Openings
“You said once that we were about to arrive at some profound dead ends. What does that mean?" I asked him.
“You are approaching the edge of a dimension.”
"What kind of dimension are you speaking of? Can you describe it?" I asked.
"Dimension is not a static thing. It develops, enlarges, articulates, inter-connects and interacts with other dimensions involved in the same unfolding process. There are points where they meet. Doorways. Apertures. Tunnels from one to the other. The entire universe is alive in this way. Just as you, a living organism, have this intricate system of interconnections and apertures."
"Each is a remarkable portal between dimensions.
"It seems that you couldn’t possibly relate the closed, inner fluid world of the body’s arteries and organs with the outer world of clouds, rain, cities, mountains... They seem very cut off from one another, and that is a good thing. If something inside the body is outside, or vice versa, it is a sign that the body is mortally threatened or fatally wounded.
“Yet think of these doorways! They are very refined, specific, magical even. Through the gateway of the nose comes life-giving oxygen as a toxic carbon dioxide departs. Day in, day out, just the right things flow through that aperture from one dimension to another. The same is true with the waste products of the body. You can understand how remarkable the system is when you realize that so many man-made products are toxic or deadly. Yet the earth is nourished by the waste products of humans, plants and animals.
“And then there is the most remarkable gateway of all, equaled only by the final passage of death, which you only go through ‘from the inside’: the gateway of the female womb. An embryo of new life develops in a purely fluid dimension—without light, length, width, depth, air, earth or fire. And in an instant, bursting through the tunnel of the mother’s womb, is born into the entirely new dimension of this world.
“Just imagine the universe as an organ of this sort—organism within organism, passage within passage. You see too how important it is that none of the passages is forced. That the walls of nature’s making are not breached in an ‘un-natural’ way or the process is aborted. It’s a little like the maze of your childhood—the steel ball in the wooden labyrinth which, little by little, finds its opening into the next passage."
“If that’s the analogy,” I asked, “is the goal the center?”
“No. The center can be reached in any moment. It is everywhere. And nowhere. Dimensionless. Goal is not the right word. Flowering is better. Expanding. But every expansion is followed by a contraction. Every outbreath followed by an in-breath. Why? Because it’s the rhythmic, living pulse of the universe.”
“Perhaps it’s best described as ‘the developing of new structures of perception.’ The consciousness you’re speaking of is itself an elaborate structure of perception.”
“When you say the ‘consciousness I’m speaking of’ you seem to infer another kind of consciousness.”
“Any kind we can speak of, of course, is part of the structure of human consciousness. But the word is also used to describe a fundamental form of sentience that you associate with life itself. A person faints, you bring him around to consciousness. Perhaps he’s still not ‘conscious’ of the details of his surroundings in your sense of the word but he’s distinctly not in a faint. He’s responsive to stimuli.
"This kind of consciousness is more directly related to, or expressive of, the life of the universe, the organ of the whole. This consciousness is fluid in all dimensions but takes on a specific focus and power in the human dimension through the structures of the biological form. And this illustrates exactly what I mean when I say that dimensions develop—as the biological structures of earth and the human brain itself develop.
“But to answer your first question, it is not necessary to have this kind of consciousness of an experience in another dimension. Let me give you an example: Let’s say you wake up on a beautiful day, filled with inspiration, and write a song. You’ve had an experience of a different dimension than the one you were in the morning before when you did your laundry. It doesn’t particularly matter if you’re conscious that you were in another dimension. What matters is the song. The other kind of consciousness— conscious recognition of a different dimension—would be an intrusion on the experience and drive it away entirely.”
“Is it like playing the piano, suddenly becoming conscious that I’m playing the piano, and then my fingers freezing up?”
“Exactly. So now I have to tell you the strangest and yet most obvious thing of all: that the idea of dimension is itself a construction. A construction of the construction of consciousness.”
“You mean that in reality there are no dimensions?”
