jeff hogue/ bluelab art org

Finish what you've started here
You make your move
just once a year
In the city
in the town
Your happy home
is never found
Second hand
was never planned
The birth was over,
the baby banned
She fled the place
at such a pace
She never even saw your face
So go with me
Inside
Believe
You have so much to give

Switch the light off,
have a go
Force the only one you know
To leave this place
without a trace
A pity
I had seen your face
Where do you think
I will find
This party girl
who was so kind?
Raven hair
and skin so fair
Sadness
never visits there
So go with me
Inside
Believe
You have so much to give

the Delgados
Make Your Move

We didn't sleep too late.
There was a fire in the yard.
All of the tress were in light.
They had no faces to show.
I saw a sign in the sky:
Seven swans,
seven swans,
seven swans.
I heard a voice in my mind:
I will try, I will try, I will try. I will try, I will try, I will try.
We saw the dragon move down.
My father burned into coal.
My mother saw it from far.
She took her purse to the bed.
I saw a sign in the sky:
Seven horns, seven horns, seven horns.
I heard a voice in my mind:
I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord.
He said: I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord.
He said: I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord.
He will take you.
If you run,
He will chase you.
He will take you.
If you run,
He will chase you
'cause He is the Lord.
'Cause He is the Lord...
Seven swans, seven swans, seven swans, seven swans, seven swans...

Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans

“The question is no longer how did we get here, and why? But, where can we possibly go, and how? We live in a society that has drastically narrowed our sensitivity to moral and spiritual issues; the problem we face is how to deal with a belief structure that has blocked both psychological and spiritual development. If there is a new agenda, a new vision now emerging within our society, how might one help put it into practice?”
Suzi Gablik

...bluelab is being developed upon the issue first posed by Einstein, "a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness in which it was created.” It has become evident to many that in order to meet the problems we face as a species we must embrace a radical revision of our beliefs and our behaviors.

bluelab functions upon the strong presumption that artists likely figure significantly into the revisioning of a new world—and the invention of ways to communicate our discoveries. As we all learn more and more about our essential interconnectedness it also becomes increasingly evident that artists can’t function in a social vacuum. The label of “artist” is a problematic one and only used as a signifier of persons with specific media skills and training who are fluent in creative processes and who have some professional link to art. We are working to deconstruct as much as possible the binary--"us vs. them" mentality that still pervades the high art world. It seems to us that consistent with new paradigmatic shifts taking placethroughout all fields--there is a need to reconsider our accepted definitions of "artist" and "audience" all together. bluelab is constructed to offer pathways into higher levels of inclusivity. It is only through true inclusion that we can hope to make work that is deeply inviting and that offers an atmosphere of true love and trust and safety to all.

In terms of the way bluelab will in fact function, we are working to develop a sound and effective approach to community building which relies heavily upon time tested processes that are well understood and are seeking the help of people who are expert in these processes. On practical levels, the sharing and cross fertilization of specific areas of expertise allows for rich and complex works which through communal process are fused unselfconsiously and intuitively making of an organic whole.

Why all the talk of “community”?It is our firm belief that by building works in a heightened communal space we will in fact be building works potent with transformational energies. Jung talked about the distinctions between “liminal”or
transformative space and “liminoid”, or works that are simply entertaining. With a hard look at where we are at as a species and planet—it seems like simple math that we must link art making to the real task at hand—that of saving the earth.

Jesus pushes it back to the edge. Can you even see the image of Christ in the least of the brothers and sisters? He uses that as his only description of the final judgement. Nothing about commandments, nothing about church attendance, nothing about papal infallibility: simply a matter of our ability to see. Can we see Christ in the people, the nobodies who can't play our game of success? They smell. They're a nuisance. They're on welfare. They are a drain on our tax money. If we can, then we are really seeing.

