I am indebted to Russ Rosa who inspired this conversation.
Intimacy
Enlightenment is
slippery.
It's arguably the only thing we seek which, once we've got it, we
discover we have to give it away if we want to keep it. There's more
paradoxes.
For one, there is after all no such thing as enlightenment. If there's
no such thing as enlightenment, how then do we give it away?
Perhaps the first thing to do to get clear about enlightenment is to
not call it enlightenment. Perhaps, as Werner suggests, the
problem with calling it enlightenment is the word
"enlightenment" itself which conveys a kind of
mysticism,
an eastern
context
which is not required and is also distracting. Perhaps the first thing
is to refer to it as
transformation
which brings in almost no concepts, no already knowing, and no
intellectual or religious structures.
Perhaps the next thing is to recognize that enlightenment /
transformation
isn't a state of mind or a way of living. And while the experience of
transformation
may result in an expanded state of mind and a new way of
living in the world, it's neither of those per se. It's a
conversation. That's not to say
transformation
is spoken about. Rather, it's the possibility
transformation
exists only as a conversation as long as we're in
conversations fortransformation.
When we're no longer in conversations fortransformation,
we're no longer
transformed.
You could say at the heart of the matter we're all one and the same
Self.
In other words, at the level of
transformation,
we're all one and the same being - human being. What
distinguishes each of us as individuals distinct one from the other is
in
conversations for
transformation
we each have our own mouth to speak and our own
ears
to listen. You could say all the rest of the human automaton and all
its
machinery
serves only one purpose: to create a viable sustainable condition which
allows our mouth and our ears
ears
to work.
So when I share
transformation
because I must if I'm to be
transformed)
I'm really sharing the one and the same
Self
I am that we all are. And if I'm going to share it with my mouth, with
my speaking (because that's how it's shared), for you to get it you'd
have to bring your
ears,
your listening (because that's how it's gotten), to my mouth. That's
true intimacy.
Arguably the gifts of listening and intimacy are inseparable. You can't
give one without the other. To me it's the most intimate gift when you
listen me.
Yes that's right. I did say "listen me" not "listen
to" me. Try on the distinction. When you listen to
me, you're one degree separate from me. When you listen
me, there's no separation. You've taken me in. You're trusting me to
intrude with integrity. You're allowing me to speak in you.
I'm in you. I'm as close in you as one human being can possibly be in
another human being. This is true intimacy. This is the gift your
listening makes possible.
Conversation As Fine Art
I want you to know I'm clear what I do doesn't stand a chance of
working were it not for the listening you bring to it.