(re)Framing Causation

Some time ago, a Scottish philosopher inquired into the nature of human understanding. He saw that perceptions of sense and memory, as they present to the mind, do so in space or in time, but most importantly, in a necessary connection with each other. He reasoned that space, time, and causation are ideas. They do not actually represent the perceptions themselves. Rather, they reflect the manner in which the mind takes perceptions in, processes them, and “understands” them.

Consider the notion that what we perceive as matter - you know, “the hard stuff” of reality - is ultimately a quantum entanglement of light. All of the flavor and the scent, the gift of sound and vision, and the felt sense of perception comes from your body swimming in a sea of electromagnetic radiation.

From and within this sea of light, the mind uses the information from perception to generate ideas and does so in language. How we frame perception and how we (choose to) use language is a creative act.

Each moment in life is a creative unfolding of how we interact with this light. Tuning and turning the mind with intention and attention is a conscious choice that transforms the lens through which we perceive. We can perceive because we are embodied and this embodiment allows us to sense the relationships within and between space, time, and motion.

What if we (re)framed how we think about causation? That instead of being subject to, powerless against, or separate from the process of causation - we are the sequence of time. That essentially causation is thought and action creatively interwoven through the fabric of our reality causing, effecting, and affecting our experience in this life.

Kosmos i jego kontrasty

In With the New

I have spent much of the past two months preparing the space for my new office home. Toward the end of last year, I learned that I would have to relocate owing to the irresistible drive of Portland landlords to create more residential space for the growing city. I didn't want to move, but as Mick Jagger has eloquently reminded us - you can't always get what you want. 

I have observed that when one door closes, another opens. Sometimes it might be a window, or a crawl space, or an airplane hangar, but in any event, there is always a Way for movement to translate forward. All paths lead exactly here, and now, and the choice we have - especially during the time of year when Resolutions are in fashion - is how to proceed. The trials and tribulations, the stresses and strains, the joys and ecstasy of living in this modern and irrational world all afford us a constant opportunity to create an experience. For me, I want to and will create a space in which voices are heard, healing is deep, and the Hygge is strong. 

As we step into this New Year, what if the resolute question could be reframed to something utterly simple, and yet truly profound: what kind of experience you are allowing yourself to create in this life?

Grace in the Fall

On the other side of both a summer solar eclipse and the autumn equinox, we reap the harvest of actions taken or ignored. The colorful embrace of the falling leaves is one of the many ways the natural world reminds us of change. This year in general and the past few months in particular have served as a period of massive transition for everyone I know, myself included, without exception. As we enter November, I have found perspective in a quote from Hal Borland: 

"October is a fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen." 
 

There is an effortlessness to the turn of the Fall and it becomes apparent that to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose. It is a time to let go of that which no longer serves, to allow the leaves to fall where they may, and to embrace that wider horizon. Autumn reminds us that even in the middle of transition, in the depths of struggle, and in the agony of the unknown, there is Beauty in Change and there can be Grace in the Fall.