click this doll house for more detail

click this doll house for more detail
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Friday, March 23, 2012

spectrum of modes: "will-to-be","will-to-survive" and "life-living"

As the self reflects on the past narratives of its own life in the present moment, the process of change can be seen as taking place incrementally. Is it not apparent that the future is taking hold of the present?

The self can create in its being, the diversity of modes that it can Will dependent on the characteristics of its phenomena (i.e. the enviornment that molds the self in the present). Life is found between the spectrum of "will-to-be" and the "will-to-survive". The "will-to-be" is described inwardly as philosophical reflection as a meditation to bring the ideal self, the telos as an authentic character, onto the phenomenal appearance as projection. Outwardly, the "will-to-be" observes the phenomena without motion, as it reveals itself as a being viewing the particularities in the multiplicity of life existing as individual expression of its individual will in the totality of the encompassing All. This is only one mode on one end of the spectrum that can be contrasted with the mode of "will-to-survive". This contrasting mode is a pure will that makes itself known as a being striving to survive in the continuum of life-nature. The self in this mode has little to no room for philosophical reflection, and can be described as the is-ness of its being reflected in the actions of preforming the task at hand for survival. Both modes are expressed during the rhythmic cycle we call "day".

What persists through this spectrum of change is the expression of the artist represented as "life-living" in authenticity!

wonder

To be aware of the extended world while remaining in a state of meditation about the self's relation to the world makes the phenomenal experience one of wonder. The self begins again to rediscover itself hidden in the depth of its own soul. It looks upon the world of phenomena with curiosity. This curiosity brings to the fore of life-living, an inner expression of authenticity - as the self reflects on the world through the gaze of philosophical perspective. The All encompasses everything except the freedom of its own will and consciousness to be. As the world of the mind separates itself from the extended world, thought sees itself clearly as an artist expressing its world-life-view. This is the beginning of the present-ness of experience through its own meditation.

We are by nature confined in the dual worlds of the mind and body. What unifies the two in the present is the will to express itself in the form of authentic being. Consciousness manifests itself as the extended body and its world of thought unifying itself in the grand narrative we call life-nature. How the self experiences the world is like a single drop of water flowing in the stream of life. To see momentarily the river as it is and to realize that through extension the self has a specific place in this process is to come face to face with the All. In a momentary epiphany it sees its own creaturely-ness in nature as it contemplates its will to be. The is-ness of the moment reveals the artistic will expressing its wonder.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Freedom and Autonomy

To make oneself an artistic being in the world of phenomena, the self must create imperatives that dictate its own actions represented by the Will. To express the self's freedom to act in accordance to its own will is to have autonomy. Freedom and autonomy does not necessarily mean that it has limitless options in the world. The artistic being ought to create its own categories in which it must abide by in order to express its freedom in the phenomenal world. The Self knows its moral nature and its ability to abide by laws that are apparent through its sensation, but beyond this self-knowing lies other laws that have been created by the mind in order to make the self more free. It is to will the mind's world (a projection of the ideal Self) onto the extended self that relates its being to the objects and other particulars of the natural world. The Self, must identify with the minds own aesthetic categories and make it a reality in the world of its phenomena. How else can the artistic and authentic self come to be expressed in the extended world? This "will" must bring its own world-life-view into the world of phenomena through its expression in philosophic language. The self as artist.