There’s a profound possibility in organizing aesthetically … in other words to see the world in terms of pattern and potential beauty. I used a word for it in a response on Facebook earlier today … “SPLENDOR” … to become present to and aware of SPLENDOR.
Specifically the beginning point may be as simple as choosing to acknowledge that your experience reflects you. What you perceive reflects your being-ness in any given moment. I keep peppering my posts with the word “ontology” referring to this idea of being-ness. From my point of view it is both the beginning, center and end point of everything we experience.
Much of what has been written about “personal development” and even much of what has been written about “spiritual development” is organized around what we know and/or believe to be true. What we know and believe belongs in the domain of epistemology, which as I see it emerges from ontological ground.
Here’s an easy way to translate the fundamental position I’m presenting from the philosophical …
“You can’t have an idea or opinion if you don’t first exist.”
So I’ve pointed the vast majority of my adult working life towards exploring existence … my own and that of others … what it is and how we do it.
The Aesthetic Frame
What I’ve found in my explorations of existence, i.e.: my ontological research, all points to the possibility that the only way to fully experience our existence resides in the aesthetic frame.
We experience everything first sensorially, through direct sensory experience. Even our inner reality seems to be comprised from bits and pieces of our sensory experience … recombined, reconstituted, re-formed into vast landscapes of imagination.
If this has any validity, i.e.: we first experience everything sensorially, through our senses … doesn’t it then make sense to build a methodology that deepens our sensory experience as the primary means we possess to experience our lives most fully?
This is the primary argument for building the aesthetic frame, to experience our lives most fully.
The aesthetic frame requires that we suspend all judgement and/or assigning any meaning until we’ve fully experienced at the sensory level the events of our lives. This pattern of willful suspension, an intentional inhibition if you will, creates a uniquely powerful framework for making meaning, taking decisions and acting in our lives.
So What’s The Problem?
Well … there isn’t any really. As a fan of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later philosophy (most of it published posthumously), I accept that all problems are actually puzzles in language … if you accept that logic is bound in language (and I do that too).
(If you want the direct insight on Wittgenstein’s premises of philosophical puzzles start with his “Philosophical Investigations“ … and let that lead you to what’s next …)
However, back to the issue of building The Aesthetic Frame …
The most significant thing you can do when you are organizing an aesthetic frame begins with learning how to operate in multilevel, multilayered realities – realities that are common to all creative geniuses. As simply stated as I can these realities hold more than one “truth” simultaneously, often “truths” which are in opposition or cancel one another out.
Another way of putting it would be to say that these realities hold multiple perspectives regarding the same data present in the system in this moment, effectively creating multiple moments of opportunity simultaneously.
Once you get the power of accessing multilevel, multilayered realities you’ll have access to a level of creativity that very few folks ever experience.
When you hold multiple positions of perspective simultaneously – about any given “truth” – the sense of uncertainty that so often unnerves and confuses others in complex and chaotic situations, never comes up for you.
This is another function of achieving an internal cognitive state of NOTHING, which is different from the ontological or internal state … or more simply stated, a way of being you operate from … where the cognitive state of NOTHING is present.
Resonance & The Aesthetic Frame
One of the most powerful ways to arrive at NOTHING is through the lens of resonance …
Accessing resonance in your life begins with becoming open to what I refer to as the “Signals In The System” … or the seemingly insignificant data that arises and becomes present in the context in which you are operating.
Noticing birds of prey as an example of resonance that I attend to is one that I’ve used before. In and of itself the bird of prey, an eagle … hawk … or falcon … isn’t necessarily significant, but I place significance on its presence when I become aware of it.
When I notice a bird of prey it shifts my internal state so something we can refer to as hyper-awareness. It focuses my attention and I begin to notice other data in the environment, my own internal state and my thoughts in the moment. This shift in consciousness often leads to cognitive leaps where something seemingly insignificant becomes significant, or I may arrive at a conclusion about something that’s been elusive that suddenly comes into focus and becomes clear.
On another level, noticing for “Signals In The System” can also be about noticing very subtle signs and signals that are present in a context that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. An example of these kinds of signs and signals might be noticing a subtle somatic shift as someone is speaking, either in the speaker or a listener … or it could be an equally subtle and elusive change in tone.
The famous anthropologist, E.T. Hall, referred to subtle contextual signals in terms of spatial distinctions, e.g.: high territoriality and low territoriality cultures, temporal distinctions, e.g.: monochronic and polychronic cultures, and communication preferences, e.g.: high context and low context cultures. These can also be referred to as attending to “Signals In The System.”
