Beyond The Opinions And Commentary

by Ahimsa Ishaya

How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. 

I think serenity is not something you just find in the world, like a plum tree, holding up its white petals (…) To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

Yes/No by Mary Oliver, from White Pine (Harcourt Brace, 1994)

I grew up surrounded by a landscape full of dazzling rocks, mist and hollows, moss, and dense shrubs.

When I visited the desert of La Sierra de Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, I was moved by the its absolute, unyielding clarity.

A few rocks and holes were the only visible hiding places, and the flowers there were tiny compared to their large thorns.

It seemed as though the thorns had sprung up dry, reaching toward the sun, straight as the most steadfast of columns; they left no room for doubt.

The clear-sighted and absolutely dazzling beauty of the desert struck me as a landscape created so that we might recognize our very essence.

Consciousness, like the desert – poetically speaking – hides nothing from the eye that sees it: there is no place its light does not reach.

Silence Beyond The Noise

The mind argues and speculates about all the things that might lie beneath the earth, about everything that emerges at night, about everything the senses cannot perceive.

But nature itself, like consciousness, is silent; it unfolds regardless of what we create, desire, or seek.

Even the world’s most bountiful and well-protected coral reef can be destroyed by an underwater volcano without any logical decision-making process regarding its impact.

Nature is in a constant state of rebirth, decay, exchange, death, and renewal, and it is utterly free and wise.

Even though we humans are destroying it, transforming it, caring for it… Regardless of our desires, actions, or opinions on the matter: it exists.

Indomitable, unstoppable, invisible and visibly connected as a single, infinitely interconnected being.

I could say that, from the perspective of the smallness of the human mind and its extremely limited perception of reality, living like nature is an act of great courage.

Nature does not interpret, judge, or evaluate; it does not express opinions, nor does it desire or yearn… It simply exists in an exuberant state of unity and flow – chaotic and orderly, harmonious and conflicted.

Awareness Beyond What We Have Learned

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel extensively throughout my life, and I’ve played with two things that have always helped me see from which perspective I was experiencing reality: from the mind’s opinions or from wordless consciousness.

If I had grown up in another country, would my opinion be the same?

Probably not… So any of my opinions are false insofar as they are not universal.

If I had been born at another time, would my opinion be the same?

Probably not… So any of my opinions are false insofar as they are not timeless.

I had a very eye-opening experience in this regard in Gambia.

I spent a month volunteering at the Khalilu Jammeh Foundation, which supports various communities and villages in the areas of health, education, cooperation, and the environment.

When I first arrived, on many occasions, the relationship between the adults and the children struck me as very cold, detached, and even violent or harsh. I disliked it; it felt distant to me and made me feel out of place and without a frame of reference.

In that land of fire and stars, it wasn’t until after a few days of observation and recognition of those inner voices – which were interpreting my experiences and generating that sense of incomprehension and unease – that I realised the reality was very different.

I found myself in the presence of several people who were so fully present that they did not perform any action, gesture, or utter any word… to please, soothe, entertain, control, or indoctrinate the children.

Their presence and interaction with them was clear, direct, and focused; they gave instructions without asking for permission or saying “please,” affectionate without seeking attention from the children, without treating or viewing them as “poor little things,” as victims of something, or as something to be molded, persuaded, or adjusted.

The children, in turn, lived in a state of capability, inner strength, and total harmonious participation with the community and its rhythms – in mindful service – within the innocent, playful, and exploratory characteristic of their age.

They hadn’t lost their childhood; they were being children with an inner integrity and collective consciousness that I couldn’t understand, of course, because I had never seen it before!

Returning To Innocence

How much I would have missed if I had listened to those voices of the mind that filter reality solely through learned cultural, emotional, or relational references – how much wonder and learning, how much humility and wisdom I was able to see by going beyond them.

Giving ourselves the opportunity to go beyond our judgmental inner voices is to discover ourselves and a world full of treasures that amplify the beauty and vastness of the human, divine, and earthly experience gifted to us in this life.

To be this state of conscious awareness – one of attention and openness – that is now revealing itself, we all come together and are all one and the same being, awake and alive.

How do we truly want to live? As the very nature of consciousness – wisdom manifesting itself in every action of our lives – or as separate humans who desire, form opinions, lose and find, separated and isolated from that very nature?

Consider these paragraphs a pale reflection of the magnificence of nature and consciousness – if indeed they were two separate things – teacher of teachers, sign of signs, the perfect reflection of life in its most autonomous, indescribable, and pure form.