Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What is today's wisdom?
A: "I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."
- J.B. Priestley
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As I glance upon this new drawing, I immediately hear Jimmy Cliff (or UB40) singing `Many Rivers to Cross’ ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkMzuXlKQv8 ), a song ostensibly in contradiction to your quote: "I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning." But, perhaps not. So much pain but the refusal to give in to it. The song is the very working through of one’s pride and isolation, those karmic formations that obstruct the fresh view that lives each moment in the fresh starts. And here, in her fresh “voice,” is Monika, accompanied by her coterie of three, all of whom participate in the journey across many rivers. How she loves her main figure to glance back. This is always my favorite feature: the returning, but not in the nostalgic mode. The nostalgic is that
ReplyDeletelonging to return to a past that never was, and so the algos of pain is the perpetuated deluded mind fixated in the seduction of longing. We simply cannot override time. But, we can move through and across it AS a skillful returning, that is, with self-awareness. And this is where the two helpers behind—each looking toward the other, one from below and the other from above—provide the tools. The bird-like figure, the wings of expansive seeking, setting out to transcend the limits and horizon of one’s psychology and fatedness; the child-like acolyte below cultivating wisdom and awareness in order to, one day, provide the character and grounding of responsible seeking AS living in the world.
The three together-- no coincidence-- are sitting on an island which, at any moment, will become the canoe or vessel to cross the many rivers. The Japanese Zen master, Dōgen Zenji, has a principle that I love, called ippo-gujin --"the total exertion of a single dharma." This is the deep understanding of interpenetration, according to which “each dharma in the universe is both the cause and effect of all other dharmas.” We as individuals become the life of all individuals, so that “this is the only thing in the whole universe.” I liken ippo-gujin to that intense concentration and focus of awareness that transgresses and thus transcends dualism. In ippo-gujin even language itself, despite its conceptual oppositions, transcends dualism. And so, the main figure is the self seeking itself, awaiting the integration of all modes of knowing, with the intention of following Monika in her magical world “somewhere behind morning,” and always in the light.
I’d like to finish with the `Room on the Broom,’ a book I read every night to my son, Teo, and one I am sure witchy Monika would love. The story is very much aligned with this traveling motif of Monika’s and so is situated “in time,” across many rivers, seeking a fresh start (What else can our themes of life embody if not journeys across time? Selfhood and time are ineluctably linked). In a `Room on the Broom,’ the witch is traveling on her broom and picks up some friends along the way—a cat, a dog, a bird, a frog. They all say, “Is there room on the broom for a cat/dog/bird/frog like me?” Are these friends not parts of ourselves needing to be accepted, loved and ultimately integrated in order to overcome our isolation and ignorance, so that “[we] may work the magic of having a good day?” A good day is a day of staying awake, staying aware of the goodness we all are, struggling for sure, and shaky with uncertainty half the time, but always just one “whoosh!” away from flight into joy.
Jimmy Cliff Many Rivers To Cross Video: 1989 Jamaica -
www.youtube.com
PLEASE SEE RESPONSES-Lyrics,Many rivers to cross But I can't seem to find my way over Wandering I am lost As I travel along the white cliffs of dover Many ri...
I did it again (as I did on facebook before) ... I wanted to add an image and not only could I NOT do that but the whole text disappeared :(
ReplyDeleteThird attempt: Thanks to your post I watched the video of Jimmy Cliff, listened to the song, and saw a bit of Jamaica and the left lane driving. It's a melancholic song, not very hopeful but still going.
You always find some more spiritual depth in my drawings than I see myself. It's great!
In this drawing I was reminded of the tarot card, the six of swords (imagine the jpeg for the image here :), where the ferryman carries two cloaked people (mother & child perhaps) across the stormy waters onto a calmer shore. The cloaked figures resemble the "baggage/memories" that we carry with us but while moving out of a stuck place we nevertheless reach a better place than where we came from.
Likewise, the figures in the drawing are on a float and are carried downstream by the river. The main figure is standing strong and confident that the journey will lead to a better place and with this kind of confidence it will. It is a fresh start :)