The Arc of Losing and Returning to Wonder
El arco de perder y regresar al asombro
A reflection on how the development of mind creates the illusion of separation from the sacred, and how the oscillation between finding and losing it can eventually dissolve.
The Arc of Losing and Returning to Wonder
A reflection on how the development of mind creates the illusion of separation from the sacred, and how the oscillation between finding and losing it can eventually dissolve.
Normally, the arc of this work follows a simple pattern. We are born in wonder. Then we gain a mind, we develop a mind, which is itself a miracle. It is the first miracle: the gaining of mind, the gaining of the illusion of separation. And that miracle means the sacred is lost. It has not gone anywhere; it is simply not seen.
The search through experience
We start to look for the sacred. We try to taste it, to get back to it. We taste it in experiences, in all kinds of activities and relationships. But then it always becomes something that appears to be dependent on certain conditions. Spiritual experiences take on this quality: the sacred seems to come and go. "I managed to get to it, and I managed to lose it." There is this constant oscillation.
When the oscillation drops
At a certain point, something else can happen. That back-and-forth is a fine way to go, but the full process of moving between those two poles can drop away entirely. We enter, so to speak, the kingdom, which is what we left as children. It never went anywhere. We were simply having fun in the appearance of mind. At a deep level, we are choosing to be fascinated by the appearance of mind, even as the wonder and the magic of this recedes. And even more so, because then we can be the ones who are figuring out the back and forth, doing the back and forth.
All is sacred. All is Buddha nature. All is wonder.