Samples of writing on art and spirituality

These excerpts from some of my texts were initially accompanied by paintings, so it looks a bit bleaker this way. The whole thing can be seen at the e-zine www.scribespirit.org, whose current issue is on spirituality.

/ScribeSpirit Presents The Art and Philosophy of Vivi-Mari Carpelan
When Vivi-Mari Carpelan and ScribeSpirit began their collaboration, it seemed a match that had no equal. Vivi-Mari has generously been acting in the capacity of Visual Arts Editor for the past three issues, and her work has been featured prominently in Conservation, Money & Power, and this issue, Spirituality. Although Vivi-Mari's work seems like it was created for the articles it appears with, that is not the case. However, the appropriateness of Vivi-Mari's work is a testimony to her spiritual take on life. Here we present some more of her visual art, as well as her philosophy about matters of the heart and soul./

FLYING WITH HEAVY WINGS, LIGHT WINGS OR FLYING AT ALL?
(From an article on renunciation)

All mystical teaching aims at the liberation of man from the fetters of the material world. A prerequisite for this, however, is renunciation; in order to achieve a permanent state of mystical union with the divine, all the desires that confine us to the pains and pleasures of the mundane sphere must be extinguished. Everything we were ever attached to, must be sacrificed for this supreme state of being. If we hold on to as much as one photograph, or even the desire to attain a state of mind devoid of desire, then we are still caught up in the wheel of Samsara (the cycle of life).

Does renunciation, for example, lead to a sense of real freedom or does it bind us to new rules and restrictions? Is a lifestyle infused with a renouncing attitude life-denying or life-affirming? Could such a lifestyle be considered healthy or pathological?

There is a healthy form of renunciation which concerns the letting go of possessive attachments to places, objects, people, memories, and experiences in general, and that this is a matter of the mind. On the other hand, Unhealthy renunciation is one where any form of repression and resistance is the case. But my point is also, that renunciation is not an exclusively “spiritual” phenomenon in the sense that only people with a particularly spiritual outlook are confronted with such issues. On the contrary, we are dealing with the issue all the time, just through the simple process of living life and seeking ways in which we can live it more fluently People find discussions about enlightenment rather "high-flying": why concern oneself with something that may take place at some indefinite point in the future?
This very moment with all of its petty concerns is as "holy" and purposeful as a mystical experience. The is no need to mystify the spiritual and to create an awe-inspiring abyss between the heavenly and the mundane.
If all this is even close to being true, then it is possible for humans to fly into the soaring heights of Heaven with wings of Spirit, Light and Purity.

VIBRATIONS FROM THE DIMENSION OF SILENCE
(a text accompanying an exhibition)

Far away from the humdrum of daily life lies an ancient site, a secret garden where reigns the deepest silence. This is where you can find the most fertile soil, water and all the prerequisites for the greatest splendour one can imagine - however, the warmth and the light is missing! As abandoned and empty as it seems, it is easy to believe that there is nothing to be found in this place. But if one of these days you are able to get loose from the toil and wear of day-to-day obligations and take the long and winding road to this place, then I am sure that you will be abundantly rewarded with floral splendour, birdsong and tasty fruits. Why? Because you are the warmth and the light. It is in the light of your consciousness that the force of life will come to being.

This is my experience of the mysterious being of silence. Silence is the soil of possibilities in which our experiences and intuitive insights are grounded. Our creative power flows out of the dimension of silence in order to manifest itself in symbolic pictures. Our rational mind is able to analyze and use these pictures in order to increase the understanding of our own development. It is from the dimension of silence that our desire to create and our will to live burst forth, all that make us co-creators of the world in which we live in. But how much do we actually use our inner potential? How much confidence do we have in our own creativity? Are we daring enough to clear the bushy path to our secret garden, or do we prefer to live our lives controlled by fear and anxiety only because this is what we are accustomed to? Do we dare to say yes to our inner development, to movement and change, to mental risk taking, to challenges and to our own intuition? Are you brave enough to listen to your inner voice and follow the vibrations to your silent and secretive homestead, and see what there is to be found?

THE TEARS OF SAMSARA
(a text accompanying an exhibition)

Tears of sorrow, tears of joy… Tears rejuvenate and cleanse us. Something dies away and leaves space for change. In the dynamic chaos of transformation the creative seed of potentiality is coming into being. From the ground that has become sopping wet and painful, the tender stalk of a new plant is cautiously reaching upwards, always with the same urgent desire to be noticed and taken care of, to receive love, warmth and light. Nothing lives in complete darkness. But without the darkness, the cold and the shadows, the light and the warmth would be meaningless. In the same way it is grief that provides joy with depth and meaning.

In the world-views of Hinduism and Buddhism, Samsara is the name of the cycle of life. Life follows death and death follows life. Constant, dynamic change characterizes the inner being of life, and this is something that goes on inside as well as outside of us. But how solid are in actual fact the boundaries between inner and outer, between life and death, between sorrow and happiness? How solid and unchangeable is the one who is residing inside this body and perceiving all this? My experience of life is that the winds of change are blowing right through me, all the time, without interruption. I have no choice but to give them the space they require.

ENCOUNTER ENGENDERS LIFE
(a text accompanying an exhibition)

When I look out towards the world, the world comes to greet me. The moment I perceive myself in the vast mirror of reality, I come to being. I am able to see myself - my shape, my features, my thoughts, my feelings, and my soul. All this is being born in the interaction between me and my environment, because it is the experience of this constellation that helps me redefine myself. Books, pictures, objects, people… all these things help me see and understand myself. The encounter lends me the mirror. Without this mirror I am not able to grow, change and become whole.

Life is an encounter, a play of opposites, a breathtaking dance where we unite and pull away, in the whirlwind of life, inwards and outwards, in oneness and in separation…. Like the natural flow of breathing or the play of the waves, like the gushing power of creativity from a well of life that never dries up. Do I dare to encounter life? Do I dare to encounter you? With an open gaze and an open mind? Perhaps the answer to the riddle of life is in the open gaze in the mirror that I encounter?