Face
Table of contents
- 1. Whose Face?
- 2. Faces Relate
- 3. Faces Speak
- 4. Notes
The theme for today's meeting is FACE.
What could this mean?
"Imagination is the Gateway to Reality"
Wise and reflective people have always been interested in appearance and reality, and sought to understand the nature of their relationships. People are fascinated with images and stories.
Imagination is a human faculty that has engendered both great respect
and great suspicion,
credited with having the power of creation --
a channel by which new things come into being --
and with the power of delusion and hallucination,
of serving as a barrier to contact with reality.
To think about imagination and image in our culture
is to be hypnotized by an object-world:
a world in which images are nothing but pictures,
nothing but flat surfaces,
separate from who we are.
We are detached, outside the image,
an observer who can look but not touch.
This separation gave us power.
But it's a static, "flat" picture of a much fuller reality.
It's lonely to be outside the picture
not seeing it as quite real,
thinking we have to use words
to encode some poor replica of our images
to send a few messages to others of our kind.
A picture is worth a thousand words
and valiantly we try
but sadly, things seem to get lost in translation.
Clearly, a lot is at stake
in this flat "picture" reality.
Real images are so much more than a picture
that we might even need a different word,
and the real world is so much more than an image.
What's missing in the object world is Face.
Face is how being here really happens.
Face means we have have a place and direction in the world.
Face is how we appear to the world
or what we pretend to hide behind.
Faces are more than eyes to see with and look out from
they see, hear, touch, smell, and taste
they have voices
they are the avatar of meaning in the world
they present (or presence) self in its many forms.
Face is the embodiment of self,
and that's not singular.
Look around and you will see many Faces.
Look "inside" and you can find the same.
Face is our exquisitely evolved and educated "equipment".
More than that, it is
the actual experience of being in relationship.
Face to Face is the archetype of relating, of being a human among humans.
No doubt you can think of a lot of phrases that show some meaning for "Face".
What does it mean to "save face"?
What does it mean to "face reality"?
Is there a "true face" or real self?
What is the real life of "face"?
How can we approach this question?
Whose Face?
It's a traditional contemplative question: Who am I?
The Zen "Ox-Herding" pictures, sometimes called the Ten Bulls are a parable of this investigation:
The pictures, poems and short pieces of prose tell how the student ventures into the wilderness in his search for "the Bull" (or "Ox"; a common metaphor for enlightenment, or the true self, or simply a regular human being).
Faces Relate
This is fundamental. We are born
always and already in relationship.
This is where we live.
The poet Rumi gave us a many-leveled metaphor, that being human is like a Guest House.
The self, the Face is to be a good "host" to all others who may come to visit:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
Welcome and entertain them all!
...
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Faces Speak
But what is most worth saying? And where can it be said "from"? Is there such a thing as "true speech"?
The poet David Whyte talks about "True Vows" and finding the self that is deeper than the description-world of language.
All the true vows
are secret vows
the ones we speak out loud
are the ones we break.
There is only one life
you can call your own
and a thousand others
you can call by any name you want.
Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don’t turn your face away.
Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with
...
and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,
that way you’ll find
what is real and what is not.
And in The Winter of Listening he talks the image of wholeness compared to wholeness itself:
What is precious
inside us does not
care to be known
by the mind
in ways that diminish
its presence.
What we strive for
in perfection
is not what turns us
into the lit angel
we desire,
what disturbs
and then nourishes
has everything
we need.
...
Inside everyone
is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
We may come to a basic realization that life is not a "picture-viewing", it is a conversation, and Everything is Waiting for Us:
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice.
...
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation.
Notes
Like David Whyte, the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu also considers the possibility of engaging with life on a level more basic than that described by language. The archetype "face" is present implicitly in the recommendation to "begin from where I am and see it as I see it." This is not however to be limited to the subjective "I only" viewpoint, but becomes a position of non-dualistic understanding.
Tao is obscured when men understand only one of a pair of opposites, or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being. Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay, affirming this one aspect and denying the rest.
There is nothing that cannot be seen from the standpoint of the "Not-I." And there is nothing which cannot be seen from the standpoint of the "I." If I begin by looking at anything from the viewpoint of the "Not-I," then I do not really see it, since it is "not I" that sees it. If I begin from where I am and see it as I see it, then it may also become possible for me to see it as another sees it.
The wise man therefore, instead of trying to prove this or that point by logical disputation, sees all things in the light of direct intuition. He is not imprisoned by the limitations of the "I," for the viewpoint of direct intuition is that of both "I" and "Not-I." Hence he sees that on both sides of every argument there is both right and wrong. He also sees that in the end they are reducible to the same thing, once they are related to the pivot of the Tao.
When the wise man grasps this pivot, he is in the center of the circle, and there he stands while "Yes" and "No" pursue each other around the circumference.
The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship. Hence he sees the limitless possibilities of both "Yes" and "No." Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition. Therefore I said: "Better to abandon disputation and seek the true light!