It is impossible to communicate the anguish of impossibility, even though—or because—it is the central axis of what we quaintly, if unaquaintedly, refer to as reality. Coming to understand the nature of impossibility is the essence of education. This is no doubt why Freud said that education is one of the three impossible professions.
No doubt it is news to no one that planet Earth is in a period of escalating interlocking crises. We need a response that addresses all the hidden as well as the obvious dimensions of these crises—before they spin out of control into irretrievable chaos.
The artist is a shaman. The artist’s role, especially in the West, has always been to alter the state of consciousness of the viewer, and to force the big Other, the capital “O” Other, the collective superego, to face its own shadow—as well as to face the super-consciousness, the One that is beyond the Other, that it denies.
There comes a point in the journey of the unfoldment of consciousness when every narrative appears ridiculous. This includes so-called scientific, philosophic, and psychoanalytic discourses. It includes, therefore, even this sort of discourse about the inanity of all discourse. The symbolic veil over the Real shreds itself like an oppressed monk setting himself on fire.
The most important opposition to be understood by spiritual aspirants is that between what is realistic and what is Real. The realistic is determined by the culture. It is what conforms to reason, reason that is adapted to social reality, a constructed reality, a reality constructed specifically to maintain a given, though hidden, under-structure of power.
Today, we live in an unprecedented sort of world—a reality completely inverted from any known in the historic past. Our world has been gutted of sense and consistency. Propriety, responsibility, even meaning itself have become jokes to exchange in the cynical dialogues that have replaced profound conversation.
It seems necessary to respond to some recent attacks on my offerings here. First of all, let me clarify that this blog is not “written by an institute” but by one sentient being alone, who goes by the name Shunyamurti. I sign my name at the bottom of each essay, along with a salutation—namaste—that is a recognition of the divine nature of all of you who are reading this.
"Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for." — Hopi elders
