Lenses to Explore Being: Present to How Things Are

Lenses to Explore Being: Present to How Things Are

In an optometrist office when being fitted for glasses there is an array of lenses used to refine one’s vision correction. The doctor keeps asking, “which one is better, this one or this one? What a metaphor. Throughout our life there is a constant checking to see that we are viewing the world in the correct way, as those with whom we identify. It is understandable then that how we see the world is greatly influenced by program beliefs. In our retreat to San Miguel de Allende we will be exploring how to be Present to How Things Are, not how we might initially perceive them. The three lenses we will using are taken from Ken Wilber’s essay, Eyes of the Artist: Art and the Perennial Philosophy. It is found at the beginning of the book of the visionary artist Alex Grey’s artwork, Sacred Mirrors.

Wilber defines the first lens as sensibilia, how we perceive through the body with our five senses. Intelligibilia, the second lens, is how we perceived through the mind and transcendilia is when we use soul and spirit to perceive. In the making the artist uses one, two or all three. How the work is perceived, though, will depend on the perceptual capacity of the viewer. As we know many artist’s works are not appreciated, that is seen in their time. Just as the perception of images change in time so does our perception of the world. Images, music and poetry are part of the human language speaking beyond the verbal. The practice of mark-making is a way to consciously extend our perception and expression knowing it as a conversation with the materials, as well as everything with which we are in relation-the world. It is a collaboration, as we find we are not a sole agent.

In our upcoming week in San Miguel de Allende we will be using these lenses in our mark-marking as we first go into the material world to heighten and cultivate the world of the senses. Come with us on the journey, as we are all traveling anyway.  The beginning of the journey will be our first traveling day and the last one at the end will be good indicators of how much our perceptions have changed. Traveling day moves the body with belongings through space. We will go the airport, stand in line and sit for many hours. You will travel in your everyday routine but this is also the opportunity for  us to tune into how our senses apprehend the world. What catches our attention? What do we ignore? What gives us comfort or discomfort? Can we release the judging mind and just be aware of what we are sensing in the moment through our senses? We will land in a new place and you in your familiar places. Our return travel will indicate how our perceptions have changed.

In San Miguel, on the city tour we will take our marking materials to help focus on the senses by recording sensory impressions with rubbings of textures and patterns and markings of sounds and smells. It will be a challenge for us to not let the mind jump in with presumptions and habits of perceiving. From breakfast to bed we will become more and more aware, heightening our reception and expression of sensory data. By marking we interact with this data in new ways, tracking and sharing with each other to excite and inspire novel possibilities of being with and apprehending matter. In this way we will become more sensitive to what we miss and why. Our adventure out into the world will be anchored with days in the studio to consider and compare with each other our perceptions as we re-configure pieces of our collected markings and impressions on a larger substrate. Our intent is not to make an object but see what arises from our collaboration.

The morning at the Hot Springs we begin to consciously enter intelligibilia noting how symbols, memories, projections and creations through the mind are a dominant feature of our world. Relaxing in the waters encourages musings of the imaginal world, which is often the entry into transcendilia. We will begin to tease out how much of our mind is connected to our senses, moving in sensibilia into intelligibilia. What does it take to create a city, a cathedral, a meal, or a painting. What does it take to turn vision into matter. Who is involved in this process? On our ventures out for lunch we notice, who is serving, who is being served. Where and by whom the food is being grown, harvested and prepared. How is something like history transferred? How is it perceived and noted in our markings?

In the artisan market, whether fine craftmanship or folk art, we are looking for the quality beyond the lenses of sensibilia and intelligibilia. Transcendilia is often subtle in how it evokes something all encompassing, palpable yet hard to describe. Without the lens of rational thought, expectations and conditioning the soul slips in that is hidden from normal state of mind. Marking helps to extend that conversation, becoming less and less bound to narrow conventions of the understandable.

The locals say just by visiting San Miguel you will most probably come home with something special. It is a place known to stimulate transcendilia. Some carry home colors, others an atmosphere of ancient times or sense of sacred land. But signs of the spirit and soul of place is everywhere when you are available, be it your regular routine or San Miguel de Allende. Transcendental is beyond all conceptual or theoretical framework, pointing us to our creative source. We must rely on ourselves, gazing into our own souls for inspiration and guidance, as we recognize and connect through our world. Enjoy your return travel day after several days of exploration.