it. love the photo.
I love the expression "wired for connection". And it is so true - as you said, without "all that bullshit around it".
Wonderful post. Thank you so much.
I just don't believe it's possible to reach "nirvana" here on earth, but that's just me. There's too much traffic and noise. Welcome to Vision and Verb and thank you for your great and "enlightening" post!
how lovely to read your words here. i certainly hope there is more to it all, more that is simple that is. our lives are so cluttered and we forget what is most important. sometimes it's only at times when we either feel real loss or something momentous happens that you are suddenly reminded of this.
i knew a cat called robert rauschenberg - when i was very young, i've never heard him mentioned again...until your post! how amazing :)
@puna: I know why I live in the countryside ;-)
@Eliza: I believe too that those strong moments in our lives are gateways to consciousness. and OMG, how hilarious, the dog!!