Jan 12
Bluelab is a developing non profit corporation providing new approaches to new media art productions. Bluelab will seek collaborative involvement on the part of many leading artists, filmmakers, performers, writers and musicians along with highly regarded spiritual teachers and leaders of other fields. Our hope is to aid in "The Great Work"--that of saving the world.
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein If one wishes to change the world, one must first become that change. Forbearance, patience and tolerance are the only conditions which keep two (or more) individual hearts united.
Hazrat Inayat Khan It seems that far too many people even sophisticated, intelligent and educated people have little or no idea what true community actually is. Perhaps even fewer have personal experience with it. Bluelab offers a way for talented and skilled professional artists to work together in a truly comfortable and supportive atmosphere with quality professional tools.
Bluelab encourages spiritual practice which can be defined in a wide range of interpretations but which simply helps individuals to relax controls and to effectively quell the personal ego and its influences. We re not interested in ideologies though many of us are personally dedicated to various religious or philosophical interests we re more interested in the experience. As Jung said, contact with the numinous (God) is what heals us .
As Joseph Campbell once said, "Religion is often a defence against the religious experience." It's clear to most of us that experience is what we need--not concepts. If one studies religion from a mystical perspective one finds a lot less to argue about.
The problem here is not with the mystics of the world. They have never been the trouble makers. Jimmy Hendrix is quoted as saying, When the power of love becomes greater than the love of power, there will be peace.
Learning community becomes a social spiritual practice when a group attempts to learn through focusing attention upon the interactions occurring with in the group (Goff, 1994. p.4).
To reach this stage, individuals have to develop the capacity to tolerate discomfort, ambiguity, making public mistakes, and not knowing. They must be willing to risk being vulnerable and open. This requires unlearning socially conditioned attitudes and interactive patterns typical of normal discourse and developing the ability to tolerate the resulting confusion, uncertainty, anxiety and self-doubt, that arise as assumptions formerly held as truths are called into question.
The individual is in a process of emerging into a more complex, diverse world with greater ambiguity and paradox.
The transformative learning that characterizes a vital learning community arises through sustained and disciplined effort (p. 5).
In order to sustain this process over time, it is helpful to have knowledge of specific disciplines that support the process of transformative learning and the development of learning community. Goff lists eight spiritual social disciplines which provide a framework for supporting individual and communal development (see Table 1). They are personal responsibility, skillful communications, inclusivity, focused attention, shared reflection, detachment, multidimensional thinking, and ecological awareness.
The goal of these practices is to help us rediscover a direct experience of our underlying interrelatedness and to empower us to respond collectively to the painful circumstances which threaten our well-being (Goff, 1994, p. 2). Practicing these disciplines supports the development of personal skills that contribute to creating a dynamic and open practice field (akin to sacred space in sacred circles [Baldwin, 1994] and education as described by Palmer [1998]).
These practices use methods which sensitize group members to the quality of their interactions, promote the development of personal skills that increase the quality of communication and capacity for emotional connection, develop group consciousness by cultivating the awareness that there are multiple ways of perceiving and expressing truth, and using these diverse perspectives to enlarge group perspective. They foster trust, mutual reliance, and a sense of belonging; develop compassion and empathy; cultivate the realization that one can extend one s individual sense of self to include others; and cultivate the skills which support a capacity for living and acting interdependently.
By practicing these disciplines, individuals develop the capacity for presence, high quality communication, and openness to the group process that emerges moment by moment.
The synergy between the individuals efforts catalyzes the development of the community as a whole.
When a community begins to practice together, the stage is set for the emergence of synergies which lead to the emergence of a collective form of intelligence or shared consciousness. This group mindfulness is then capable of grasping more of the multifaceted complexity of the moment providing a perspective that makes it possible for individual members and the group as a whole to perceive the ecological impact of thoughts and actions.
(Goff, 1995, p. 6)
Peace is perfected activity; that is perfect which is complete in all its aspects, balanced in each direction and under complete control of the will. Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: It is useless to discuss the peace of the world. What is necessary just now is to create peace in ourselves that we, ourselves, become examples of love, harmony and peace. That is the only way of saving the world and ourselves.
Peace is independently felt within oneself. It is not dependent upon the outer sensation. It is something that belongs to one, something that is one's own self. .
