|
*Brian Wilcox. "is & is becoming". Flickr.
everything
leans
The above picture is one of the many pictures I have taken from the Waterman Trail, outside my cottage and moving along the outskirts of Back River. Since moving to Maine in late September, on Georgetown Island, I have enjoyed hiking trails, and they are everywhere here. In Florida, I biked open-road. So, hiking has meant slowing down, feeling more the way, even the sense of physicality of the path and the sounds of the way, such as that of leaves when not snow-covered and snow, otherwise.
When cycling, I sensed more a relationship with the bike than the road. Possibly, too, so it seems, the cold here seems to slow things down mentally, pressing me into one moment, as well creating an atmosphere of aloneness ~ sometimes eerie, when out alone in the wood ~, and of being part of the surroundings I rarely felt before.
So, walking these paths, I feel a closeness, not just to the paths, more the way as the whole environment. I sense a moving with the wholeness of the atmosphere, like everything is in agreement, made up of many aspects, yet one sharing, one being together.
* * *
So, the idea of "Way" has become more a matter of attention to me over these months. As though thoughts on the "Way," the "Tao," from the past are merging more intimately, birthing a fresh, increasingly in-depth appreciation.
Over the next days, I will share on this Way. I discovered the presentation expanding and, so, decided it wise to present in smaller portions, rather than the whole meal stacked high on one plate.
* * *
First, the Way used here assumes the Way being Communion, not Way, or Communion, as a mere act, such as the religious usage taking Communion or Holy Communion, or state of community, such as functioning in harmony. Way will be presented as living, alive, and inclusive of seen and unseen. Each particularity is a means of the universal, the in-time beings being invitations to timeless sharing, but not a timelessness excluding time.
In short, we live in what has been called a holographic universe (lit., one verse). Another way of saying this ~ everything leans. No being exists apart from the whole, each born in dependence to be dependent, so Communion. And, ironically, then, the experience of independence itself is found within acceptance of limitations, with inherent reliance on other beings, including non-human beings. For instance, what do you have left, if you subtract other beings from your meal? How much of what you eat derives from animal life? Plant life? ~ And animal and plant are beings, all marked boundaries are concepts ~ no one can locate a point where Life becomes human, animal, plant, ... Life is more a blending of varied beings, not a clear arrangement of clearly delineated forms. ~ How much relies on sunshine? Water? Sky? Air? These are beings, too. Everything is a being, for being.
Continued... |
