When We Pray

When We Pray II: The Aesthetics of Enlightenment - The Universal and the Particular (EXCERPT) When the word “aesthetics” is mentioned in contemporary circles, most of us associate it with theories regarding how we perceive and understand beauty, but this is a very limited perception that merely props the door open. If we open the door fully, we are invited to enter a much broader landscape which grounds aesthetics in the realm sensory experience. Our senses are essential to this discussion because beauty must be perceived in order to be experienced, and perception is impossible without the use of our senses. You see a beautiful work of art, you hear beautiful music, you see and taste a beautiful meal, you physically and emotionally feel the power of nature. Beauty, at its most fundamental level is a celebration of the sensual which props open the door to a wider range of aesthetic experience. “Aesthetics” is derived from the Greek root aesthesis which can best be defined as “of the senses” or “perceptible by the senses”. When the founder of the discipline, Alexander Baumgarten coined the term “Aesthetics” his original intention was to establish a scientific method for the study of empirical experience. If beauty props the door open so we may glimpse what’s on the other side, Aesthetics opens the door and invites us into an exploration of sensory perception and the nature of human embodiment. Science now re-enforces this claim by proving that every perception we have is accompanied by a corresponding physical sensation that is stored in the body as cellular memory. Whether it is a thought, an experience, a feeling…it is still perceived by the brain and the body as sensory data that is recorded and stored within the cellular memory – whether we are consciously aware of the experience or not. This finding supports psychological theories which discuss trauma, PTSD, post traumatic slave syndrome, recalling experiences in the womb while under hypnosis, and practices such as: the curing of ailments through body awareness practices, improving intuition through muscle testing…etc. This process of cellular encoding ensures that all human experience is sensory, embodied, and aesthetic. If all experience is aesthetic, then the paths to enlightenment, nirvana, and the road to heaven must all be paved with sensory experience. If we are to walk this path, we must first define what we mean by enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a destination to be reached nor a threshold that one must pass through. Enlightenment is a blossoming, a progressive unfolding of insight and revelation into the nature of universal, divine, consciousness. This perspective moves us away from the misguided notion that Enlightenment is a prize to be obtained or a goal that one accomplishes. Neither is it a destination to be reached. This mindset is much too static. A more nuanced perspective allows us to envision a progressive, ongoing, revelation of consciousness that moves us through the sensual toward the supra-sensual until we eventually become one with pure consciousness. The movement toward enlightenment is one of relative degree and expansion into the vastness of all that is. From this perspective, Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius…were all enlightened persons who have now moved on to continue their expansion on other vibratory planes. Their individual consciousness has now expanded beyond the particularities of the physical plane. The apostle Paul reminds of this in 2nd Corinthians when he points out that, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” We have this treasure in earthen vessels. But in order to find the “treasure” we must be willing to dig for it. We must be ready and willing to get down on our hands and knees, and dirty ourselves in the soil of life. This is the true purpose of living. To dig deep into the ground of existence, to struggle to be present to our particular lives and all the experiences it will present us. Rather than avoid, neglect or ignore that which we find painful or unpleasant; we must run toward it if we can, or at least be willing to actually feel it – trusting that this too is part of the path. To sit with these experiences, acknowledge and be with those feelings, and to the degree that we can, embody them. No matter how minute or seemingly insignificant, nothing in life or nature is ever wasted. Too many of us have become content walking on the surface of life’s experiences. We spend our entire lives never going below the topsoil. But the treasure is always buried deep. What we fail to realize is that this failure to dig into the depths of our particularity drastically affects our ability to experience and appreciate the heights of the universal as well. All of life becomes grey and bland to such a degree that we end up convincing ourselves this all there is. Until one day something comes along that is so overwhelming we are literally forced to pay attention...(excerpt).