The Middle Way?!

Yesterday, we went to retrieve some of Carla's paintings from Peter Jones Gallery. While she wrapped the paintings in plastic, I sat looking at the 'Goodbar,' set; my head swimming with ideas. It's amazing what a little time off from the daily grind can do for 'creative exploration.'

I'm now reading two books simultaneously, the Charles Laughton biography (Laughton has met Bertolt Brecht and they are collaborating on a theater production of 'Gallileo') and a book on the Buddha called 'The End of Suffering.' The latter is one that Carla picked up, I immediately latched onto it, and it seems to be the right information at the right time.

I've been wrestling with 'the self,' 'selfishness,' 'enlightened self-interest.' The Buddha of course, tells us that our conception of 'the self,' is illusory. Our work with InVision has made me comfortable with thinking in terms of 'energy,' 'auras,' 'chakras,' this seems to 'depersonalize,' the meaning of self, helping to leave the 'needing, wanting, grasping,' behind. The East seems to want to obliterate the self (The Buddha - end suffering), the West seems to want to exhalt it (Jesus - wallow in suffering - sorry, remember, I'm an ex-Catholic). Maybe there is a middle way? Expand the circle, redefine the meaning of self to include the universal flow of energy in and out!

'Peel away the layers of the onion, and you are left with nothing but tears.'