Perception & Expression
What you can perceive is far greater than what you could ever express, though popular culture has convinced many of us that the enhancement of one’s life arises from the latter. We have been conditioned to believe in the value of action before deep observation. This is the source of detrimental outcomes because it gives the illusion that you can act intelligently through confidence instead of clarity. At birth, we know nothing, so we become absolutely attentive to everything. If you watch an infant, you will see nothing in their eyes but a piercing wonder. They are in a constant state of looking, of listening, of meditation because that is how the universe designed us to be not only at our home state, but to learn effectively. In my experience, I have noticed infants have a longer attention span than most of the adult population; & the cause of this is simply information overload. Education, which literally means to bring out, has been distorted to growing one’s intelligence through collecting the memory of others experiences & insights. This trend has become so drastic to the point where we trust data from the past over our sacred access to this present moment where all relevancy lies. Our ability to respond to the phenomena of life in a unique way according to our abilities can only be accessed through being attentive to the now.
If your information is larger than your experience, you will have confusion. If your experience is larger than your information, you will have clarity. The logical mind, or the intellect, behaves as a knife which attempts to cut the whole of life into contextual pieces. Imagine there is a landscape before you of incredible beauty that’s experienced through you & your companion’s observation. With your intellect, & all the information you have gathered prior to visiting the scene, you think of every scientific name for each phenomena you see. You hypothesize the height of this land above sea level, define the land’s biome, illustrate its cloud types in their named location of the atmosphere, recall the title of every animal in the distance, explain why they gathered here & for what purpose. Your attention is towards your thoughts, towards the illusory parts you have created of the whole as your demeanor becomes pensive in contemplation with an aura of confusion because the scene isn’t exactly as you believed it would be based upon the “knowledge” you collected. Your uneducated companion, on the other hand, has a huge smile on his face simply because his vision is filled with the unimaginable reality he perceives before him. His mind is left speechless, turned inside out through sheer interest & involvement. Lighthearted bursts of energy flow through his system manifesting in laughter as he makes zero attempt to describe what’s before him, because he knows he does not know what’s before him. Whether he is aware of it or not, he’s created distance between himself & his psychological process through observing this natural beauty with a childlike fascination. The entire scene is revealed to him without a stream of thoughts obstructing his vision. The educated companion looks over at his friend & wonders what could be so funny.
Now, who would you rather be? Well that depends on how you wish to conduct your life. Do you want to feel the pseudo-safety of being informed, which is most likely misinformed; or do you wish to live with a sense of abandon & exposure that allows the zest of life to touch your being. Yes we need information to live with discernment, but to create a cocoon out of the facts we have gathered puts a shield between you & life. The more safety you invite, the more bound you become. An absolutely safe space, is a cage. We seem to crave enough security to be comfortable for transformation into greater possibilities (or simply to relax). However, with closer examination we can understand what we actually desire is balance: the fertile ground of evolution. All of us desire to be more than what we are now, & this growth can only be achieved if the foundation of escalation is stable. The largest trees on planet earth, giant sequoias, have the largest trunks which firmly root into the ground. Similarly, those who have achieved the greatest feats within themselves & / or in society developed a mind firmly rooted into the “ground”, into the reality beyond language where symbols themselves are formed. This can only be realized within a person who prioritizes their perception above their expression. Your ability to observe touches the very foundation of existence itself as the basis of life is awareness. Your ability to express is birthed from this sense of awareness & therefore has its limitation of depth. Expression cannot even exist without perception to begin with.
How do I tap into this ground you may ask? You must use the tool of attention, which you may have spent 90-95% percent of your life directed outwards, & turn it within. Inward does not mean your thoughts, or even your feelings, but to the source of where those two intimate phenomena arise from, & disappear back into. In this space, you will begin to realize yourself not as a person. You will see you are consciousness. Becoming conscious of the reality that you are conscious is the foundation of greatness in any field of human endeavor, though as I said above, the education system has completely skipped over this simple, fundamental, & vitally powerful detail. The birthplace of creativity (essence-infused expression), of identity, of meaning, of context, is all inward beyond the moving parts of the world. This stillness, you will discover, is the only source of true security because it's a safety provided by the universe, not by the thoughts of man.
This power I stumbled upon ten years ago through sheer curiosity serves as the home base of operations for my entire psychological & decision making process. It’s allowed me to achieve a sense of mastery in multiple fields of creativity (photography, music, & writing), & has given me the space to untap my genius, uniquely available to every individual. People used to perceive genius as a spirit that mysteriously flowed into one's system benevolently dictating their thought & action. This is a fact of my life I have perceived. In every great achievement, this mystery has played a pivotal part. It is my wish I can teach others to travel deeper within themselves to grow towards their own powerful expression, first beginning through a keen sense of perception.
