How do you relate to mystery? Is it a place of magic? Does it contain unknown elements that may trigger fears? Does it stop you from living or does it encourage you to be curious? Is your main response trying to conceptualize it and understand it? Or are you more interested in the feelings that it brings? What is mystery to you?
Mystery is all around us. Even using language to talk about mystery is limiting because language is a human construct and mystery isn’t. We invented a word to try to capture it, define it, understand it, but you ask a thousand people and their experiences in this realm can’t even compare, yet we have this one word to relate to it because we know there is an essence to which it alludes.
On one end of the spectrum, you may find people who have a high need to be in control and by constantly defining their reality they limit the experiences they are open to having. Therefore, the word mystery has little value. Such people, given the power to pass legislation and make decisions for others, would have an easier time stripping awe-inspiring natural places and clear cutting a wilderness area to build something that may be practical and necessary to the collective, for example. Their ability to explain their decisions, to them, is more important than the outcome. In fact, they may be trying to convince you that the new reality is “better” though your entire sensing body may be gearing up for an internal trauma response. This reminds me of the world of 1984 by Orson Wells. And honestly, this is a reality shared by many in this same planet, in this same country, in this same city.
At the other polarity we have the artists and the seers, the prophets and the martyrs. These people have the foresight to write 1984 before it is the reality for absolutely everyone. They create the art that the collective will learn to appreciate long after they are dead. And they are the first to confess that their creation is coming through them, not that they own any of it. The martyr is open to every experience, even physical death, because they possess a knowing that goes beyond the decay of their mortal bodies. The prophet has the vision to see every possibility and where a collective is headed. Mystery for this group is a fertile, nurturing arena that they aren’t willing to compromise. This group knows that clear cutting the wilderness to bring, let’s say, another movie theater, or affordable housing, or another necessity for the community means that the community is not deserving and doesn’t see what is being given up to have a sense of control, ownership, in order to tell a story that isn’t truth for everyone, that isn’t inclusive of everyone, that isn’t reality.
Both groups are necessary for our existence because they let us know where we are, beyond the self-deception we practice as an unconscious ritual in our society. Trump is a symptom of a system. People who were shocked by him winning his last presidency and possibly this one are helped by the event because it bursts their imaginary bubble. These same people might not even know about a candidate such as Marianne Williamson, who their own party is trying to suppress, because they are exercising their own level of control to perpetuate a system that doesn’t work for everyone.
As our baby world grows and evolves in mysterious ways you still have a choice on how to engage. You can realize your own liberation only if you are ready to die and let go of who you think you are.
One trick to engage in this practice is to equate should with no. Should means no. If you feel you should hang out with a certain person or do a particular activity, I invite you to not hang out nor do the activity. This is because you are not a “should” in anyone’s lives or any action, you are a miracle of existence and I want you to realize that so that you become aware of just how magnificently generous you already are when you are you, just by being you. Another trick is to recognize when others around you are demanding or manipulating you into giving up your attention. Give it from your heart, not from a sense of guilt or shame. Give it freely, not from a perspective that it is owed. This is a practice that requires care and subtlety because it may seem that the world is not ready for us. Yet who we are is the key for ending all suffering, we only need to embrace and accept ourselves. Loving ourselves will lead you to become enamored. Rather than fall in love, which sounds dangerous and misleading, being enamored means literally to be in love, and from that perspective all violence, corruption, greed, oppression falls apart. Therefore, don’t be generous when you can, be generous because you are. Generosity is your genes wanting to express themselves and showing off your genius. Be prideful of who you are. Be greedy for you. Lust after yourself. Envy your presence. Be a glutton and never satiate of you. Be wrathful in protecting you. And be a total sloth with your attention, don’t give it to anything that isn’t you. In the Old Testament, Genesis 101, the Hebrew word khata, which translates to sin, means to “miss the mark”. You have one life, don’t let fear deter you from being you. By doing that you give everyone the opportunity to be grateful for you. You are the mark.
About the author
Angel de Armendi, Music Director
Angel (he/she/they/any) received his Bachelor of Music degree from New World School of the Arts and continued his study of piano performance at Florida International University. He made his way to Tallahassee through the Music Theory graduate program at FSU. While in school he diversified his piano skills accompanying FSU and Tallahassee City Ballet dance classes. His interest in vocal coaching took him to the Asolo Song Festival in Italy during two summers, as Assistant Director/Pianist and Composer In Residence. In Tallahassee, he also directs the High Holy Days Choir at Temple Israel, and has been their regular pianist since 2008. His love for sacred music and practice has motivated him to go through and graduate in 2015 from the Music Leadership Credentialing Program, offered by the Unitarian Universalist Musicians’ Network. During their 2015 conference in Boston he was unanimously elected as Board Member at Large for the Board of Trustees, a three-year voluntary commitment. He is deeply committed to building a thriving music program at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tallahassee.