ON SEEING THINGS AS THEY ARE

The paradox of existence is always present to me, and always (or almost always) of profound amazement to me. That things could happen as they do, both in my own life and in the world, is often utterly strange to me. Of course I can make everything "make sense" in some absurd and/or logical way, but it's far more interesting, and perhaps far more accurate, if I simply take things as they are, that is, as they become apparent. Of course I have acknowledge that the way I see them is also how I view them, or, in other words, the context of belief in and through which I "hold" them. Does that make sense? We think we see things "as they are," but, in truth, we see them as we already believe they are to be seen. I find this truth to be so comical, now that I see that I am not seeing anything as it is. Of course, if you realize that your certainty about how things are is, in truth, more your interpretation than anything else, you are more able to actually catch something as it is, even if for a brief moment. Arthur Schopenhauer, if I understand him correctly, referred to this when he spoke of "the will as representation." But I don't particularly want to get involved in that discussion/direction right now.

Speaking of misperceptions, the idea that our essence, or spirit, or true nature transcends the world of perception, of the body, and/or of nature itself, is absurd. As if we can separate ourselves from our inclusion in the world of nature! We can deceive ourselves in this, and many of us have and do. The Judeo-Christian tradition is based in this kind of unreal, false duality, though there are some groups within even this tradition that are able to embody spirit. Now, I hate to use words that are indefinable, such as "spirit," but I'm not going to define it here or now, and whatever you may think about spirit we'll accept as valid. As I said, some groups are able to embody spirit, such as black churches where the gospel music is sung more from the heart and the guts than the logical mind. This is embodied spirit, just as the dance and chant of the Native American or the Native African is also embodied spirit. There is also the visceral experience of Nature, in its power and its peace-giving elements, within cultures such as the earth-based, often goddess-based Celtic peoples. I'm just touching on this to make the point. Of course there are so many other people and cultures that embody spirit.

As I read the first paragraph again, I believe that the ability to "take things as they are" without having to logically understand them in order to accept them is, in fact, an expression of embodied spirit, a deeply phenomenological experience; a right brain activity, not of the logic and intellect of the left, but of singing, dancing, feeling, and being alive.