He pushes it even further than that. He says we have to love and recognize the divine image even in our enemies. He teaches what they thought a religious leader could never demand of his followers: love of the enemy. Logically that makes no sense. Soulfully it makes absolute sense, because in terms of the soul, it really is all or nothing. Either we see the divine image in all created things or we don't see it at all. Once we see it, we're trapped. We see it once and the circle keeps moving out. If we still try to exclude some: sick people, blacks, people on welfare, gays (or whomever we've decided to hate), we're not there. We don't understand. If the world is a temple, then our enemies are sacred, too. The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing. ...

Everything becomes enchanting...

Richard Rohr Everything Belongs

“[Suzi] Gablik speaks of the previous paradigm of the Enlightenment period and what it has meant to artists: ‘Individualism, freedom and self-expression are the great modernist buzz words.’ The notion that art could serve collective cultural needs rather than a personal quest for self-expression seems almost ‘presumptuous’ in that worldview. Yet this assumption lies at the base of a paradigm shift in art, a shift ‘from objects to relationships.’ Gablik challenges her coworkers not to settle for abstract theorizing in making this paradigm shift. She personalizes and therefore grounds the transformations that must be undergone when she insists that ‘the way to prepare the ground for a new paradigm shift is to make changes in one’s own life.’ Spirituality is about praxis, she is saying, not just theory.”
Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work

Is it possible to create new spiritual structures for collaborative art making and to implement such toward community building with a depth of conviction, courage and inspiration that might move participants beyond self-interest toward truly new possibilities? Is it possible that with rigorous and focused processes artists could joyously make work engaging meaningfully with the specter of our global challenges while together exploring the uncharted territory of their souls? Can community building processes readily pour into art making wherein something meaningful and healing might evolve? Is it possible that these discoveries might be transmitted to the public at large through various new media shedding fresh light upon human potentials? Is it possible that all of this could dovetail with the efforts of important organizations such as The Global Justice Movement, Environmental Defense and Amnesty International toward a healthier and happier planet?

We say hopefully, yes.

What if artists were offered stipends, room and board allowing them to come together and to work intensively and without distraction for substantial blocks of time on film, music and real time performance collaborations? What if artists and thinkers could explore important issues in depth leading to transformational theater, installation, film and music? What if these artists were guided by experts through a structured community building process prior to beginning to create their projects? What if artists were given opportunity to work with and interact with some of the leaders of our time in the fields of art, science, and philosophy? What if these artists were given all the production equipment and technical assistance they might need to produce global quality shows? What if supporters and friends of our organization were given intimate amphitheater access to segments of our artists’ processes as well as early rehearsals, scheduled meals, activities and fellowship? What if the productions could be built and performed with some eventually touring the US and the world?

bluelab has been founded and created out of a perceived need to reconsider art making and professional collaborative art practice proceeding boldly from visionary prerogatives. We don’t find fault with the many artists who will not be drawn to what we are doing—for spiritual practice and its interface with collaborative art making are not for everyone.

In light of our present global endgame scenario it seems frivolous at best to argue over rhetorical issues. bluelab is intended for the “Great Work”--that of joining leaders of many fields worldwide who are engaged in the work of saving the earth. We believe that perhaps the only way to meet our present challenges is to deeply transform ourselves which implies the support of a real community and structured spiritual practice to be determined by each member for her or himself.

When serious professional artists are willing to embrace the rigors of authentic spiritual practice, the work of community building and heightened artistic collaboration will undoubtedly fall quickly into place.

The abundance of quotes from Sufi teachers have been included simply because they are part of my daily practice and do not infer a direct link between bluelab and Sufism. In point of fact, any serious spiritual practitioner must see that there can be no schism between the teachings of true Sufism and any sincere humanitarian interest. In the interest of those who may fear some sort of covert Islamic link, Sufism as it’s practiced and defined by and large in the West is Universalist in its orientation and in fact many Sufi’s roots are Christian and Jewish.

