merry-go-rounds and ferris wheels

"This is the place for dialogical (non-dialectical) dialogue as a necessary instrument for any cross-cultural encounter. It is the function of this dialogue to disclose or eventually create the field in which a symbolic consciousness can operate." Raimon Panikkar, The Rhythm of Being.

If your merry-go-round of thought cannot meet my merry-go-round of thought, perhaps we could stand them on end and create a mutual ferris wheel that reaches high into the Divine and brings back the living waters of understanding and mutual awareness.

Merry-go-rounds, being inclusive in their nature (only so many passengers are allowed and the same old music accompanies the eternal spin going nowhere) spin along on their horizontal plane and create friction, unless well-cogged, when meeting the merry-go-round of another. The cog fit is rare and usually sparks and flames arise from friction.

I speak of individual and cultural (religions and philosophies ingrained in each culture) merry-go-rounds here.

We create new space when, instead of spinning around and around AT each other, we create a mutual uprise into a higher awareness. We move from exclusion to inclusion. This is the hope of the world today.

crucifixion

A human is dualistic in nature. Here is always this or that. To be crucified means to be caught, suspended, nailed between all dualities, experiencing them all simultaneously, burning with the fire of this experience. The Self feels it all, whereas the self wants only one side of it, pleasure and no pain, honor and no dishonor, heat and no cold, cold and no heat, ad infinitum. To feel it all is suffering, is to be on fire, is crucifixion. One rises beyond all opposites, simultaneously conquers hell and ascends to heaven. Neither heaven nor hell exist. Only this. The Self is born once again. The ladder of duality disappears and one is whole.

make like a tree and leave

All the religions and philosophies and socio-political worldviews are like leaves on a tree. When one's attention is stuck on looking at one leaf exclusively, no other leaves can be seen, nor can one see the whole tree. When one takes a step back and allows the whole tree to disclose itself, all leaves can be seen as an integral part of the whole. All leaf bickering ceases. One leaves off all shouting of leaf exclusiveness and turns to the purpose of one's own leaf and all leaves: the providing of light and nourishment to the whole tree.

the nature of the mind

We are creatures and creations of story. We love to tell ourselves story. We speak story to ourselves all the time. We say this is true and real. We say that is not true and not real. (By saying something is not true, we bring it into existence.) We define ourselves to ourselves constantly.

We listen to our self-talk and believe it is real. What we do not do is look to see what is talking. The talk absorbs our attention like bubbles on the surface of a body of water bubbling up from somewhere. We take our bubbling as Reality and spend our life as froth.

We love our story of ourselves even when we hate it. We are story-spinners. We keep ourselves endlessly entertained. Can we drop our stories and just be? Can we go beyond the nature of our mind, track the bubblings to the wellspring and open from that realmless realm? Do we dare go out of our little minds?