Posted on by Michael Austin

Window to the soul

In my own personal quest to understand creation its history and its maker, I have traveled throughout Asia and the America’s. While one can never understand someone else’s complete life experience. Most places I went I saw and felt a joy I didn’t know and a way of living that was foreign to me. I also saw pain, suffering, jealousy and confusion at the injustice and seemingly unearned the privilege when confronted with someone from Australia.

The eyes are the window to the soul, we all know this deep down. In the western world people with cataracts and eye deformities are some of the most uncomfortable individuals to hold a gaze with. These individuals often wear sunglasses, not because they need to, but because of the personal discomfort they invoke in the everyday citizen. That is a pure example of humility.

It is quite an experience when you have been humbled so much, that in order to rehabilitate yourself you are trying to force yourself to make eye contact with people for as long as you dare, or if someone is kind enough as long as they will allow you. It is a beautifully awkward but empowering experience when you stumble upon a fool who thinks that he has to hold eye contact to assert his dominance. You get to practice, and he gets revealed to everyone else in the room for the fool he is.

It is through the eyes that we can come to understand each other and spirits to a small degree. If you have never had the privilege of an epiphany in thought or, a experience that was so great you knew it was from outside of yourself and therefore spiritual. There is a very subtle re/action that lets us know we are all interconnected and that we have no control over it. It is the involuntary and seemingly random glance in a direction which was previously a blind spot only to find that a person or an animal is looking at you.

This is a shared experienced that we know to be real but have little control over. Often individuals and wild animals don’t like being looked at directly in the eyes. Through this practice you are being searched, evaluated, and explored. During this moment both individuals are lowering their own veil, while simultaneously a disarmament is occurring for the other. From such interactions judgments can quickly be made and represented through the eyes and the rest of the face. These judgments are often uncomfortable, they can be disdain or adoration.

Often an individual will seek to lock eye contact with figures of authority so that they can judged and decided if they are worthy of a privileged position that person is in and will either seek to subtly destabilize or empower this individual. Depending on how privileged a position it is, the more it will be tested, because the more vital it is to humanity.

Holding eye contact with someone is a privilege, no pure warrior worth his salt is even going to acknowledge a completely inferior warrior within his ranks, but of course, such humility may force the inferior warrior to become an assassin, the warriors blind spot.

Sometimes though there is curios respect, because the individual knows the other is onto something they know not, and they desire to find out exactly what it is.

Posted on by Michael Austin

A deal with the devil – Stuck in a loop

I have never shook hands with the devil, but I have come to understand him, and with this understanding comes respect and beauty in its own right.

So this little devil decided that I was soon too big for my boots and showed me a great gnashing of teeth a torment that was my own.

It might be hell or purgatory, but after all this, stillness and being present is the biggest truth I could find. We do this with each other and it’s the ultimate sign of respect. Because if we are not there with each other, our heads can be anywhere (innerweb, clouds, past, future, another self).

But when you are by yourself, you will soon learn something else. That you love stillness, but you want to know the one God above and then you realize it is a pure puzzle, a team sport but individualized. And, as soon as you take it to be a game, you know that you must win, but of course sometimes to win you simply must sin. And once you know that you must sin, it’s simply begins again.

Posted on by Michael Austin

Art, Science & Creation

Man is not perfect, God is and whether you like it or not it’s obvious. The greatest gift our maker has given us is to learn about him and his creation. We learn first and foremost through our own experiences, by watching and interacting with the world around us. Then, second hand through listening to others based on their past experiences. Then, through studying different texts and practice, perfected through discipline. But if you want to learn something for yourself, something abstract that is not intuitive, you will know it comes from outside of yourself, (meaning nothing you did specifically gave you that realisation, and if you tried to replicate it you couldn’t). What I am talking about is the “aha” or “aww” or “doh” moment, also known as a “eureka” moment that was made famous by Sir Isaac Newton. If you are truly puzzled by a problem and you study it long enough, it is likely you will not find the answer straight away, but often it will come to you through having a coffee break, going for a walk, or a surf, or fishing/camping. I have literally used scientific method to try and solve an engineering puzzle that took me weeks, I knew it was possible, but I didn’t have anyone to support me. As time moved on and the deadline approached and the budget dwindled, the pain and the anguish was very real. Then, I was provided some inspiration that was outside of myself, I literally dreamed the answer and then applied it the next day.