"Emptiness feels empty not because there is nothing present, but because whatever it is we're doing has no egotistic interference. The subtle arteries have no ego plaque in them, nothing to resist the smooth flow of the soul. Without our getting in the way, the life of the soul is rich and full, though unpredictable. But it isn't easy to trust strong desire and the life that keeps pouring into us. We always think we know better what should be and how it should all turn out. That is why the death principle --avoiding, worrying, being moralistic--is so popular." Thomas Moore The Soul's Religion

All through Erikson’s work is the implication that the creative adult (the generative adult) is precisely the person who can infuse his life with play;…the great cultural synthesizers—the religious, political and cultural geniuses such as Luther, Freud and Gandhi—were supreme in their playfulness, especially in their work. Their great words of synthesis were personal attempts to restore the active mastery of their egos in the context of the tensions and dichotomies of their personal and public historical situations. All great historical syntheses are as much play as they are work. They are work because they are indeed attentive to the real contradictions and tensions that most people of a given historical period both sense and suffer. They are a result of play because the creative genius does not simply conform to, adjust to, and accommodate to these tensions. Instead, he bends and reshapes these tensions until they submit to a new synthesis which not only enlivens and activates him but which also enlivens and activates a whole people and an entire era.

“Some renaissance theologians worked hard at reconciling paganism with Judaism and Christianity. We have yet to achieve this détente that is essential to the life of the soul. Fragments of our hearts and minds are located in the garden of Gethsemane and in the garden of Epicurus, on the zodiac of the Apostles and on the zodiac of the animals, in the wine of Dionysus and in the wine of the Eucharist, in the psalms of David and in the hymns of Homer.

It is not a matter of belonging to a religion or professing one’s faith, it is a matter of orientation in life and participation in its mysteries.

We can all be pagan in our affirmation of all of life, Christian in our affirmation of communal love, Jewish in our affirmation of the sacredness of family, [Islamic in our affirmation of self-sacrifice,] [Hindu in our affirmation of the multiplicity of God's expression], Buddhist in our affirmation of emptiness, and Taoist in our affirmation of paradox.

The new monk wears invisible robes. Thomas Merton travels across the globe, and in the home of Eastern monks, dies. Isn’t this a myth for our time and about the resurrection of the monastic spirit!”

“Vulnerability, then, is not only the ability to risk being wounded but is most often made manifest by revealing our woundedness: our brokenness, our crippledness, our weaknesses, our failures and inadequacies. I do not think that Jesus walked vulnerably among the outcasts and crippled of the world purely as a sacrificial act. To the contrary, I suspect he did so because he preferred their company. It is only among the overtly imperfect that we can find community and only among the overtly imperfect nations of the world that we can find peace. Our imperfections are among the few things we human beings have in common….Indeed, only honest people can play a healing role in the world.”
M.Scott Peck, M.D., A Different Drum

"In the very first chapter Thomas (Berry) lays before us 'The Great Work.' In each historical epoch, he says, people are given a “Great Work” to do—in one age, the settling of new lands, in another the building of great cathedrals, the creation of artistic, philosophical, religious or scientific works, or the shaping of political structures and ideas. The Great Works of prior periods are seen in such things as the movement of the first people out of Africa in the Paleolithic Period; the creation of language, rituals and social structures in hunter-gatherer communities; the establishment of agriculture communities in the Neolithic Period; the development of the great classical civilizations; and, in the modern period, advances in technology, urban civilization, new
ideals of government and human rights, the modern business enterprise and globalism.

Our Great Work is not something we choose, Thomas says. It is something we find ourselves thrown into by virtue only of being born in a certain time and place. The task may seem
overwhelming, one coming in response to some huge historical difficulty, but, he observes, just as we are given our historical task by some power beyond ourselves, we must also believe we are given the abilities to fulfill this task.
The Great Work into which we and our children are born, Thomas says, comes in response to
the devastation of the planet caused by human activity. We are facing a breakdown in the life
systems that can only be understood by comparison with events that marked the great transitions in the geo-biological eras of Earth’s history, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs and countless other species when the Mesozoic Era ended and our present Cenozoic Era began. Our task is to move from our modern industrial civilization with its devastating impact to that of benign presence. It is an arduous and overwhelming task, one exceeding in its complexity that ever offered to humans, for it is not simply one of adjustment to disturbance of human life patterns, as, for example, that occasioned by the Great Depression or the recent World Wars, but one of dealing with the disruption and termination of the geo-biological system that has governed the functioning of the planet in the 67 million year reign of the Cenozoic Era in the history of the planet Earth."

