harmony

Philosophy Tuesday

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On What’s So

What’s so is always just what’s so. What’s so doesn’t care what you think, feel, intend or wish; it will not bend. You can be freaked out or driven over what’s so, and it won’t change what’s so. If you’re late for an appointment, getting freaked out about it won’t have you arrive any earlier. If you’re having a bad day, being freaked out won’t change what’s so. That which you seek will not bring you satisfaction – aligning with what’s so will. When you’re upset, you’re never upset over what’s so. What’s so is just what’s so, and you’re upset.

If your house burns down and you get upset, does it bring your house back? What’s so doesn’t care if you’re upset; it’s up to you how you handle what’s so. There is no confusion in what’s so. When you don’t know you just don’t know – there is no confusion there. There’s nothing right or wrong about what’s so. What’s so is always open to different interpretations. There’s always just what’s so, and then you have an interpretation. What scares you isn’t what’s so, it’s your interpretation. The interpretation is never true; what’s so is real, the interpretation is not.

Who you’re being is just who you’re being, and what’s so doesn’t care if you’re happy with it or not, so why should you? When you’re not being with what’s so, that’s also just what’s so. Why should you concern yourself? Other people should always be the way they’re being; if you think they shouldn’t, that’s your interpretation. Bring yourself back to what’s so about them. Until you can be with what’s so, you can’t be with anything or anyone. You may have control over other people’s what’s so, but none over their interpretation – give it up.

If you take action or not, it’s still just what’s so. If it works out well or not, it’s still just what’s so. You can never make a right or wrong decision, or take a right or wrong action. Whatever you do will always bring you more of what’s so, and then you have an interpretation about it. Whatever you don’t have, so what? Whatever you’ve done or thought in the past, again so what? Whatever happens in the future is not to be feared. It’s just going to be more of what’s so. The challenge is to spend as much time in what’s so as you can. The chatter in your head is more interpretation, and it has nothing to do with what’s so. There’s nothing wrong with the chatter, it’s just you listening to a fantasy.

The thought that there is something wrong is an illusion; there is nothing wrong, there is only what’s so. Notice when you’re comparing what’s so to some fantasy of how it should be. Bring yourself back to what’s so and it will be OK. Ask yourself what’s so, and align with that. Align with what’s so and it will not matter. That is the foundation of transformation and satisfaction. Not aligning with what’s so is the only thing that will ever bring you hardship or suffering. Life in what’s so will bring you harmony, grace, and balance.

Ask yourself – what’s so about your situation?

— Werner Erhard

(This is great stuff.  And a great reminder that we can never deal with anything powerfully or fully until we are straight with ourselves about what’s so, free from the bits of our interpretation, wants, judgements, stories, narratives, and etc.  We need to bone up, mindful, get present, and be straight with what’s so, right now, in a “just the fact’s, ma’am” kind of way.  Then we can breathe, centre ourselves, engage our central selves, grab the reins of responsibility, and make our choices on who we are going to be, out of which will spring our actions and steps to take all in line with and dealing powerfully with what’s actually so.)

Architecture Monday

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Wow, here’s another project that exudes an amazingly beautiful simplicity, sitting lightly on the land and calling outwards while not overbearing the beauty in which it sits and gazes upon.

A frame of pristine and shockingly white smoothness, this building basically speaks for itself.  And it’s the articulations of its otherwise-perfect form that really make the project, most noticeably the delicious inset stained-glass windows (and I do so much love stained-glass) with one (but not the same one, adding a touch of dynamism) on each side rising upwards to the steeply sloped roof.  On the outside, the window recesses are articulated further with angular cuts that carve out the insets, while on the inside, small niches and built-in benches (that pull down from the wall) give rhythm as your eye draws out to the completely windowed end, peering out towards the sculpturally-cast cross that sits surrounded by the immensity of nature beyond.

How the building changes in each season seems especially magical, the white forms contrasting in the summer and blending into the snowy landscape (yet still an object that draws the eye) in the winter.  There’s some magic in that.

Beautiful work. It may be of small proportions but it is of immense effect (but not in an ostentatious way), a place of quiet contemplation never separating itself from the world.  Great stuff.

Chapel Maria Magdalena by Sacher.Locicero.Architectes

(Complement this one with the Nossa Senhora de Fatima Chapel as well as Ando’s Church on the Water)

Philosophy Tuesday

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Distinction month continues…

There is a distinction, a difference, between complimenting someone, and acknowledging someone.

Complimenting someone is saying something nice to, or about, them.  It is a polite expression of praise or admiration.  It often is also in rather vague or even impersonal terms, and often focused on the giver rather than the recipient.