 

I argue that inspiration is proof of God, but inspiration doesn’t only come from God, it can come from something you love. That is why God is love. Another form of inspiration is art, as I break it down there are two types of art: raw art, which provides hope as it is believed that further inspiration may come with additional study and skill; and, refined art, which is the combination of the precipice of human skill and inspiration. Inspired artist with this precipice of human skill in their field are considered masters, and if their art produces physical creations, they are considered masterpieces.

 

Science and Art at their core are both inspired, the simplest form of science is elementary math. In math there is infinite diversity. For example, 2 + 2 = 4, but if we want to solve the equation for four, we know there are infinite possibilities using addition such as 3 +1 or 2.5 + 1.5. There are also other methods to use such as subtraction, multiplication and division, which all have infinite diversity. There are also infinite methods if we allow ourselves to combine them. That is the beauty of science that God has given us. Knowing that there is infinite diversity but only one absolute.

 

Art at the same time is infinitely diverse, but it is in the eye of the beholder. An artist does their work simply because they are inspired and one who seeks to be a master will, while they are not inspired, seek to hone their skill through practice, dedication and research, so when the moment of inspiration comes they are ready. Art shows us another great absolute about the human condition, and that is we are all individuals, yet we influence each other. Art doesn’t care if you like it or not, you may love it and another person may hate it. If you find yourself in a one-on-one situation and the two of you consider yourself of equally experienced in the study of this art, you will probably seek to understand why the other person has a different opinion to you, and in the end if you engage in dialogue long enough you may convince the other of your view, or have them convince you of theirs. One of the biggest conflicts in art is the difference between art for the raw and art for the refined, often there is so much difference between these two parties, that all they can do is agree to disagree, and that is fine, that is part of diversity which is a gift from God revealed to us through art.

 

Historically though, we have not been able to engage in dialogue due to a language barrier or the individual’s inability to get their voice heard. At other time, when a collective has an opinion that differs from the individual, the individual may repress their speech and actions, but within will still disagree and not understand why they are different, causing an unhealthy internal conflict. This, shows us another absolute, that we are all individuals, while at the also simultaneously we all influence each other. However, while we can repress our speech and actions to fit in and restrict conflict, we cannot control our freedom of thoughts and desires, and if we are actually physically silenced, or simply don’t have the words required, we can feel oppressed and seek to free ourselves in whatever manner possible.

 

The beauty of pure art and pure science is that it is something we all instantly know in our hearts to be true. It is that it is abstract and by itself doesn’t mean anything. Math only becomes practical when you apply units, where it then becomes physics or accounting, likewise Art only becomes practical when it provokes some sort of response, be it intellectual, spiritual, emotional or all three.

 

It is an absolute that we are all individuals, art shows us this. But those in the humanities (psychology, marketing, political science, ect.) have progressed their field using scientific method to a point where they are no longer studying phenomenons to progress society, but rather seeking to utilise the lessons learnt to implement an agenda. The individual is consistently getting put into categories, using a combination of art and science.

 

Pure art and pure science is a gift from God and learning how to apply it to ourselves and the world is our privilege. The Bible states that humans shall have dominion over nature. Today, it is fair to say we have near complete authority not only over nature, but through the internet have god like abilities, that were barely even imagined one century ago.

 

Our curse today is that we are so close to becoming gods, very little inspiration from outside of ourselves is needed. We have forgotten to be still and know the Lord. To truly understand something such as Wifi or 5G internet it takes 15+ years of formal education plus several years of work experience, and this doesn’t include all the knowledge accumulated of our forefathers. Yet, people often complain that God, a being that by definition is infinitely complex hasn’t shown himself to them. Jesus at the start of his ministry fasted on a mountain for 40 days and 40 nights and constantly sought solitude, yet often individuals want to know God with one simple quick prayer.

 

Our gift today is that we are so close to God through our knowledge of his creation and the laws it keeps, that we have the ability to exercise dominion in a truly god like manner. It is unfortunate that through our arrogance and pride as humans, we have forgotten both the magnanimous nature of the Lord and the fear that should come with being outside his favour.