Ten Sufi Thoughts

from The Way of Illumination by Hazrat Inayat Khan

There are ten principal Sufi thoughts which comprise all the important subjects with which the inner life of man is concerned:
1) There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save God.
2) There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the light.
3) There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens all readers.
4) There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life's purpose of every soul.
5) There is one Law, the law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6) There is one human Brotherhood, the Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood (/Motherhood) of God.
7) There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8) There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9) There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
10) There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.

The following are shared objectives for bluelab and were first articulated as such by Hazrat Inayat Khan who is credited as the first to bring Sufism to the West--in the early 20th century.

The objectives of the Sufi path:

1) To realize and spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and all hatred caused by distinctions and differences may be rooted out.

2) To discover the light and power latent in man, the secret of all religion, the power of mysticism, and the essence of philosophy, without interfering with customs or belief.

3) To help to bring the world's two opposite poles, East and West, closer together by the interchange of thought and ideals that the Universal Brotherhood may form of itself and man may see with man beyond the narrow national and racial boundaries.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Richard Rohr Everything Belongs: the Gift of Contemplative Prayer

CENTER AND CIRCUMFERENCE

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold…The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity (W B Yeats).

The two great paths of transformation: suffering (which gets our attention) and love and prayer (to get to our heart and passion). ‘Everything belongs’ – even that which is broken and poor The poor and uneducated may love God more than the theologian or ecclesiastic – St. Bonaventura Move beyond either-or thinking and learn to live with paradox, unanswered questions, inner contradictions The ‘Christ’ of the insecure tends to be tribal – ‘just like them’ Centered people, however, have their security and identity in God The problem of all of Carl Jung’s patients in the second half of life might have been solved by contact with ‘the numinous’ (God).

[2] VISION OF ENCHANTMENT

‘If prayer isn’t simple by the time you have finished reading this I will have failed We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God who is choosing us, now and now and now. All the great religious teachers tell us that human beings do not naturally see: we have to be taught how to see. Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a way of living in the Presence

God can most easily be lost by being thought found: We must never presume we see (Pharisees see sin everywhere except in them). Try to say ‘I don’t know anything’ (‘tabula rasa’ in Latin). (Jesus’ parables are almost always subversive with regard to conventional wisdom and so-called common sense)

Spirituality is about true seeing – you don’t have to push

the river, because you are in it.

Liminality or liminal space (Latin ‘limen’ = threshold) is a good metaphor for transformation. Eg. Initiation rites, where the boy learns the way of tears, learns to ‘let go’ to become a man. The two greatest liminal experiences are birth and death.

It’s metanoia (Greek – ‘moving beyond the mind’) – turning around, repentance. Our society produces ‘liminoid’ experiences – substitutes, diversionary - the bottom line, meritocracy, exchange rates.

So repeat throughout the day:

God’s life is living itself in me.

I am aware of life living itself in me.

Or St. Patrick:

God beneath you

God in front of you

God behind you

God above you

God within you.

Jesus invites us to love and recognize the divine image even in our enemies. Either we see the divine image in all created things, or we don’t see it at all. If the world is a temple, then our enemies are sacred too. And the ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing.[3] EGO AND SOUL The contemplative secret? Live in the now (‘the sacrament of the present moment’)

