An Owl landed on Lao Pu´s shoulder, one bright, warm, summer afternoon. An old Barn Owl. It turned its head towards him without turning its shoulders - as Owls do. Softly, it said... “To be conscious is to not only look, but to see; it is to be tossed about by the smells of the forest, and feel the dampness of the evening, and listen, and hear the silence - and be delighted by the other creatures, whose actual experience of being themselves we can only imagine.” The Owl´s eyes were fearless - noble, bold -
hypnotic. “I feel honoured that you are talking to me. And doubly honoured that you are talking to me about the nature of reality” Lao Pu said, genuinely, emotionally. The Owl studied his genuineness awhile -
then continued...
“To be conscious is to be in the Garden of Eden
whether one is in one´s nest, at the office, on a treetop, or at the factory.
Not the biblical Garden of Eden of divine harmony! No! That´s not where we are! We´re in the REAL Garden of Eden - within which unspeakable beauty and horror coexist.” Lao Pu didn´t know if he was hypnotised by the old Barn Owl´s wisdom, or simply enchanted. The eyes of the Owl were simultaneously so fierce and so innocent, so wild and so kind, so loving and so detached. “Where is this Garden?” the old Owl hooted happily, rhetorically - “Nobody knows! When is it? Nobody knows! Why are we here? Nobody knows! Is there even a ´why´? Nobody knows! There is only not-knowing -
only mystery, magic, miracle - only unspeakableness pulsing
through both the beauty and the horror. The same infinite improbability. The same defiance of definition. Provoking the same ultimate question: “Is it not the most amazing thing
that anything exists at all?!” And as if delighted with the elegance of this last phrase, the Owl of Consciousness stretched its wings,
looked straight at Lao Pu, conclusively -
and took off for the barn.
*
PS: Why do I post poems about Subjectivity, and Consciousness, and so on? Because I believe that THE WAY we now travel together will shape the new culture we now co-create.
Mark the Mystic Activist, Catalunya, The Oak Moon, 2023. www.markthemysticactivist.com
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