Day 3: The Essence Of Contemplation

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lato writes in The Cratylus, "If anyone could express the essence of each thing in letters and syllables, would he not express the nature of each thing?" In fact, not only in letters and syllables but in art as a whole. Frederick Sigfred Franck (1909-2006)—a painter, sculptor, and author of more than 30 books on Buddhism and other subjects on human spirituality—writes about the essence of "seeing" in his book Art As a Way: A Return to the Spiritual Roots. On Day 3 of our Season of Creation we learn from this renaissance man about the quintessence of "seeing" which permeates every act of contemplation. I quote:

"To Forget ego," Dogen said, "is to be illuminated by all things." This thirteenth-century Zen sage also speaks of "putting the whole of your mind-body into the act of seeing" in which subject and object have fused, so that in tree, in jay, in bush and human body I see/draw that Self that is not my private monopoly, but which on the contrary I share fully with that which I am drawing. My eye becomes the mirror in which all is reflected. I am no longer "looking"... I see! I am no longer the observer, the onlooker, am no longer that Me confronting an It, I have become that which I see (Art As a Way: A Return to the Spiritual Roots, p 93 (Crossroad Publishing Company, 1981).

It is often said that we become what we contemplate. If this is the case then the way of contemplation is the way of being and this is quite a powerful and limitless capacity accorded to human beings. But in contemplation we must forget ego and try to see and embrace the other without being oppressive or exploitative but just be—that blessing like a flower. "Those who contemplate in this way experience wonder not only at what they see, but also because they feel they are an integral part of this beauty; and they also feel called to guard it and to protect it" (Healing The World Series: Pope Francis's General Audience, September 16, 2020). 8thWorker.us