Contemplation as a Means to Transformation

The ancient Greeks believed that through contemplation, the dimension of wonder opens us to the mystery of being itself. This dimension of wonder and awe is, in essence, the very definition of a religious experience. Although my mural, APOKALUPSIS: An Uncovering, is not intended to be regarded in a religious context as we have come to think of religion, it is an allegory which seeks to invoke a sense of the true meaning of the Latin word, religio, which means “to relink” us to the universe and to the intimate relationship we have with the cosmos. In allegorical fashion, this mural’s figures are the vehicle, through symbol and metaphor, that are meant to reveal truths of human existence.

By viewing this mural, “religious activity” becomes a contemplative act that intimately links us to the mysterious depths and hidden meanings of our own Being. The body, then, is the place, the organ, of vision. The Latin word, templum, literally means “ a place set aside for observing the heavens”. In this context, human beings, from time immemorial, have thought of the body as a temple. Therefore, to contemplate is to set one’s sight on Heaven ( Heaven being a metaphor for Truth ) from the temple that defines the field of vision.

“The observer realizes that he and that which he is observing are one-the observer is the observed.” Krishnamurti

The eyes, then, act as the lenses through which we perceive the images before us-discerning their outward appearance from their inner reality. A revelation then occurs into the radiance and mystery of being.

It is my hope that by contemplating and meditating upon APOKALUPSIS, the viewer may come to realize that, although we often find ourselves engaged in a linear existence rooted in the field of time, that the real function of the world is to stimulate the energies of the body into a state of awareness that expands our consciousness. While our one eye is seeing temporally and our other eternally, the focus becomes one. As a result, one may discover a reconnection, a relinking, with one’s own interior “diamond body”, a many-faceted wholeness; the place where destiny itself may be fulfilled. Our souls then open to that non-duality where “either/or” choices become “both/and” through the transcendent function in new unexpected ways. The apocalypse then becomes the point where the two realities ( time and eternity ) come together and an enlightened state of awareness is revealed through our everyday experience.