Being universal

The more personal, the more universal.

I saw something like this on some comments to a blog, a while ago. This is what I have been struggling to formulate ever since I came across the works of John Cowper Powys, a great author who has yet to be discovered by most of the world’s discerning readers.

If the personal were not universal, then art would not be possible, for the creative artist finds inspiration from deep within, from sources neglected and left stagnant by others.

Before its present title, “As in Life . . .”, this blog was called “An Ongoing Experiment”. I can’t remember now why I changed it. At the time I was experimenting with blog format, for example putting the posts in forward chronological order. Again, I cannot remember why this seemed so important. But it’s true that my life is an ongoing experiment, and, as in life, so is this blog.

It’s an experiment in ecstasy. Method: to cast aside beliefs, to make an inner emigration from the sources of conditioning, to give thanks for my life through the enjoyment of its every detail, to follow my deepest impulse, to give body-wisdom always precedence over intellect. I am not presuming to provide anyone with a prescription. Prescriptions or shall I say gurudom are amongst the things I have forsaken. Anyway, my method depends on certain preconditions, which I shan’t speak of at this stage.

Though I cast aside beliefs wherever possible, it is hardly possible to proceed through life without working hypotheses. One of mine is that, in a stage of life when I have paid my dues in taxes to the State and begetting children, all I have to do now is be quintessentially me. My uniqueness is all I can offer. I have spent enough years trying to conform.

This is what I wish for everyone else too. Your uniqueness is what the world needs, not your conformity to ideas of how you should be.