Blind People and The Elephant - Thailand

The Blind People & The Elephant

So the story goes…

but

I feel a tail, I feel a leg, I feel a trunk….

none of these things are an elephant.

is that how we have been looking at life?

focused in so tightly on the parts,

we couldn’t see the whole,

we couldn’t see.

there are no parts.

but we’re not blind.

or are we?

can you see energy?

yet that is all there is.

if we don’t see it,

we don’t see all.

is there an elephant in the room?

there is a room in the elephant.

from it comes the strangest sound:

“what elephant?”

Heart of the World

The essence is this:

The earth has a brain.

Our world needs a heart.

We can create a heart by

1. Opening to care
2. Caring for the space between us
3. Flooding the space with love and caring

Where is Our Heart?

It just hit me like an oil spill. That stuff sticks to you. No matter how many times you wash it’s there again—between your toes, under your nails, in your hair….geesh. All over the planet we are acting without heart. If you can see it anywhere, you’ll see it everywhere. We haven’t yet developed that feeling sense we use to guide our personal relationships. That’s why the world can sometimes act so nutty.

Look around at this amazing world and all this incredible technology and don’t you think things should be much better than they are? It seems like the more advanced we get the more we look like Frankenstein or Godzilla—both beautiful monsters—just a little frightening in their behaviors.

Frankenstein & Godzilla both have something in common with the global us: they have a mind, but not a heart. The brain is an amazing thing, no doubt about that. The mind can store and amass information and process it at lightning speed. It sends and receives info along these fiber optic like wires that relay sights, sounds, temperatures, pain, sensations, much like the internet. The internet has become the nervous system of the planet—where is our heart?

The Heart Guides

The heart is what guides our thinking. It allows us to feel into a situation with a deeper understanding than could ever be extracted from a string of data. The heart keeps us from going too far, it reminds us to respect and to care for each other. It reminds us, constantly, of our interdependence. When we listen to our heart life flows smoother. Where is this global heart?

It turns out that you have a piece of it, and so do I.  You and I recognizing each other and bringing our pieces together will allow us to create the global heart.   Imagine a global feeling sense that could percieve the broader realities of our interactions, amalgamating the feelings of those involved. I know, “feelings”. Yikes. Scary stuff. It’ll be okay. I’ll hold your hand.

Our heart’s absence underlies much of the world’s suffering. If we acted with an overall sense of what we were doing and the overall effect it is having,  do you suppose we would act differently? Without a heart, there is no reason for Godzilla to not destroy the buildings and crush the peoples. Without a heart Godzilla is stunned and surprised to find himself under attack. Poor misunderstood Godzilla, he truly had the best of intentions. Unfortunately, no heart.

We are kind of awkward like that with our technology. A blind sort of stumbling around, stepping on toes. No doubt you have had the opportunity to meet a very smart person with no social graces. They just didn’t  get around to developing that feeling sense, that heart sense which is so important to nurturing and maintaining relationships.

By the way, the future is all about relationships. It’s a skill we ALL need to practice and develop.  Have you noticed an increasing desire for genuine relationships. Deep relationships. We are feeling into the space between us and our explorations there will change everything. The little ripples we are making are going to become a ground swell that will shift the way we do everything on this planet. When everything is interconnected, little shifts bring big changes. Would you like to make a little shift?

We’ll learn how to make a little shift that can have big consequences in Part 2 of Heart of the World.

Do you have any leads on one?

Really could use some info about domes too if you have had some experience with them. It seems like the ideal container.

Signaling needs a container.

Each a Piece of the Puzzle

Each of us is a piece of the puzzle. Where do you fit in? The more of us there are the more complete and interesting the picture is. How do you want to shine?

We need a dome first of all.

We need artwork, poetry, music, sounds, performances….What do you think is the essential component of an Awakening Portal?

We need materials and help constructing.

We need to have rehearsal parties in the labyrinth.

More awakening parties.

Send all artwork to:

darinjoy  at gmail

You. Signaling is all about you. You are the star of the show. The journey belongs to each person who enters. There is no audience allowed.

Maybe we should start with the question: Is it possible to create a fun, supportive environment for inducing, containing and maturing into an Awakening?

Signaling follows the Rites of Passage:

1. escape or letting go,

2. emergence or embodiment

3. integration or adjusting to life as it is.

Let me just kind of explain where I am at right now in this evolving project and how I am approaching it, then leave it completely open for your brilliance to shine through all the cracks in my story.

For starters I don’t even for a moment consider that I have all the answers, I am curating other peoples answers, I think we all have our bits and pieces. I have ideas of what could be there, but I don’t  always see how to express it. I view Signaling as a puzzle that has about 10,000 pieces. What I am trying to do is set the table where they can be assembled, then inviting visionaries, artists, children, etc, to bring their unique piece of the puzzle and helping to fit it in. Every person who enters also is a piece of the puzzle.

I am providing the container, the arc of the journey, the sacred space. I have the idea for the layout, the flow, the essence of the journeys, both inner and outer. I have the time and talent to build it as I have laid it out. I am open to its evolution so long as it can be built. I am eager for any and all input and growth. I think this is a journey we must all make together in relationship. It is not something that any one person will ever be able to put together, it will take all of us sharing our insights and accepting each other to make this work.