Acknowledgement is far more personal.  It expresses definite gratitude and appreciation, and, above all else, it explicitly demonstrates that you noticed and are present to the person you are acknowledging.

The best way to learn this distinction?  Be acknowledged.  The feeling we get when we are acknowledged is worlds apart from the typical compliment.  Inside of acknowledgement we know we are seen, valued, related.  Compliments roll off our backs in the next moment.  Acknowledgement sticks.

As a very simple example:

“That was a great job, thank you,” is a compliment.

“Thank you for producing such an excellent report.  I know it was something new for you, and I acknowledge you for being willing to take up the challenge and learn quickly.  Thank you for your dedication and for putting in extra to complete this,” is an acknowledgement.

Even in such a simple example, there is acknowledgement of the work, the person’s spirit, their courage, and their potential sacrifice.  There’s nothing rote about it, nothing insincere, nothing detached or depersonalized.  It’s personal and affirming.

Want to get good at acknowledging?  Ask people what they want to be acknowledged for.  And then acknowledge them for it.  It may sound a bit odd, but I guarantee you that, given a chance, people have no problem knowing what they’d like to be acknowledged for and even though they just told you it still is amazing for them when you do so.  And vice versa.

As always, there’s nothing wrong with compliments per se.  Acknowledgement is simply more powerful.  It is more involved (as it requires being present) and so it is why when we intend to acknowledge we often instead blat out a compliment.  But with a bit of practice it becomes not only easy, but powerful for the acknowledger as much as it is for the acknowledged.

Inside of acknowledgement, we are all present to our connectedness, our humanity, and to who we are.

 

* This all also dovetails nicely within the concept of Presence not Praise

Architecture Monday

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There’s a beautiful simplicity here, with inspiration from that of a large tent, open to all sides and to all visitors, casting its gaze out onto the grand vista that surrounds it while at the same time crafting an intimate experience.

The experience begins along the approach, the area being delineated by a fence of unconnected posts.  From there, the nicely sculpted wedge opens upward and outward, framing the landscape and, in a similar vein to Tadao Ando’s Church on the Water, towards the single cross that juts up from beyond.  It is both simple and powerfully elegant, rendered even more so in the dawn and dusk hours.  At night, a single bulb suspended over the altar hovers like a star.  A channel of water runs down the middle, connecting both entrances.

The inky black zinc that covers the roof separates the building without overpowering its surroundings.  All else is made of natural wood or stone.  There is high drama here, but it is rooted in and of its place.

Very well done, a small intervention with a big impact.  A locus of tranquility for introspection without losing sight of the world that forever surrounds us.

Nossa Senhora de Fátima Chapel by Plano Humano Arquitectos

Architecture Monday

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There’s something magical about the mirror pool of water.  That almost-perfect reflection, yet delicately stirred by the wind, the heightening of colour and of form, a mirror that seems to look deep within places beyond.  The placid mountain lake is perhaps the pinnacle (no pun intended, I swear…) of the form, majesty reflected onto majesty.

If the reflecting pool is the architectural equivalent of the pond, then courtyards featuring reflecting pools is their mountaintop equal.  Which is why this health centre in China goes all out, organizing itself around a myriad of courtyards, each unique, and almost all featuring pools and ponds.  With quartz white walls, sculpted trees, rich wood accents, and most certainly helped by the soft light filtering in from morning fog, the result is full of ethereal beauty and tranquility.

Love it.  This I call a space of healing.

Weihai Hospital of TCM by GLA

Architecture Monday

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Everything is an opportunity.  I am forever in love with that notion, that everything is an opportunity for design.  Take the needs, survey what’s there, and play around a bunch!  In the end, you might end up with something very beautiful.

Which leads us tonight to this barn on a farm in Chile.  Splitting apart like a zipper, it encompasses all manners of workhorse functions: toolhouse, machinery shed, dining room for farm hands, and a stable for all those horses.  And the playing is plenty evident, beginning with an expressive wood structure that provides shelter as well as forming a sculptural envelope that’s a joy to be in.  The water trough doubles as a lovely reflecting pool and demarks the edge of the site.  And that unzippering not only allows for the necessary circulation, but also frames views of the surrounding fields and mountain sides.  It’s all there, working together; the utilitarian backed up by solid structure that itself leads the eye towards beauty both near and beyond.

I love it.  A building that takes its very rugged requirements and fulfills them in a way that honours the land, honours its workers, and honours the soul of us all. Good stuff.  El Galeno Horse Stables and Warehouse by Peñafiel & Valdivieso Arquitectos.

