#william segal
“We are continually aligning or relating ourselves to those energies or actions which we perceive as being favourable or desirable. Our bodies take us to food, sex, rest, recreation. Our minds take us towards knowledge of all kinds. Our feelings attract us to the arts, to nature, even to spiritual pursuits. This is all natural and desirable….But is it not strange that we do not, at the same time, turn more frequently to the supreme energy, to the Self veiled within each of us, for the profundity of which we only have human words?”
—William Segal, Openings, (Continuum, 1998). Collected under ARCS in our Fall 2018 issue: THE JOURNEY HOME
Photograph: William Segal by Roger Sherman
Am I my thoughts or my emotions? If I sincerely look at this question, I see that they are not mine, they are simply just an automated process running through me. Is there something behind all of of these thoughts just a-thinking, and these emotions just emoting in me?
I feel there is a subtle presence in all of us that is timeless and changeless. It speaks to us through silence and in a foreign language of vibration that is felt throughout the body, much like a tuning fork when it’s struck-a wordless resonance of differing qualities.
The difficulty is, my default state lies on the surface where thoughts, tensions, and emotions creat a great deal of noise and tensions. I cannot hear the call that’s always there, let alone nourish this real and undeniable part of myself. So the question is: how to relax that grip, and let all of that go. To trust the silence that allows me to drop down into this body, here and now. To listen deeply, to breathe, and to sense the vividness of being alive.
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