As i see it the next step in our collective evolution on this planet is to learn to live deeper in relationship to one another, life, the planet… We seem to be trading interest in lone personal conquests for finding new joys in group ones. Balance seems to figure prominently. So in many ways one could say we are opening to balance which we understand through awareness of relationship. Our desires balanced against the desires of our relationships are more carefully considered now than at any time in the past. At the same time we are also finding it easier and easier to be individually expressive. We are healing numerous esteem issues collectively as we appreciate each others unique beauty.

Balance Desire Expression Relationship. Yes?

I imagine people entering the theater as you have seen in the video. You watched the video, right?

As one enters, they must realize there is, “No Audience Allowed”. We are all performers in here. Be aware of your performance. Direct yourself.

I also want to elevate the individual above the group so that each person understands it is all about them. You are important, valued and unique. This is your journey. It is what you make of it and you may make whatever you want of it. The importance here is to not get swallowed in the collective and have your voice drowned out. We all want to hear YOU sing in here.

I imagine all the walls as one walks through the theaters 300 feet of corridors to be covered with artwork, photos and words, floor to ceiling, jam packed tight, like the refrigerator door of a prolific child. I would also like to invite lots of children to collaborate, I’m not sure how to do that, but someone will know. The art is not about bringing attention to the artist, it is entirely about the viewer. There are no plaques saying who made it. Signatures if at all are insignificant. EVERYONE is invited to contribute artwork, photos, etc. whatever they consider to be the essential element in an Awakening Machine.

I envision, but can only guide, people to walk through with swiftness picking exactly and only what they need for their particular journey at this particular moment—the thing that speaks to them—and then moving on to the next thing that gravitates them. Its like a museum of epiphanies, and somehow you will find the exact combination of epiphanies to take you to the exact place you need to go to release your self, find self, embody self and integrate self and then be swallowed in a sea of love and care. Rinse. Repeat.

It is meant to be a pleasant rite of passage. I don’t want to plunge people into misery, I don’t think it is necessary. I see the future starting from a place of excited discovery and growing from there. I think one can still move through and overcome the severe misfortunes of the past through a positive context. Extreme suffering is not necessary. No doubt there will be tears and it is fully welcome, but it is not a heavy handed environment. It is one of acceptance, going at your own pace. Escape through enlightenment, abundance and love. We are making it abundantly clear that we are not even aware of the regimes of fear, scarcity and doubt.

We are saying in every footstep: “Welcome Home. Welcome Home. We’ve been expecting you. Welcome Home.” Perhaps “Welcome Home” is the sample for the “heartbeat of love” song (yet to be written..anyone?) that echoes throughout the Dome, entraining everything to its singular beat. Perhaps the beat swells to a full on dance song inviting a moment of movement that then subsides, back into the subtle “heartbeat of love”. Mother’s heartbeat.

The Dome itself could be perceived as the belly of a pregnant goddess who is nurturing and rebirthing us all with a prayer of love, thinking with her heart and feeling with her mind. Perhaps there is a plexiglass viewing frame at a distance from the dome that puts it in context: face, breasts, belly, toes rising up from the playa, the rest submerged in a dust bath,

The walls curve and they are made of fabric, they billow, they flex. The artwork is flexible too, painted on paper or loose fabric, not stretched on a frame. It is all loose and fairly flat. No more than an inch deep because it shouldn’t protrude into the narrow corridors. All the art hangs on the billowing fabric so it has to be light. There are also speakers here and there broadcasting near space messages. Messages that are unique to a particular area. They are spoken poetry, Meditations, wisdom, love, compassion, kindness, appreciations, music….relevant recordings that people have found useful in their journeys. Just the juicy parts. We are trying to refine here. Sift out the chaff to get the kernel of truth. The powerful truth that will set us free.  ANYBODY & EVERYBODY CAN CONTRIBUTE AND COLLABORATE ON THIS. If I have enough recordings they will not repeat. If there is enough art then nobody will take the time to look at everything and it will always be different each time you go through.

Visual art & Sonic art surround one throughout the journey. The first journey is the outer journey. People are learning to respect themselves and hence others and hold space for others as they move through their stuff. This can be communicated in images, and exercises introduced along the way. I don’t have a specific map yet, but I do have a growing collection of art and excercises in need of placement. The map will soon follow.

As you wind your way deep into the collective mind you witness and are free to interact with the performers on the stages as they speak, dance, mime, express their truth, their essence, their silliness….. After the Letting go Stage, there is a space inviting you, via footprints painted on the ground, to stand toe to toe and just be with another. Simply gaze at them and admire. Or in 4 or 3′s or something else or run from it, if that is what you want to perform. There is no script. It’s your journey. It’s unique to you.