“No. I mean that the idea itself is part of the expanded articulation of the dimension of human consciousness. Wonderful! But do dimensions exist for the wolverine? For the tiger? The eagle? Do they need ‘dimensions’? No. Nevertheless, you’ll understand them much better if you apply your notion of dimensions. Theirs are different, although they do share some with you. You see them—that is, humans do—as inferior to you because they are less developed in the dimensions that you have. That is to say, in your particular structures of perception which are articulating, developing, expanding along a particular line. Don’t you realize that they’ve been doing the same thing along lines of their own? That they have perceptions you can’t dream of? Dimensions unknown to you? Human arrogance— or hubris as the Greeks called it--is as unfortunate a bi-product of the human dimension as ferocity may be in the animal dimension.”
“In the end, every--every—living creature is a gateway to a new dimension. So cherish, hone, refine perception. I’m not talking about the perception of microscopes, bathyscope and telescopes. Those are things. I’m talking about the living faculty of perception which, in the human, is becoming increasingly closed off.
"Perception begins with honoring, and I mean that in a very fundamental way as an impulse that ignites, enlarges, ‘dimensions’ in the active sense. It begins with reverence. With respect. This is the first stirring of sensibility to the multifold dimensions which encase the human as the universe.
"The multifoliate rose at the center of which is the human heart, if it has opened like an eye onto the universe itself as the ‘heart’s vision’ The mystery—the mystical moment—occurs when the human heart and the heart of the universe—God— are one. When the heart of Quetzalcoatl rises as the quetzal bird to the heart of heaven. You see how beautifully the Nahuatl poets received the message, the gift, of the quetzal bird? How, in return, the quetzal carried the human heart to the Heart of Heaven?
“Doorways of honor. Doorways of respect. Doorways of a majestic love. Opening, opening, opening. Every creature has a center that is the same as your center. And the opening... The opening is the center.”
--from Listening: Voices at the Edge - Sheri Ritchlin copyright 1999
“You said once that we were about to arrive at some profound dead ends. What does that mean?" I asked him.
“You are approaching the edge of a dimension.”
"What kind of dimension are you speaking of? Can you describe it?" I asked.
"Dimension is not a static thing. It develops, enlarges, articulates, inter-connects and interacts with other dimensions involved in the same unfolding process. There are points where they meet. Doorways. Apertures. Tunnels from one to the other. The entire universe is alive in this way. Just as you, a living organism, have this intricate system of interconnections and apertures."
"Each is a remarkable portal between dimensions.
"It seems that you couldn’t possibly relate the closed, inner fluid world of the body’s arteries and organs with the outer world of clouds, rain, cities, mountains... They seem very cut off from one another, and that is a good thing. If something inside the body is outside, or vice versa, it is a sign that the body is mortally threatened or fatally wounded.
“Yet think of these doorways! They are very refined, specific, magical even. Through the gateway of the nose comes life-giving oxygen as a toxic carbon dioxide departs. Day in, day out, just the right things flow through that aperture from one dimension to another. The same is true with the waste products of the body. You can understand how remarkable the system is when you realize that so many man-made products are toxic or deadly. Yet the earth is nourished by the waste products of humans, plants and animals.
“And then there is the most remarkable gateway of all, equaled only by the final passage of death, which you only go through ‘from the inside’: the gateway of the female womb. An embryo of new life develops in a purely fluid dimension—without light, length, width, depth, air, earth or fire. And in an instant, bursting through the tunnel of the mother’s womb, is born into the entirely new dimension of this world.
“Just imagine the universe as an organ of this sort—organism within organism, passage within passage. You see too how important it is that none of the passages is forced. That the walls of nature’s making are not breached in an ‘un-natural’ way or the process is aborted. It’s a little like the maze of your childhood—the steel ball in the wooden labyrinth which, little by little, finds its opening into the next passage."
“If that’s the analogy,” I asked, “is the goal the center?”