Within the context of the work I do, i.e.: using the Soma-Semantics model within the MythoSelf Process, we place a significant amount of attention on subtle signals that can be referred to as attending to transpersonal data. For instance, using what emerges contextually in terms of semantic and somatic data that the individual presents in conversation/dialogue a significant amount of information about their personal history becomes obvious, despite what they are attending to in the moment.
E.g.: As someone begins talking about a movie they’ve recently seen they inevitably reveal information about what they attended to (noticed) and how they attended to it in the storyline. This information reveals something about when developmentally they were perceptually positioned relative to the story. This information will be present in their semantic (language) and somatic (body based) exposition.
Attending to information at this level demands residing within an aesthetic frame. From within the aesthetic frame this kind of information becomes most evident and trackable in terms of resonance. Rather than attempting to attend to the subtle “Signals In The System” directly it can be far better to simply REMAIN PRESENT TO THE TOTALITY OF WHAT EMERGES AND NOTICES WHERE YOUR ATTENTION FLOWS … WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO CONSCIOUSLY DIRECT IT.
This effect, i.e.: noticing without effort via attending to what becomes resonant for you, rises naturally from residing within the aesthetic frame.
POWER | CREATIVITY | INFLUENCE
Within the tri-legged structure that I use, POWER | CREATIVITY | INFLUENCE, the idea of the aesthetic frame constitutes the foundation for the CREATIVITY leg.
Creativity allows you to exceed the limits of the current frame you find yourself operating within. Using a creative process/approach you are literally about to extend the frame beyond its current limits. You add to what is present by bringing into the context something that is not yet contained within it.
To do this … bring something into the context something that is not yet contained within it … you must be able to extend yourself beyond the limits of the current frame, i.e.:
When you are operating creatively,
rather than playing within the boundaries,
you begin playing with the boundaries.
This way of operating, i.e.: playing with the boundaries, allows you to transcend uncertainty … and to bring certainty into a context where it isn’t yet present.
This is akin to bringing certainty to the unknown … quite a trick (literally a quantum trick, transcending linearity and cause & effect, by making a quantum jump to what exists outside of and beyond the frame that contains you in the moment)!
This also requires holding multiple perspective simultaneously in place. In order to have certainty in the face of the unknown you must bring NOTHING to bear on the current situation. By this I mean that you apply no judgement or expectation to the situation.Specifically, the ability to hold an intention about outcome/s without necessarily holding an expectation about the outcome … other than in a moment to moment manner.
Bringing NOTHING to bear on the current situation is the ability to hold only “What’s Next …” in mind at any given time as demanding action, while holding the entirely of the scope of your consideration in place without any urge or urgency about committing action to it.
As I said quite a trick …
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ
Ron in New Orleans says
As I tell everybody who asks how I got my prayers answered, I begin by saying, “Right before you pray, just the slightest moment before you ask Our Lord while in prayer, you…GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Nobody understands this concept, to which you refer as Nothingness.
Until you experience that slight moment before you humbly request what your heart and soul desires, you can’t fully understand the deep level of Nothingness that we are. Ironically, and much to the chagrin of non-believers, the more you get out of the way the more Our Lord fills the void with what is important to Him. The inner joy is indescribable, and at times feels like it is another part of you while inside of you.
Joe, in your article you didn’t go…all…the…way. And you can’t go all the way either, for your prayer to be answered, Our Lord has to do that on His side coming to our side, for Nothingness creates a void that is filled with Love.
To your article you could have added that when you do figure/fall into this process, and it works (prayer answered), rarely can you replicate the process through to the same result (prayer answered), no matter how much you pray. Filling this Nothingness can become an addiction in its own right. For me, it has – 3 Holy Masses on Sunday, assisting at all 3, plus spearheading two ministries to keep me busy during the week. For the record, I am not dedicated (outer observation), I am appreciative (inner peace).
Joe, the less I become the more I become. I was surprised you didn’t explain what fills the natural void you describe as Nothingness!?
Joseph says
Ron … thanks for the reply.
To answer your question directly, while I personally consider myself a man of faith, my faith doesn’t require, compel or demand me to lead others to my faith. In terms of how I conceive of G-d I’m convinced there is no necessity on my part to intervene in the workings of the Universe. In fact I’m well convinced that G-d can handle all the intricacies and necessities of keeping things going in the desired direction without me.
On another note, my mission is to be in the world is to operate in such a way that as people engage me they find themselves led more to themselves than to becoming closer to me or my way of thinking. This for me is the magic in my work, I get to watch people recover themselves … as I become invisible in the transaction.
