Dualities: The Good, the Bad and the Earthbound

We have this strange, stratified, practically surreal paradox going on in the world at present.  On the one hand there are the power obsessed which range from individuals controlling their own mini-fiefdoms, resisting inclusion insisting on exclusion --to corporations and governments which are doing the same on a more macro scale.  Here, there is an aversion to relationship.  A more authentic relationship would mean, a willingness for an open tolerance that has breath in unoccupied spaces between people or entities and in oneself.  This would require a letting go, a willingness to be insignificant, a leap into the unknown, a relinquishing of personal resources and time.  At present, there is a lot of lieing, collusion, covert plotting/implementation, backdoor deals, conspiratorial setups to manipulate the external facade and the inevitable cover up of same.

This is a universal (cosmically lawful?) contraction of sorts; as opposed to an expansion or period of release witnessed in other eras or periods of time.  As was said, we are seeing this on all scales; from government, world politics to corporate institutions to even our friends and neighbor's conduction of personal affairs.  It's a proliferative, invasive and a toxic reaction to fear of being nothing.  It is a manifestation of a world bereft of a spiritual compass or conscience.  There is a resistance to this seen by other public power brokers.  Through humor, mobilizing masses of people or throwing money at the contraction through media or otherwise, there is an attempt to bring a transparency to the inequitablility.  From my perspective, this is the other side of this deeply troubled coin (even though I am entertained and often grateful for the latter's exposure attempts).  They are polarized to the other side of the coin, and also are unwilling to be insignificant, invisible and without their own wieldy (heady) power.

I am everybody and every time, I always call myself by your name.  --Pablo Neruda

And then we have, on the other hand, the legions of unsung hero(ines).  Those people who are off that power grid, living their life through a deeper guidance, a conscience that manifests in small, often invisible and insignificant ways to the world at large.  The family members who have put their own personal, well planned trajectory on hold to mindfully care for an incapacitated other, be it a family elder or physically/mentally challenged child, young adult.  What is inconsequential to many is significant to them.  Personally insuring the quality of life for a loved one who may never be a person of power in the world (pay back). And this is usually done at great financial expense and an abdication of massive chunks of personal time (never to be recovered).  There is no fanfare and rarely an acknowledgment of this noble endeavor.  It is an often silent, private, hellish (on some levels) navigation, touched by unspoken suffering, without remuneration and always at an exorbitant financial cost (in one way or another).  Prompted by a sense of deep obligation and almost always love, of the agape sort.  These are people who are both well prepared (financially and internally) and unprepared for such a commitment.  But they all take it on regardless because of their innate sense of integrity, justice and conscience.  It's a breathtaking choice of selflessness to make.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.-- Wm. Shakespeare

Is this not a perplexing and unusual juxtaposition of universal energies?  Granted, it is probably not a new juxtaposition.  I think of India, the famous historical power plays/brokers of the past juxtaposed with Mother Theresa's work with lepers, the terminally ill and other outcasts, done mostly under the radar of public notice, the first few decades at least. There are countless vocationists who have dedicated their existence to educating and caring for underserved, unnoticed populations all over the world, for little to no pay.  And the unconscionable power mongering has indeed always gone on, as these other more conscience-centered activities, have too gone on.

Does the world require these two different cosmic energies to co-exist in the world?  The constant friction of these energies may be necessary to keep the planet turning? Or maybe its not the polar forces themselves, but the friction that is created as they inevitably dual while in co-existence.  There is a tremendous energy generated there.  Enough energy to catapult nations into revolution and/or war.  On a micro scale, it's enough for individuals to make a cataclysmic shift in themselves; stop drinking/drugging, take a serious life inventory that prompts a leap into another way of being.  Or is it merely, we are at the mercy of these inevitable paradoxes?  They cosmically do their contraction/expansion thing on cue, and we similarly on cue, do our response/reaction to these big lawful forces?

In a way the inner struggle to cultivate a conscience through a lifetime is related to the universal duality these forces manifest.

“This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Food as Impressions: Impressions as Food

All things are connected.  All things are one.  If this is true, everything we impart to our bodies, whether vegetation or animal is something that is already a part of us.  In a Whole world, the relationship we have with this food would be mutual.  Then why do we (as a general rule) not behave in accord?  We ignore this connection in the most basic ways.  We find ourselves when eating, not paying attention, reading a magazine, eating it from a take out container or pot.  When we prepare food we impose ourselves upon the resource at hand.  We make all the decisions (usually automatic) without finding that relationship to the thing that eventually will enter our body and hopefully nourish it.  We are under the mistaken notion that by just ingesting the food, we are nourished. And we are, but only partially.  When we make a relationship with the animal flesh or vegetable before us in the preparation process, a symbiosis of sorts is created which is rich in impressions, an aspect of eating almost always under rated, unnoticed and unacknowledged.  This type of food has a higher vibration, nourishes more of me.

Digestion starts with the impressions received by our six senses.  So, proper digestion starts in the eyes,  and nose, touch,  and even ears (ie: crackling sound of fat in a pan meeting flesh or vegetable).  This of course happens before it even gets to the gustatory sense.  The parasympathetic nervous system (our relaxation response) kicks in when the attention is related to what is at hand.  Our senses trigger the bile juices in the gastric system that begins the process of digestion.  This whole process makes the intake of impressions and food Whole; it's a primary impression.  So, it's not purely "aesthetic" or even a luxury to give attention to presentation.  It's imperative to our Wholeness.

It's a mistake to see an act of care (attentive detail to presentation) as an extraneous ego act ('it looks nice').  To be mistaken in this way is an example of how far we have devolved in our culture in regards to self care; care of what we see, our impressions and care for our digestion process, which is greatly compromised at this time between the surreal industrial-farmed product we are provided and the diminishment of what is important (ie: eating off a plate vs eating out of a box).  As we begin to attend to this vital relationship, our sensitivity and impressions become more refined.  

We have five receptors on our tongues that register sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and pungent (the sublime combination of sweet and sour).  Western palates have been exclusively indoctrinated to sweet and salt through proliferative processed food use, marketing and habit.  To consider that all five qualities of flavor be present at a meal is an exercise in finding unity.  Likewise, providing diverse color and texture is to bring harmony to the senses and the receptors in ourselves that long to be met.  The balance of acid and alkaline inherent in foods is yet another demand.  If we are related to what is in front of us in the preparation stage, these aspects of unification unfold very naturally.  I become sensitized to the call of a dish, the meal as a whole.  I become aware of the components and how right or wrong they are for each other, be it in shape or size, complexity or flavor.  It becomes an interesting interplay and exchange between the raw food ingredients and myself.  A dialogue.  Relationship.

When plating, what happens when we spread the meal's components out?  Keep them in groups, add a gesture component (like a few thin pieces of lemon rind to the plate juxtaposed without fuss).  It falls on a place of rightness in us that isn't about aesthetic or "artistry"-- it's very interesting.  The life of the food starts to engage with us, inform us.  It becomes a relationship.  We no longer act upon it.  We work WITH its life, and it works with us.  

Impressions feed us.  Why deny this when it benefits our bodies and spirits so beautifully?  Food can be a negligible impression or one that reaches the organism in an expansively spatial way. Choose a bigger life.