photo Gregory Colbert
To be human is to be related. As a human being we live
in relation with the elements, the sun, moon, the stones
in the earth and all living beings. But what does ‘to be
related’, ‘to live in relation with’ mean? Generally, when
we use the word we mean a link of some kind between
individual entities, object to object, or subject to object.
The word relationship here presupposes separateness,
the joining together of fractions. This fractional view of
relatedness is purely conceptual. It is a figment of the
mind and has nothing to do with pure perception, reality,
with what actually is.
When we live free from all ideas and projections,
we come into real contact with our surroundings. Practically
speaking, therefore, before we can be related to our
environment we must first know how to be related to
that most near to us, body, senses and mind. The only
hindrance to the clear perception of our natural state is
the forceful idea of being a separate individual, living in
a world with other separate beings. We have an image of
ourselves.
This image can be maintained only in relation to
things and thus it makes objects of our surroundings,
friends, children, spouse, intelligence, bank account,
etc., and enters into what it calls a personal relationship
with these projections. The fanciful idea of a self is a
contraction, a limitation of wholeness, real being. When
this notion dies we find our natural expansion, stillness,
globality without periphery or centre, outside or inside.
Without the notion of an individual there is no sensation
of separateness and we feel a oneness with all things.
We feel the surroundings as occurrences in unrestricted
wholeness. When our lover or children leave home or
our bank account drops, it is an event in us. Awareness
remains constant.
All phenomena, all existence is an expression within
globality and the varieties of expression only have meaning
and relationship in light of the whole. To be related
is to be related within the whole. Since there is no meeting
of fractions, in the whole there is no other. Strictly
speaking, therefore, in perfect relation there is no relationship,
no duality; there is only globality. All perception
points directly to our primal being, to stillness,
the natural non-state which is common to all existence.
Thus, in the human expression, to be related is to be
in communion with the whole. In this communion the
so-called other’s presence is felt as a spontaneous giving
and our own presence is a spontaneous receiving. There
is no longer a feeling of lack and consequently a need
to demand, because simply receiving brings us to our
openness. When we live in openness the first impulse is
offering. Being in openness and the spontaneous movement
of offering is love. Love is meditation. It is a new
dimension in living.
in relation with the elements, the sun, moon, the stones
in the earth and all living beings. But what does ‘to be
related’, ‘to live in relation with’ mean? Generally, when
we use the word we mean a link of some kind between
individual entities, object to object, or subject to object.
The word relationship here presupposes separateness,
the joining together of fractions. This fractional view of
relatedness is purely conceptual. It is a figment of the
mind and has nothing to do with pure perception, reality,
with what actually is.
When we live free from all ideas and projections,
we come into real contact with our surroundings. Practically
speaking, therefore, before we can be related to our
environment we must first know how to be related to
that most near to us, body, senses and mind. The only
hindrance to the clear perception of our natural state is
the forceful idea of being a separate individual, living in
a world with other separate beings. We have an image of
ourselves.
This image can be maintained only in relation to
things and thus it makes objects of our surroundings,
friends, children, spouse, intelligence, bank account,
etc., and enters into what it calls a personal relationship
with these projections. The fanciful idea of a self is a
contraction, a limitation of wholeness, real being. When
this notion dies we find our natural expansion, stillness,
globality without periphery or centre, outside or inside.
Without the notion of an individual there is no sensation
of separateness and we feel a oneness with all things.
We feel the surroundings as occurrences in unrestricted
wholeness. When our lover or children leave home or
our bank account drops, it is an event in us. Awareness
remains constant.
All phenomena, all existence is an expression within
globality and the varieties of expression only have meaning
and relationship in light of the whole. To be related
is to be related within the whole. Since there is no meeting
of fractions, in the whole there is no other. Strictly
speaking, therefore, in perfect relation there is no relationship,
no duality; there is only globality. All perception
points directly to our primal being, to stillness,
the natural non-state which is common to all existence.
Thus, in the human expression, to be related is to be
in communion with the whole. In this communion the
so-called other’s presence is felt as a spontaneous giving
and our own presence is a spontaneous receiving. There
is no longer a feeling of lack and consequently a need
to demand, because simply receiving brings us to our
openness. When we live in openness the first impulse is
offering. Being in openness and the spontaneous movement
of offering is love. Love is meditation. It is a new
dimension in living.
