Pre-Union

Beauty's Guidance

One of my most popular posts, “The Sense of Beauty”, https://seeingmeaning.blogspot.com/search?q=the+sense+of+beauty ties together ideas that emphasize the guidance that our attunement to beauty can provide. Not the marketed beauty of glamorized physical appearance, but the inner response to what goes together, what’s in harmony, the sense of things in place. Philosopher Susanne Langer sees it as a sense in its own right, like smell and taste which don’t wait for cognition to decide if something is bad or good for us. What we see has within it a discernment of what matches, what is wrong or out of place in a scene, a precognitive judgment led by an instinct for beauty. In a time when we’ve been bombarded with so much behavior that’s been ugly, the importance of beauty needs revaluing. I recently read that left hemisphere thinking, which is what most education is directed toward, is narrow and utilitarian and not responsive to values. This is where the sense of beauty and right hemisphere assessments can balance the distortions that come with limited focus by seeing the whole as one. Alan Watts talked about the need for both spotlight and floodlight consciousness. The spotlight is great for seeing more of one thing but we need a floodlight to see the context, how it works with the rest of the scene. Focusing on one area is an act of separation. The floodlight may be dimmer, leaves out the details, but shows the whole so the spotlight can zoom in on what’s needs attention. Looking at art is an opportunity to refine the floodlight consciousness. The experience of art always starts as a whole. It refines our awareness of the feel of experience all at once. This leads to better understanding and attention to the intuitive feel in other situations, what’s right, or wrong, or off about it. Looking at art is training the sense of the whole and the values shown by harmony, graceful form, attention to detail, appreciation of virtuosity in all things. We all have an inborn ability to set the picture right when something looks off. We when respond to an image it connects to our own inner world. We’ve witnessed more delusion than we could have imagined and see how important self- knowledge can be. Looking at art is a powerful tool for learning about oneself. The pleasure that comes with beauty is a signal of the reward system in action, encouraging what is good for us and fortifying our capacities. With so much visual imagery in our technological world, refining the visual sensibility will develop a long-neglected capability necessary to navigating the future with awareness of the interlocked whole.

Bookmark 2020

Celebration in Time of Covid- Part 2

Six months from the last post by this title and the pandemic is even worse. Numbers beyond imagining six months ago, still galloping higher. Though many have given up on precautions, many others are celebrating in new ways. In my neighborhood, every street is alight. Looking down the hill from my bedroom window is a wonderfully disorganized succession of elaborate and imaginative displays, far more than in previous years. Children have made contributions, a lawn full of hand-painted Christmas lollypops is my favorite. As I walk during the day I keep smiling at so much inventiveness, the use of white clothes hangers to make beautiful, giant snowflakes hanging all over the yard. It’s refreshing just to walk around in the daytime and be drenched in everyday creativity. Going at night is even more spectacular. This is joy, this glimpse into the minds behind the scenes and variety of imaginations. Inflatables are everywhere. I’ve seen a chorus of singing penguins, and Santas, riding not just sleds, but cars and dinosaurs. One extensively decorated front yard even has a Grinch that’s taller than me and furry. Walking gives me time to examine the details, and people have really knocked themselves out this year. To see and feel that effort is uplifting. It’s a reminder of how spirit can be shown, and seeing it everywhere in the neighborhood fortifies the heart at a time when discouragement comes easy. Nature is cooperating. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen snow on the ground in the days before Christmas, natural encouragement to stay in, enjoy the transformed neighborhood, maybe bake cookies, and listen to the children sledding on the hill across the street. Two separate notes Having just finished teaching my last Illusionism and Personal Ideas classes ever, the break has a new openness about the ways my mind may range, one less thing knocking on the door of the current here and now. With a better sense of how to use zoom, I’m in a better position to enjoy the last semester ever. The collage painting I did over the summer is now posted on visualcommentary.blogspot.com And a hi-res image is on the Baker portfolio now is the Visual Commentary section. https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/susan-waters-eller

Open Heart

Grounding

When I think of good childhood Thanksgivings I think of my grandfather. In a family of restless people, he was a lively stillness and equanimity that was a pleasure to be around. His field of being was infectious and I felt more settled in his presence. My grandparent’s house was filled with the things they brought back from their time as missionaries in Japan and I didn’t recognize until much later that Buddhism may have affected him more than the other way around. The Methodism I’d grown up with seemed to have more to do with how to behave and wearing uncomfortable clothes. Unlike so many who remember wise sayings from their elders, I can’t remember anything he said, but more how he was. He was more of a place than a person, a place where I felt seen and accepted and he brought that place with him whenever he visited. Most memory is in imagery, no longer subject to time. When a loved one is sick and dying, that’s the imagery that fills thoughts of them. When they’re gone all memories are there simultaneously. At a time when people are apart for Thanksgiving, it could be grounding to remember grandparents or whoever has understood us in a way that mattered. The imagery of memory carries the feeling of being there, emotion better understood by repeated reflection. Gurdjieff wrote that, “Feeling is the foundation of common sense.” Strengthening what stirs positive feeling reinforces those circuits. Particularly in stressful times, this may help us keep balance. Understanding emotional signals lays the groundwork for symbolic thinking later. Intelligence is built on early back and forth interaction. The larger the social group, the larger the frontal cortex. The matriarchal bonobo group live in extended communities and have among the biggest of monkey frontal cortex. Recent research has shown that the greater and more complex the emotional communication in which a species engages, the higher the intelligence. Attachment is important because it makes a baby want to signal. Words are learned more easily with emotional connection. Emotion integrates various currents of mental activity. Who we’ve valued and the images and feelings associated with them could be a subject of conversations that include everyone that’s not there, vivid in their place in the painting of our lives, equally there with the areas we’re still developing. One of the positives students have attributed to our time of covid is better understanding of themselves. It takes so much psychological resourcefulness to be alone for extended periods. Thinking about people who have strengthened what’s valuable in us can bring us back to center. When we can’t have people in the flesh, remembering can keep the mental wiring active and the people in our head can keep us company.

Brief Moment