“No. The center can be reached in any moment. It is everywhere. And nowhere. Dimensionless. Goal is not the right word. Flowering is better. Expanding. But every expansion is followed by a contraction. Every outbreath followed by an in-breath. Why? Because it’s the rhythmic, living pulse of the universe.”
“Perhaps it’s best described as ‘the developing of new structures of perception.’ The consciousness you’re speaking of is itself an elaborate structure of perception.”
“When you say the ‘consciousness I’m speaking of’ you seem to infer another kind of consciousness.”
“Any kind we can speak of, of course, is part of the structure of human consciousness. But the word is also used to describe a fundamental form of sentience that you associate with life itself. A person faints, you bring him around to consciousness. Perhaps he’s still not ‘conscious’ of the details of his surroundings in your sense of the word but he’s distinctly not in a faint. He’s responsive to stimuli.
"This kind of consciousness is more directly related to, or expressive of, the life of the universe, the organ of the whole. This consciousness is fluid in all dimensions but takes on a specific focus and power in the human dimension through the structures of the biological form. And this illustrates exactly what I mean when I say that dimensions develop—as the biological structures of earth and the human brain itself develop.
“But to answer your first question, it is not necessary to have this kind of consciousness of an experience in another dimension. Let me give you an example: Let’s say you wake up on a beautiful day, filled with inspiration, and write a song. You’ve had an experience of a different dimension than the one you were in the morning before when you did your laundry. It doesn’t particularly matter if you’re conscious that you were in another dimension. What matters is the song. The other kind of consciousness— conscious recognition of a different dimension—would be an intrusion on the experience and drive it away entirely.”
“Is it like playing the piano, suddenly becoming conscious that I’m playing the piano, and then my fingers freezing up?”
“Exactly. So now I have to tell you the strangest and yet most obvious thing of all: that the idea of dimension is itself a construction. A construction of the construction of consciousness.”
“You mean that in reality there are no dimensions?”
“No. I mean that the idea itself is part of the expanded articulation of the dimension of human consciousness. Wonderful! But do dimensions exist for the wolverine? For the tiger? The eagle? Do they need ‘dimensions’? No. Nevertheless, you’ll understand them much better if you apply your notion of dimensions. Theirs are different, although they do share some with you. You see them—that is, humans do—as inferior to you because they are less developed in the dimensions that you have. That is to say, in your particular structures of perception which are articulating, developing, expanding along a particular line. Don’t you realize that they’ve been doing the same thing along lines of their own? That they have perceptions you can’t dream of? Dimensions unknown to you? Human arrogance— or hubris as the Greeks called it--is as unfortunate a bi-product of the human dimension as ferocity may be in the animal dimension.”
“In the end, every--every—living creature is a gateway to a new dimension. So cherish, hone, refine perception. I’m not talking about the perception of microscopes, bathyscope and telescopes. Those are things. I’m talking about the living faculty of perception which, in the human, is becoming increasingly closed off.
"Perception begins with honoring, and I mean that in a very fundamental way as an impulse that ignites, enlarges, ‘dimensions’ in the active sense. It begins with reverence. With respect. This is the first stirring of sensibility to the multifold dimensions which encase the human as the universe.
"The multifoliate rose at the center of which is the human heart, if it has opened like an eye onto the universe itself as the ‘heart’s vision’ The mystery—the mystical moment—occurs when the human heart and the heart of the universe—God— are one. When the heart of Quetzalcoatl rises as the quetzal bird to the heart of heaven. You see how beautifully the Nahuatl poets received the message, the gift, of the quetzal bird? How, in return, the quetzal carried the human heart to the Heart of Heaven?
“Doorways of honor. Doorways of respect. Doorways of a majestic love. Opening, opening, opening. Every creature has a center that is the same as your center. And the opening... The opening is the center.”
--from Listening: Voices at the Edge - Sheri Ritchlin copyright 1999