At the end of the outer journey the way out is the way through the stage, so everyone comes up onto the stage, to integrate the performer who is embodying the final stage of the Rites of Passage. Here the artwork brings us into a framework of adjustment, acceptance, compassion, openness, embracing diversity, radical inclusion, radical acceptance, love. Passing through the backstage door one is offered the opportunity to leave the theater, but with the reminder that there is NO EXIT. This theater goes with you everywhere. You are now part of the show of life in relationship with every other facet of life. For  those compelled to go deeper the inner journey beckons.

The Inner journey begins in a windy, narrow corridor that twists in upon itself, hopefully disorienting and shaking loose the things that have been holding you back. The artwork in here I imagine would have a letting go tone, or a breaking out tone, an escape or a coming home, or both simultaneously.

Near the center there are two columns that extend to the ceiling meant to convey that you are supported. That your journey is protected by those around the theater maintaining vigil, holding space; that 10,000 guides are present in spirit to keep you safe, to keep you from going too far, to help you find your balance. You push past the columns renewed and supported and continue the winding journey towards yourself guided by the visual and sonic cues that grab your attention.

Then you find yourself in the hall of mirrors where a trio of mirrors provides an infinite view of yourself in every direction asking you finally, what needs to go, what needs to be cleared away so growth can occur, what tiny spec of your infinite self needs to be tossed away?  When it is grasped, one emerges onto the stage and lets it go. It is a tiny space. very intimate. maybe a dozen people in the audience at most. Express what wants expressing. Enjoy the applause, the love, soak in it. Revel in your sacredness and your importance. Be loved just for being you.

As one leaves the first stage they enter the discovery room. Here the artwork educes you to let yourself shine through, whatever that is: Shine. There are props, costumes to help you express the new you. You may also choose to stay as a real guide helping others who enter the room who desire your attention. People will do whatever they will do…it opens up to all sorts of reinterpretations. There is no script. There is an arc. You may follow it or not as burners are prone to do. But I believe at least a few people will truly experience a wondrous opening of heart and mind and they will find within themselves the strength to be a better person in their own estimation.

When you get yourself together you head out onto the Becoming stage to embody and express your new truth and merge back into the loving arms of your fellow Burners. Then leaving through the backstage you again decide whether to wander out into the outdoor sanctuary and process the journey, or to repeat either the inner journey or the outer journey yet again.

Because there are potential performances occurring throughout the theater at all times there is no way to experience the entirety of any moment. There is always something around the corner beckoning you onward. Spaces are all small and intimate. Corridors are narrow so only two people could pass each other in the narrowest. Corridors are one way, and direction is indicated but not enforceable.

The experience is iterative. It is meant to build upon previous cycles. You could do it several times a day and have a unique personal experience starring you every single time. Groups could Shanghai the place to perform their own scripted rights of passage. Since the essence will be public knowledge they have months to prepare something and to also embed artwork as part of some game they design, etc. which really heightens the possibilities of interactivity.

I hope to see a piece of you Signaling Through the Flames.

Home for Imaginals by Laura Sorrells

Home for Imaginals

Home is where the heart is, because it is there where our fires burn. It is there that we truly come back to life as feeling, thinking, loving beings simultaneously finite and infinite.

In the back of a back field under the umbrella of an ancient apple tree I laid out the enlightening pathways of Signaling Through the Flames. Under the cold light of the moon I built a cozy fire in the heart of the labyrinth to christen Signaling and roasted some sacred marshmallows with Heart Chakralates from Lydia Love, chocolatier extraordinaire.

In this way I began signaling through the flames and it wasn’t long before I attracted the first visitor to the Awakening Portal. Her name was coincidentally, though of no relation, Lydia.

It is in the heart that we begin our restoration and transformation. Some of us are awakening to the realization that change is coming. It draws us because we feel it. All things pass through the heart, becoming entrained to the beat of love or the agony of hatred or—whatever resides there. In my heart there is light shining out to all of you.

It seems like we have been away from home for a long time. The search for a place to belong tends to dog all our footsteps at one time and another and another.  The edge was stripped from the bitter cold when it struck me that the first person to return home was a soldier, still in uniform, coming home to hearth and heart.

Is the war over? Has the liver stopped limiting its bile supply in order to spite the stomach who just wastes it anyways? If we are starting to discover we are all part of the same system then it’s a perfect time for the heart to be awakening. Now it can do its real job of sorting and synchronizing our diverse needs instead of trying to referee our insanity.

As Valentine’s day approaches I am fully embodying my heart and making myself fully at home and inviting you in. I’m falling in love with all of you and your beautiful hearts. I’m imagining all you Imaginals joining me in imagining a better way into being.

I revel in your diversity, your uniqueness, your importance. I could not even begin to contain you and I won’t. I am blessed by your passage through my heart. I am immersed in your depth and still continually surprised. Thank you, Imaginals.

Imagine all the fun we can have….. Dive into your heart this weekend. I’ll be there. All things pass through the heart. Come play with me, Imaginals. I’ll leave the light on.

love and so much more, darin lang

Rites of Passage step 1: Letting Go

Signaling Through the Flames Tour

I’ve constructed a model of the theater so you can get a feel for the layout and the arc of the journey. The theater itself is contained in a 45 foot dome. It’s an intimate space where magic can happen.

(Click the video to play)