The One Who Is Thinking

If you think, this is for you.

If you aren't sure if you think, this is for you.  (Think about it.)

We all need reminded of this.

Believe it or not, we are thinking all of the time.  Whether it is running a to-do list through your head while scrolling through Facebook on your phone while waiting for the grocery line to proceed...or sitting on a meditation cushion trying to let the thoughts slip away, the mind is absorbing, processing, remembering, hoping, and suggesting.

The thing is, we often forget to ask:  Who is the one doing the thinking?

When we forget to do this, we put on a blindfold.  We limit our awareness.

We believe we are the chaos that surrounds us or that we are the jumbled thoughts that fill our head.  We do not understand the consequences of this illusion, so we stay frazzled, stressed, and non-aware.

Or we sit on a meditation cushion or bend and stretch on a yoga mat and believe we are apart from the chaos around us.  We put on a blindfold of peacefulness.  We are ok...Until we stop our meditation or step off of the mat...and are back in the swirl.

The One Who Is Thinking, 15x11, Acrylic on watercolor paper

(poor picture of the painting...)

The One Who Is Thinking started off with a peaceful, non-blindfolded figure.  I spent at least an hour trying to get the figure, the face semi-perfect.  Proportion right, color right, shading, shape...

Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?
-Pablo Picasso

Over the course of a couple of hours, it got messier and messier.  Paint strokes became bolder, started to cross over her figure.  The chaos in my own mind was fighting against the pretty forms I was trying to create on the paper.

Until I re-minded myself.

An errant color drip landed on her face, and suddenly I knew she was wearing a blindfold.  

Instead of being caught up in the chaos of the painting OR trying to remove myself from it and be some painter in control of the whole thing...I became awareness of the painting.

Simultaneously I was of it and non-judgmentaly aware of it.

I invite you to do the same.

Notice her in her peaceful pose.  What is she seeing?  What is she not seeing?

Now - what do you see? Were you able to just step outside of the painting?

Can you go further?  Can you be aware of your own thoughts?  Who is the you thinking about you thinking?  Can you step outside of yourself?

Allow yourself space to be aware.

Move in, move out, move around, don't move at all.

***

I created this as part of my journey of Leah Piken Kolidas' Art Every Day Month.  I don't know how formal of a practice I will make this, but any reason to (re)commit to my creative journey is a good one.

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
-Pablo Picasso

I will try to post frequently of my daily creations...but even if photos don't make it up, the words you read will be reflective of what is being created.  Here's to the journey!

Namaste.