.. Peace is not a knowledge, peace is not a power, peace is not a happiness, but peace is all these.
And besides, peace is productive of happiness. Peace inspires one with knowledge of the seen and unseen, and in peace is to be found the divine Presence. It is not the excited one who conquers in this continual battle of life.
It is the peaceful one who tolerates all, who forgives all, who understands all, who assimilates all things. The one who lacks peace, with all his possessions, the property of this earth or quality of mind, is poor even with both. He has not got that wealth which may be called divine and without which man's life is useless.
For true life is in peace, a life which will not be robbed by death.
The secret of mysticism, the mystery of philosophy, all is to be attained after the attainment of peace. You cannot refuse to recognize the divine in a person who is a person of peace.
It is not the talkative, it is not the argumentative one, who proves to be wise. He may have intellect, worldly wisdom, and yet may not have pure intelligence, which is real wisdom. True wisdom is to be found in the peaceful, for peacefulness is the sign of wisdom.
It is the peaceful one who is observant. It is peace that gives him the power to observe keenly. It is the peaceful one, therefore, who can conceive, for peace helps him to conceive.
It is the peaceful who can contemplate; one who has no peace cannot contemplate properly. Therefore, all things pertaining to spiritual progress in life depend upon peace.
And now the question is what makes one lack peace?
The answer is, love of sensation. A person who is always seeking to experience life in movement, in activity, in whatever form, wants more and more of that experience. In the end he becomes dependent upon the life which is outside, and so he loses in the end his peace, the peace which is his real self.
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the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God within ourselves, in which there is our peace. As soon as we have found that, we have found our support, we have found our self. And in spite of all the activity and movement on the surface, we shall be able to keep that peace undisturbed if only we hold it fast by becoming conscious of it.
Until the soul has found itself far above the mind-mesh, there cannot be peace. Peace is found at the center, at the hub of things, nevertheless it cannot be separated from activity. Cessation of activity may be called non-activity, not peace; cessation of war may be called non-war, but peace is a very inappropriate term for it.
Whenever there is a change of feeling, thought or action, there is some rearrangement; and every type of change, arrangement or rearrangement causes or accompanies a dis-equilibrium. Any change of equilibrium is necessarily of the nature of war. Only when equilibrium can be maintained without change is there peace.
This is only found when the will has entire control of the mind.
All vibrations and atoms below the mind-mesh are constantly in motion, changing themselves and causing changes to others and being changed except where they are held in place by a stronger force. It is love or will that stand above law, which can fix these atoms and vibrations.
This fixation is symbolically studied in alchemy and directly studied in the inward mystical process.
It is the Divine Will, which can control all wills and all minds, and it is the Divinity that is the perfected activity. Therefore what the Buddhists call Nirvana is nothing but the natural state of God above all distinctions and differences, thus Pure Peace.
Joshua Meyer
The intention of many artists the world over is to withdraw from the materialism that dominates the art industrial complex and focus on social responsibility. This is not an easy path nor one our culture is anxious to compensate us for. Many artists are working to find ways to make a real and lasting contribution funneled through their honed craft and their developed sensitivity.
For most, this withdrawal from the conditioning of art school and art world powers that be requires an inner search. This inner search needs structure. Some have turned to yoga, some to meditation, others to spiritual schools and still others to formal religion.
It's important to find a structure that works for one. Gaining peace within is essential to finding and developing ways to inspire peace in the world around us.
~~~ Peace is perfected activity; that is perfect which is complete in all its aspects, balanced in each direction and under complete control of the will.
What if artists were offered stipends, room and board allowing them to come together and to work intensively and without distraction for substantial blocks of time on film, music and real time performance collaborations? What if artists and thinkers could explore important issues in depth leading to transformational theater, installation, film and music? What if these artists were guided by experts through a structured community building process prior to beginning to create their projects?
What if artists were given opportunity to work with and interact with some of the leaders of our time in the fields of art, science, and philosophy? What if these artists were given all the production equipment and technical assistance they might need to produce global quality shows? What if supporters and friends of our organization were given intimate amphitheater access to segments of our artists processes as well as early rehearsals, scheduled meals, activities and fellowship?
