Editorial
BW Musings 04 — Spaciousness.
In cultivating spaciousness we observe, with openness, gentleness, curiosity and a good bit humor. Spaciousness; expansive like the sky. You give things room to breathe.
The first time I fell in love with jazz was in New York. I observed it like I observed nothing before. Every note was unpredictable, interesting. Observation is not caught in time. Words create time. I forgot about words, I forgot about time. Past, present, future. I forgot there was a me.
When sound enters through your ear, at what point does it stop being sound? When does it stop being the “external” object, and become “you”?
BW Musings 02 — Out of Body.
Late last year it hit me how perfect— or complete— the yin-yang symbol is; without darkness, no light. There’s a harmony to the dance.
Embrace the darkness; downplay the light.
Better yet, when we step back and take a holistic read, there is no definitive darkness, nor light. Detaching from ideas of good and bad, dark and light, life and death, we can see how they exist not as isolated or self-contained events, but come together to make a sweeping whole. Nature is indeterminate; and neutral. There’s an ultimate, peaceful, and transcendent beauty in completeness.
BW Musings 05 — Mirage of Forms.
Do you know how a raindrop forms? It starts with one speck of dust in the atmosphere; water particles collect and accumulate around it. Gradually, it grows, and we perceive a droplet. This imagery has stayed with me since I first heard it.
What of your inherent Self? In deconstructing the usual thought patterns that harden our sense of self, where is the “self”? Have you ever looked for it? (empirically and quite literally).
Is it in:
* Material belongings?— If your home was packed and floated down a river, is the Self gone?
* A specific part of the body?— Without a left leg are you less “you”?
* Opinions and values?— Are they not as well impermanent, capable of shape and change?
* Memories, emotions, physical stimulus?— Do they not also fluctuate, depending on the lens through which you relate to an experience, day to day?
* Ego?— But it is so fragile. Its love so conditional, comparative, and competitive.
I’ve spent a long time looking. Maybe it is empty of essence. Fabricated and compounded by and around a seed of consciousness, like a raindrop.
BW Musings 03 — Matryoshka.
We contain our ancestors, our parents, grandparents, past-present lovers, friends, acquaintances, passerby. If we remove any of these elements, there is no “us.” We are a continuation of a million threads. So, really, when does one begin to begin (..or end)?
BW Musings 01 — Flow.
A wave appears on the surface of the ocean. It is ephemeral, and interconnected with all other waves. We can’t take a wave out of the ocean, nor can we make it last forever. It would be a strange thought— to tunnel-vision intense attachment or aversion toward any one particular wave; and ignore the greater beauty of the ocean as a whole.