Finally, other than NOTHING I cannot speak to what becomes present … in that regard I am more Taoist than anything else …
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
I guess I call “Darkness” … NOTHING, with apologies to Lao Tze
Bruce I. Lipton says
Joseph,
Just when I think I understand, and I try to manifest into being what I think I understand from your teaching, I find myself lost. How does one maintain a state of nothing, not placing interpretation on events when we are wired to do so such as in the fight of flight response? Or, is your teaching referring to all but those crisis situations that evoke- rightfully so- the fight or flight response?
Bruce
Joseph says
Bruce – like getting to Carnegie Hall … practice, practice, practice …
Do you remember being in the ring, under the stress of conflict … literally with someone trying to bring harm unto you?
In any of those moments did you transcend the conflict and begin to simply become present to the moment … to the movement … as though the fight were a dance in which you were engaged, reading and responding with little or no thought … a thousand, thousand hours of practiced foot work, punches, bobbing, weaving … moving without thought????
That’s NOTHING …
Shyaam says
Hello Dr. Joseph
Another awesome post!!!!
I think I understand what you intend to convey 🙂
I feel, in order to operate from an aesthetic frame and a position in relation to nothingness – there is a need for an extraordinary amount of trust and Letting go.
Any suggestions on how to build trust and letting go! (I am afraid of the unknown – uncertainty)
Shyaam
Joseph says
Shyaam … yes.
There is no trick … it’s about seeing behind the illusion of safety that most people believe they can access ‘if only’ … you fill in the blank.
For example most people are more willing to trust and let go into the hands of others versus trusting and letting go into themselves. Just take a flight here in the U.S. and watch how people submit and give in to the “security” provided by the TSA. It’s a construct designed NOT to provide security BUT RATHER THE ILLUSION OF SECURITY.
If you create enough layers of seemingly structured patterns of “security” most people will submit and be comforted by the illusion. This is enough … because protecting planes in flight is actually impossible if you have a committed opponent. Fortunately, that level of commitment is hard to come by … and harder to organize and coordinate.
Makes you think, huh???
Shyaam says
Oh!!! Yes Dr. Joseph!
Then, how to start dropping layers of conditioning which comforts us in an illusory way?
Also, I get a feeling (after reading some of your posts which points to the way of ‘wholeness of the universe’), that Letting go cannot be done in chunks – its either all or nothing!!!
and Thank You for the reply!!! 🙂
Shyaam
T says
Hi,
I like the simplicity of the realization that our experience always reflects us. If we don’t like the experience we don’t like the reflection hence I can reorganize to my pre-epistmelogical or better ontological inherent position and discover my new best chosen story. I like it.
You say that we first experience things sensorially and yet you’ve pointed out in a previous posting that we believe our story more than the sensory information. Hence I would think that having the splendorous and manificent story flow always from the attunement to the sensory information is the way to go. It’s that hypersensitivity that you refer to?
Is it a willfull suspension and/or a more impeccable sense of timing and choice of how and when to aim the direction and story?
There are no inherent problems in the somatic blueprint until we add them with the logic or the ill-formed construction from language?
How specifically do you hold multiple realities both somatically and linguistically? Is it that the somatics is always open and in flux and the linguistic configuration is one form with a billion other forms possible or are you holding at least a million other forms simultaneously?
Is your operational definition of resonance where your attention naturally flows to?
So the nothing is nothing epistemlogically until you resonate and create from the somatic signature and you create semantically while simultaneously holding nothing as a knowing or not knowing.
Best,
T
Mark Roche says
Gonna have to read the blog a few times in order to really get a good handle on what you are saying, and to be able to comment intelligently.
For the moment, it reminds me of the line from the Buckaroo Banzai movie, “And remember, wherever you go, there you are”. What I take from that is that unless one is able to access some sort of Nothing, one isn’t really ever going to experience much of anything ever other than one’s own repeated cognitive regurgitations, however new things may seem.
From the blog, other than that it has to do with being more fully present to one’s sensorial experiences, it is not completely clear to me just exactly what you mean by the aesthetic frame.
That shaman guy who wrote that book I shared, Life in the Labyrinth, is very big on the importance of aesthetics.
Aesthetics have always been important to me, although it seems that it is somewhat dependent on individual interpretation. Nevertheless, it seems that for the average person, the more aesthetic an environment–in the traditional sense of beauty, etc–the more conducive to being connected with one’s ontological self.
Also, it seems to me that, at least to some degree, the old statement about Cleanliness is next to Godliness, though not usually interpreted in that way I don’t think, is really somehow alluding to the aesthetic framing that you speak of.
Thomas says
Fascinating article Joseph. Speaking of signals in the system, I actually held my first hummingbird sunday, and was able to get a photograph of the event. The excitement and significance didn’t actually hit me until sometime after the event took place, which seems to fall inline with what your saying here. I could go into details but I won’t. Suffice it to say I look forward to reading what you have to say, thanks again.