Be still and know that I am God

Be still and know that I am

Be still and know

Be still

The ‘judging mode’ ranks people/ideas (higher/lower, superior/ inferior) and is into control, comparison, competition – and all this blinds us to love. Julian of Norwich: ‘The Lord looks on his servants with pity and not with blame.’ Jesus’ crucifixion – seemingly a time of utter powerlessness – was actually his moment of greatest power. Is the Universe Friendly? (Einstein). Babies under 2/3 years experience ‘kinesthetic knowing’ – and we always live out of that knowing. ‘Be not afraid’ is the most common single line in the Bible. Bernham (‘Coming to Our Senses’) says the proliferation from about 1500 of mirrors was a historical watershed, leading to a split within the self, and a desire for ‘physical perfection’, a lack of contact with reality (‘ontological moorings’). We must break the material world’s hold on us, and enjoy the freedom of living as they did before mirrors and photos! The price we’ve paid for technologies? Our soul, which now doesn’t know itself because of comparison/differentiation. The Priority of Contemplation. Most revolutions fail because the demon of power (from left or right) has never been exorcised. We need less reformation and more transformation. Most people spend their entire lives trying to be smart, good-looking, successful, clever, rather than living in the primal ‘I’ that is already good in God’s eyes. When we are nothing, we are in a fine position to receive everything from God – poverty (Franciscans), nothingness (Carmelites), emptiness (Buddhists), the desert/closet (Jesus) – ‘in Christ, hidden in God’ (Paul, Colossians 3:3). Inside and Outside Contemplation, returning to the naked self, helps us let go of this ‘I’ fixation. The child, says Jesus, with its beginner’s mind has no ego identity to prove, project, protect. The problem with religion is that it clings to a small part of the whole – spinning the prayer wheel right, engaging in rituals, affirming dogma (group-think is often a substitute for God-think), obeying laws. Techniques, rituals and spiritual disciplines are just ‘fingers pointing to the moon’. Institutional religion is the least mature manifestation of the living presence of Christ. If you understand it, things are just as they are; if you don’t understand it, things are just as they are. The Enlightenment: I think therefore I am. Moderns: I choose therefore I am. [4] CLEANSING THE LENS Prayer is not ‘one of ten thousand things’. It’s that by which we see ten thousand things. Aquinas did not ask where it came from, but if it is true: ‘If it is true, it is of the Holy Spirit.’God refuses to be known except by love (John of the Cross) Wiping the Mirror The wounds to our ego are our teachers and must be welcomed (‘our trials and disturbances come from our not understanding ourselves’ Teresa of Avila) Prayer is not finally self-observation, but ‘falling into the hands of the living God’ (Hebrews 10:31) The Power of Free Will In politics we demonize the other side (it’s all driven by illusion, self-interest, power and fear – especially the fear of not being re-elected). ‘Fear not’ - the most common one-liner in the Bible. We live too much in reaction to others – they’re wrong, I’m right. It’s scapegoating – projecting the problem ‘over there’. Rather: ‘we have found the enemy and it is us!’ Kohlberg’s schema on moral development would place Jesus as a sixth-level person – a very small minority of humans (but mystical Judaism, Islam and Buddhism also agree…)Prayer and Suffering We all need art, music and solitude. Prayer and suffering lead to our emotional depths (they both help us become dependent on God): they are the two primary paths of transformation and we connect with the suffering and injustice of the world (com-passion = ‘feeling with’).