What if the productions could be built and performed with some eventually touring the US and the world? Nothing is more challenging, nothing less sentimental, than the invitation of spirit to become who we are and not who we think we ought to be The new monk wears an invisible robe. Thomas Moore, the Religion of the Soul The question is no longer how did we get here, and why?
But, where can we possibly go, and how? We live in a society that has drastically narrowed our sensitivity to moral and spiritual issues; the problem we face is how to deal with a belief structure that has blocked both psychological and spiritual development. If there is a new agenda, a new vision now emerging within our society, how might one help put it into practice?
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bluelab is being developed upon the issue first posed by Einstein, "a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness in which it was created. It has become evident to many that in order to meet the problems we face as a species we must embrace a radical revision of our beliefs and our behaviors. bluelab functions upon the strong presumption that artists likely figure significantly into the revisioning of a new world and the invention of ways to communicate our discoveries.
As we all learn more and more about our essential interconnectedness it also becomes increasingly evident that artists can t function in a social vacuum. The label of artist is only used as a signifier of persons with specific media skills and training who are fluent in creative processes and who have some professional link to art. In terms of the way bluelab will in fact function, we are working to develop a sound and effective approach to community building which relies heavily upon time tested processes that are well understood and are seeking the help of people who are expert in these processes.
Why all the talk of community ?It is our firm belief that by building works in a heightened communal space we will in fact be building works potent with transformational energies. Jung talked about the distinctions between liminal or transformative space and liminoid , or works that are simply entertaining.
With a hard look at where we are at as a species and planet it seems like simple math that we must link art making to the real task at hand that of saving the earth. bluelab has been founded by Jeff Hogue and created out of a perceived need to reconsider art making and professional collaborative art practice proceeding boldly from visionary prerogatives. We don t find fault with the many artists who will not be drawn to what we are doing for spiritual practice and its interface with collaborative art making are not for everyone.
In light of our present global endgame scenario it seems frivolous at best to argue over rhetorical issues. bluelab is intended for the Great Work --that of joining leaders of many fields worldwide who are engaged in the work of saving the earth. We believe that perhaps the only way to meet these challenges is to deeply transform ourselves which implies structured spiritual practice to be determined by each member for her or himself.
This is the turning point. When serious professional artists are willing to embrace the rigors of authentic spiritual practice, the work of community building and heightened artistic collaboration will undoubtedly fall quickly into place. The abundance of quotes from Sufi teachers have been included simply because they are part of my daily practice and do not infer a direct link between bluelab and Sufism.
In point of fact, any serious spiritual practitioner must see that there can be no schism between the teachings of true Sufism and any sincere humanitarian interest. In the interest of those who may fear some sort of covert Islamic link, Sufism as it s practiced and defined by and large in the West is Universalist in its orientation and in fact many Sufi s roots are Christian and Jewish. Save us, our Lord, from the earthly passions and the attachments which blind mankind.
Save us, our Lord from the temptations of power, fame and wealth, which keep humanity away from Thy glorious vision. Save us, our Lord, from the souls who are constantly occupied in hurting and harming their fellowman and who take pleasure in the pain of another. Save us, our Lord, from the evil eye of envy and jealousy, which falleth upon Thy bountiful gifts.
Save us, our Lord, from falling into the hands of the playful children of earth, lest they might use us in their games; they might play with us and then break us in the end, as children destroy their toys. Save us, our Lord, from all manner of injury that cometh from the bitterness of our adversaries and from the ignorance of our loving friends. Amen Some renaissance theologians worked hard at reconciling paganism with Judaism and Christianity.
We have yet to achieve this détente that is essential to the life of the soul. Fragments of our hearts and minds are located in the garden of Gethsemane and in the garden of Epicurus, on the zodiac of the Apostles and on the zodiac of the animals, in the wine of Dionysus and in the wine of the Eucharist, in the psalms of David and in the hymns of Homer. It is not a matter of belonging to a religion or professing one s faith, it is a matter of orientation in life and participation in its mysteries.
We can all be pagan in our affirmation of all of life. Christian in our affirmation of communal love, Jewish in our affirmation of the sacredness of family, Buddhist in our affirmation of emptiness, and Taoist in our affirmation of paradox. The new monk wears invisible robes.
Thomas Merton travels across the globe, and in the home of Eastern monks, dies. Isn t this a myth for our time and about the resurrection of the monastic spirit!
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