Becoming Empty

To identify with and connect with The Universal, to "become empty enough to be filled" is, to me, one of the highest attainments possible in this mortal coil.

This practice requires the annihilation of the illusory self each of us has created and reinforced with our habits of thinking and living - The interior dialog, that little voice in your head, the reels of memories, the worry, the fear, the images flashing by, the melodies, the constant thinking. Anything that distracts from becoming empty, becoming silent, must be quashed.

There are myriad components of the Self: The Thinker, The Creator, The Worker, The Poet, The Grouch, The Singer, The Hedonist, etc...
You must become only The Observer, the one that watches all these others, the one who is only Being.

There are myriad paths to this goal. The key is to stop the restless brain from thinking and achieve an internal silence or emptiness. One might simply begin quieting all the internal voices by denying each thought that appears in one's head by simultaneously affirming its opposite and thereby annihilating both.

The Zen breathing exercise of Zazen or the chanting exercises of Mantra Yoga are even better methods. Other disciplines and meditations will work as well or better, depending on the proclivities of the individual. The scientific method must be implemented to find the vehicle which works best for each of us and, most importantly, has repeatable and consistent results.

The travel on this path is arduous, mined with the distraction of the Body and the Brain. The eye cannot "see" itself and is itself unnoticed in use - the Universe is like this as well, suffusing us completely but completely unnoticed and unseen. Once the distractions are quieted, ordinary temporal worries become less important and the path becomes more visible with each step. Epiphany in the form of personal identification with the Universe itself is the reward.

The growth of Mystery

The more I come to know, the more I realize that I don't know.

There is more Mystery in the world for me now than when I was a child. My songs, paintings and prose have progressively gotten better in that they convey some of that Mystery. The downside is that, as time moves along, I'm maybe not quite as prolific as I was when I was younger because of the scarcity of time caused by increased responsibility. ;)

Mystery and Epiphany, artistic, musical or otherwise, go hand in hand...to continually doubt, seek and question The Known opens up massive unmined vistas for creative exploration as well as "clearing the fog" from one's vision. It's kind of like "applying the Scientific Method to Life" for spiritual, creative and inspirational purposes if you will.

Unquestioned belief and too-eager faith can really blind one to the truth, allowing you to find what you expect to find rather than what is really there. Here's the perfect example of that, the "flying horse" perception: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method#Truth_and_belief
This is why, when testing reality, methods like the Double-Blind are used so people's opinions, including those of people performing the tests, can't affect the results. The facts need to be allowed free reign to speak for themselves regardless of what we want.

This has me thinking of an old quote:
"I slept with Faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with Doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

It's important to reinforce creative habits, modes of behavior and thought, hence my comment on "applying the scientific method to life". If you allow your thinking to become cyclical, you will only ever see what you expect to see and your boundaries of thought will firmly crystalize, becoming a cage.

Instead of quashing Spirituality, the practice of creative and incisive thinking frees one from the cul-de-sacs and dead ends, encouraging growth and helping one to more firmly plant one's feet on the "hallowed ground" of the path ahead.

The paths ahead beckon each of us. Tread carefully. :)