“The purpose of life is to know your true unconditioned self.”
-Agnes Martin
We all wish, on some level, for a truly unique and original experience. Maybe we haven’t felt it for a long time but we felt it once, even if only as a very young and curious child. We knew then that anything was possible and the notion of obstacles didn’t enter our mind. Because it didn’t enter our mind, there were none. The field of experience was wide open and we felt ourselves at the center of it.
When was the first time you felt the hard edge of the world uttering no? How did you reconcile the urgency of your desire with that energy of opposition?
We cannot form a relationship with limitless possibility in a purely intellectual way. We will continue to talk ourselves out of taking the first step. It is necessary to create a new strategy, one that moves us from mind to body, from psyche to soma.
If we feel the burn of wanting something we do not yet have, we are already wedded to it. Therefore, it can flow through us because it is already a part of us. That it doesn’t yet feel wholly accessible should not concern us. If we are in love with someone but cannot see them for a few days we do not cease to be in love. We may forget the exact shape of their face but our connection and longing keep us interested in a complete union.
As it relates to our creative self, this longing is about surrendering to the mystery. We don’t always have to be in the mode of doing. We are constantly changing and who we are today may not be who we are tomorrow. It is refreshing to consider, albeit strange, the possibility that we know ourselves only partially. The longing suggests it is our duty to find out the extent to which that is true.