Humility and honesty lead to truth, not just information, according to the wisdom traditions: we grow by subtraction more than by addition. The twentieth century has added nothing to the wisdom of the soul: it was all there already. We can choose fear/illusion/self-protection – or love. FEAR = false evidence appearing real.[5] DON’T PUSH THE RIVER The holy fool knows that he doesn’t know (‘If you can explain it, it’s not true’). (Protestants’ theology is mostly in their head). ‘God comes to us disguised as our life’ (Paul D’Arcy). Meister Eckhart: ‘God is closer to me than I am to myself’. Everything belongs; God uses everything; there are no dead-ends; there is no wasted energy. Everything is recycled. Sin-history and salvation-history are two sides of the one coin. The Gospel is all about the mystery of forgiveness. The people who know God well – the mystics, the hermits, those who risk everything to find God – always meet a lover, not a dictator. (Two-thirds of Jesus’ teachings and one third of his parables are about forgiveness) Your life is not about ‘you’. It’s part of a much larger stream called God. Personal Prayer and Social Prayer When a church isn’t teaching people how to pray, it’s lost the reason for its existence. For most churches what is all-important is attendance at a service where the clergy happen to be in charge. Church = individuals coming for their spiritual fix hen leaving. Weeping is the opposite of blaming, and also the opposite of denying. The freedom to cry is a clear sign you’ve actually experienced God. The man who cannot cry is a savage; the old man who cannot laugh is a fool. The person of prayer is a person who can cry from the heart and laugh from the belly. We are all naked underneath our clothes, more alike than different.RETURN TO THE SACREDAll transformation takes place in ‘sacred space’, ‘threshold place’ (liminality). Prophets lead us into sacred space by showing us the insufficiency of the old order (priests help us live in the new realm). In mature religion the secular becomes sacred. The temple veil is rent (‘pro’ + ‘fanum’ --- profane, ie. outside the temple.Embracing the Shadow In the first half of life winning is very important (‘the character lie’ – Ernest Becker). Most problems are psychological; most solutions are spiritual. The burden of the second half of life is often the reclaiming of what we have denied, feared and rejected.

Our shadow is failure itself. We scorn powerlessness and poverty, the fear of being ‘ordinary’ (which is failure in a success-driven culture). Francis: ‘Here is where I will rejoice. I will delight in nonpower, nonaggression, nondomination, nonpleasure, nonwealth, nonsuccess.’ That is freedom! The fear of death is the existential terror about losing what you’ve never found. For Jesus life and love are eternal; we enter into it now. It’s heaven all the way to heaven (or hell all the way to hell). Not later, but now. Augustine: ‘In my deepest wound I see your glory and it dazzles me!’ Julian: ‘God sees the wounds and sees them not as scars but as honors.’ Most of us do not thank God for our wounds – and then, not until the second half of life. Walking the Third Way The religion of Jesus is about attachment, falling in love, risking pain, suffering - not Zen-like detachment - ‘the Third Way’, the middle way between fight and flight (‘everything is beautiful’), the contemplative stance, the way of wisdom.Liberals are into ‘fight’ – ‘fix it and change it’; conservatives flight – denying massive institutional evils. Liberals deny the vertical arm of the cross (transcendence); conservatives the horizontal (breadth and inclusivity). Prophets see in themselves good and bad (it’s not ‘over there’). The divine image honors the good in both myself and my would-be opponent.

CONCLUSION: A CONTEMPLATIVE SEEING OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS I believe God is in all things – even and especially painful things. The crucifixion of the God-man is he best thing in human history Human existence is neither perfectly consistent nor is it incoherent chaos The price we pay for holding together these opposites is always some form of crucifixion The ‘paschal mystery’- true life comes only through death and rebirth wherein we learn who God is for us. We should not be surprised by the sinful and the tragic. Do what you can to ‘be peace’ and to do justice but never expect or demand perfection on this earth. Resist all utopian ideologies and heroic idealisms that are not tempered by patience and taught by all that is broken, flawed, sinful and poor Following Jesus is not a salvation scheme for individuals or society but sharing the fate of God for the life of the world God is calling everyone and everything to himself Institutional religion is the necessary but immature manifestation of the ‘hidden mystery’ by which God is saving the world. It is never an end in itself but an uncertain trumpet of the message Many live this mystery who do not belong to he church – Gandhi, Simone Weil, Nelson Mandela Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected is he vulnerable face of God The Cosmic Christ is no threat to anything but separateness, illusion, domination The contemplative mind is the only way of seeing all this. The calculative mind creates dualisms, win/lose scenarios, imperial egos and necessary victims ‘No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it’ (Einstein) GUIDE FOR REFLECTION What is the circumference/centre for you? ‘Too many words’ – why? ‘We are born again and again and again ’Playful prayer involves surrender and gratitude. Why is it easier to be against than for? How do you relate God to things? How do you relate sexually to other people? Part of us always has to die’. What part, for you?