I attended my cousin Knut’s funeral yesterday, and it was a reminder of how limitations can help us go deep. He had a strong physical handicap, and – as it seemed to himself and us who knew him – it allowed him to go deep in reflection, being, soulfulness, and spirituality.
He was one of the most genuinely reflected, deep, soulful, and spiritual people I know. At least within the limitations of a relatively mainstream Norwegian culture.
We see that in many areas of life. Limitations – whether imposed by life or chosen – allow us to go deep. Sometimes, that means going far beyond the apparent boundaries imposed by the limitations, and we may surprise even ourselves.
We also see this in the bigger picture. Life or the Universe has imposed limits on itself through densifying itself into matter, a great variety of matter, galaxies, solar systems, living planets (at least one), a great variety of life within these living planets, being, and taking itself to be separate beings.
And, if we are open to it, we can say that this is the divine doing all this within itself. It densifies itself, makes itself into an evolving universe, into a variety of elements and combination of these elements, galaxies, solar systems, beings, and taking itself as a variety of separate beings.
Through these limitations, life and the divine is able to experience and explore itself in always new ways. There is a great richness created from these limitations.
Of course, when life takes itself to be a human being, and especially if this human being happens to live within certain cultures, it may feel that limitations are limiting. They are. And at the same time, they not only allow us to go deep within our life and limitations. In the bigger picture they allow an immense richness of life and even life itself as we know it.
Limitations are not only inherent in life as we know it, it’s what allows for this life.
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initial notes….
- limitations and going deep
- cousin, physical handicap, went deep in reflection, soulfulness, spirituality
- me, cfs, going deep in healing, reflection, exploring approaches to healing et.
- in general in life, any limitation is an invitation to go deep
- go deep with what we have + have access to
- art, science, reflection, any skill / exploration
- when boundaries / limits are imposed or chosen, helps us go deeper within those
- e.g. art – b/w, realistic (soulfulness within it), certain subject, theme, limited materials
- music – limited instruments, theme etc.
- bigger picture
- the divine – densifying itself into matter, beings, takes itself to be separate beings etc.
- allows for richness, depth, exploring itself in a mulititude of forms and experiences
- …
- the divine – densifying itself into matter, beings, takes itself to be separate beings etc.
- …
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Initial draft….
I attended my cousin Knut’s funeral yesterday, and it was a reminder of how limitations can help us go deep. He had a strong physical handicap, and – as it seemed to himself and us who knew him – it allowed him to go deep in reflection, being, soulfulness, and spirituality.
He was one of the most genuinely reflected, deep, soulful, and spiritual people I know. At least within the limitations of relatively mainstream Norwegian culture.
And that’s how it is with limitations. They allow us to go deep. We see that in many areas of life, whether it’s art, music, writing, science, compassion, or anything else. Limitations – whether imposed by life or chosen – allows us to go deep. And that sometimes means going far beyond the apparent boundaries imposed by the limitations. We may surprise even ourselves.