Tag Archives: Personal Growth

Perspectives On Dialogue

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“…we speak of dialogue as the outer counterpart to the inward cultivation of moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness, or mindfulness…. No one needs to dominate in a dialogue, and indeed, it would cease being a dialogue at that point if one person or group attempted to control it. We watch the arising of and listen to the voicing of ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings, and drink them all in in a spirit of deep inquiry and intentionality, much as we do in resting in awareness in formal meditation practice, allowing it all to be treated as equally valid of at least being seen, heard and known without editing, censoring, vetting, or rejecting. A greater intelligence that seems to reside in the group but is not in any one person often emerges, surprisingly, and with it a deeper collective understanding as a direct consequence of such spaciousness and openheartedness.” Jon Kabat-Zinn Coming to Our Senses

In these discourses we find the only point becomes what it already is… love. But how might one interpret it to be about or of love? Whenever a deeper collective understanding emerges from this openheartedness Kabat-Zinn articulates, love is present. Love facilitates, nurtures and allows a great intelligence to emerge.

j. ruth kelly, 2013, all rights reserved

j. ruth kelly, 2013, all rights reserved

Presentation Points

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I’m presenting for my Public Speaking class tomorrow and realize that for the first time I’ve got a time-lapse image or two available to show the process. Of course, this is done with a bigger tip in order to make it more visible. I usually work with Ultra Fine tips. And baby, they are ULTRA fine…

7 Dots & 7 Dots Arc

7 Dots & 7 Dots Arc

The image previous shows how 7 dots create an arc and then another 7 dots create another arc. This is how a tree begins (depending on the artist!). This took about 10 seconds.

And the dots grow . . .

Dots Disperse

Dots Disperse

And now we have added less than a minute of work. It’s amazing how much is accomplished in such a small slice of time.

So, the tree fills itself up, up, up . . .

Reaching, These Hands . . .

Reaching, These Hands . . .

 

The previous shows lapsed time of 3 minutes. It is, more specifically, the result of two additional minutes of dotting.

And finally (but it’s not final) . . .

Above Below And . . .

Above Below And . . .

 

The last image is the result of an additional 5 minutes bringing it to less than 10 minutes of effort. Think of how this looks after 45 minutes. It’s not as complicated as it appears to be. The artist just must hold to a vision and watch it unfold. Or, the artist allows the image to unfold her inner world, to inform her as it draws her out, telling her what is next only as she points her way along. That is the most accurate description of this particular dotty artist.

And this is a glimpse of the presentation I’m giving on Monday. Now, to disperse myself across the canvas of the day…

The Dead Cat’s Head – A Point for Pointlessness

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The Altered Point

The Altered Point

From Alan Watts’ book, Nature, Man and Woman pg. 120 in the chapter titled: The World As Non-Sense

“A Zen master was once asked, ‘What is the most valuable thing in the world?’ He answered, ‘The head of a deadcat!’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because no one can put a price on it.’ The realization of the unity of the world is like this dead cat’s head. It is the most priceless, the most inconsequential thing of all. It has no results, no implications, and no logical meaning…The whole notion of gain, whether it be the gain of wealth or the gain of knowledge and virtue, is like stopping the pangs of hunger by gobbling oneself up rom the toes. Yet we do it anyhow, for it really makes no difference whether it is one’s own toes or roast duck: the satisfaction is momentary…This is why the Buddha said to his disciple Subhuti, ‘I gained absolutely nothing from unsurpassed and perfect Awakening.’ On the other hand, when there is no expectation, no looking for a result, and nothing gained by this ‘head of  dead cat,’ there is quite suddenly and gratuitously, quite miraculously and unreasonably, more than one ever had sought.

This is not a matter of renunciation and repressing desire–those traps which the clever and cunning lay for God. One cannot renounce life for the same reason that one cannot gain from it…There simply is no wrong attitude to the Tao because, again, there is no point outside it from which to take an attitude.”

So, we can take our stances or get stuck in apathy just as much as in zeal. Or. And. We can strive or surrender our way towards enlightenment, gain it and come “away” from the quest or arrival of “knowing/not-knowing”  knowing we are always left with one thing and one thing only. And it sustains without making even the slightest bit of logical sense: Presence. Being. Love-ness.

We fight only those battles that threaten our being-ness, our very well-being, our heartbeat living pulsing organism self. We stand aside and away from those battles that wage war against a peace that never dies. We retreat. We accept defeat. We await another chance to gain broader fields of play for presence, for feastings of simple beingness. We find, in all these things, that simply being is a rich resonance within and with the great all, with nature, with universe, with ancient soul and that it is and always will be the grandest, simplest wonder of sustenance. Ever.

jrk