Wonder Wednesday

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Tonight is a little different.  It’s about the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado.  And the work they do is beyond wonderful.

Their mission is straightforward:  rescue and provide life-long homes for large, “exotic”, and endangered captive wild animals who are abused, abandoned, or neglected throughout the western hemisphere.  The mission, however, is anything but simple.  It involves thousands of miles of travel, creating large acreage habitats where the animals can roam and act as they would in the wild, and a scores of volunteers and staff who rescue, build, feed, treat, and care for these animals.

At the Sanctuary, you will not find baby animals for you to cuddle with.  You cannot pay money to pose with a tiger.  They do not breed or supply animals for entertainment.  It is about allowing these animals to live a life with dignity and respect.  Even if you visit the sanctuary, you will walk on a boardwalk over 40′ in the air, a path such that it places no stress on the animals.

African lions, black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions, leopards, wolves, servals, bobcats, foxes, lynx, coyote, coati mundi, raccoon, porcupine, ostrich, emu, camels, alpacas, horses, and our faithful dogs and cats all have a home here.

It is an organization that brings tears to my eyes and grips my heart.  They are doing hard work filled with love and respect.  It’s about expressing the fullness of our humanity.

I happily support them with donations, and I’m inviting you to do the same.  Visit their web page to see many wonderful photos of the beautiful animals they have rescued, watch their videos and documentaries, and, if you choose, donate to help them continue their fine work.

(All photos (c) the Wild Animal Sanctuary)

Philosophy Tuesday

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Delving further into the realm of last week’s post and flipping the focus a bit, there is this great quote that is rife for exploration:

“To have great pain is to have certainty.

To hear that another person has pain is to have doubt.”

–Elaine Scarry

Perhaps we can never, ever, fully, know the experience of others, nor can we ever, fully, express our own.  Thousands upon thousands of poems and songs have been written about love or misery, each trying mightily to capture the entirety of even what may seem like the most uncomplicated of emotion.  Yet thousands more will still be written, ever trying more mightily.

And despite all those songs, when we first fall in love, or have our hearts broken, or experience loss, or victory, did it ever truly prepare us?

The real question to ask in our pursuit of being alive, is what is our default thought when we hear about the experience of another?  Or see their actions without further context?  What lens(es) do we bring to bear?  How much generosity to we bring?

More importantly, what do we want our default to be?

It’s easy to be dismissive, to try to fix, to explain, to deny, or, well, simply to doubt the experience and rich context and background of someone else.  Even if that someone else is a friend, or family member. *

And while we may never be fully able to fully know their experience, we can go a long way towards it.  We can turn on our listening and our imagination and empathy and play the game to understand and to know.  Whatever gap is left, we can fill with generous  consideration and dispensation.

It is, after all, what we ourselves want when we are in pain, are feeling thwarted, stomped on, rejected, overwhelmed, without agency, under duress…

We want to be heard and to be known.

In that space, we can all center ourselves, grow, and begin to create the future we all want.

“Be kind. For everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

— Plato

 

* I wonder if maybe it is even easier to dismiss if they are a friend or family, as it becomes easier to project onto them:  you are my friend/family = therefore we must share the same history = therefore we are the same = therefore your actions or feelings can’t possibly be right.

Philosophy Tuesday

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This is a philosophical statement.  It is intended to spark thinking and examining.

So, Bono and the Edge played at the Canada 150 celebrations in Ottawa over the weekend, with a nice, stripped down, acoustical rendition of their song, “One.”  Quite lovely.

One of the articles I was reading about the performance noted something I found very interesting about the song.  There’s a lyric in it that many people mishear or misinterpret.  And when it’s pointed out and made clear (as, apparently, the band tries to do whenever they can), it really shifts the nature of the song, to what I think is a much richer place.

What most people hear is:

“we’ve got to carry each other…”

However, the actual lyric is:

“we get to carry each other…”

This single word switch makes quite the difference.  It injects grace into the song.  It shifts the path and creates a different idea of the One.  It creates and even celebrates a Buddhist middle path, Taoist yin yang, straight up Niels Bohr way of saying “yes, we are different in many ways, and we can still come together.”  It removes a notion of obligation in the got, and instead turns it into generosity and possibility in the get.  It’s a One born from acting on our shared human desires and aspirations, our ur-intentions, regardless of the trappings of culture, society, interests, hobbies, romances, tastes, etc.

This get reminds us that we don’t have to really like someone, or want to be their acquaintance and hang out with them, or agree on everything, or be up to the same things in life, or understand everything about them, to still be committed to carrying each other.  To a future that works for us all.

Exquisite.  A melody well worthy of a celebration and worth living into.