PLAYING CONTRASTS, 2021
Play verb /pleɪ/
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When you play, especially as a child, you spend time doing an enjoyable and/or entertaining activity. ‘The children spent the afternoon playing with their new toys.’
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To take part in a game or other organized activity. ‘Do you want to play cards (with us)?
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To compete against a person or team in a game. ‘Who are the Giants playing next week?’
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To hit or kick a ball in a game. ‘He played the ball back to the goalkeeper.’
Contrast noun /ˈkɒn.trɑːst/
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An obvious difference between two or more things. ‘I like the contrast of the white trousers with the black jacket.’
Contrast verb /kənˈtrɑːst/
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To compare two people or things in order to show the differences between them. ‘If you contrast some of her early writing with her later work, you can see just how much she improved.’
I have always been fascinated by ideas, where they are coming from or how they are formed, where and how they are stored, developed, and matured, but above all, I was most impressed by how one can look at an idea from several perspectives, how each idea has an opposite in this world of dreams, and how although they are apparently opposite, both the original idea and its opposite seem to be valid; how everything is based on differences; on an uneven past and an unstable future; on unequal heights and various sizes; on varying degrees of darkness and light; and a thousand opposites in which each thing seen competes with the other in order to be recognised.
Since we entered this world, we have chosen to be in a state of opposition, where we play with the contrasts and opposites that we consider possible. As a result, there are choices we must make. Freedom to choose is the same power as freedom to create, but its application is different because choosing presupposes and depends on a divided mind.
This duality, this polarity, often creates a bit of confusion regarding our judgements or appreciations. Because in general we are, from an early age, trained in one modality over the other, brought up in one religion or another, trained to go in one direction or another, we will thus have an inclination, from our background and from our training, to choose to look at a particular thought or event through only one modality or another. In so doing, it is not that we are not seeing the event or the thought, but that we are only seeing half of it or half of the ways in which we can look at it and eventually experience it.
It takes a little willingness to comprehend that we have created these ideas within ourselves to make ourselves complete within this realm of dreaming reality. We are a polarised society; we encompass the whole of the contrast of the polarity of the contrasts and opposites. Although we need these contrasts only here, where contrasts and differences are necessary teaching aids, for by them we learn what to avoid and what to seek. When we have learned this, we will find the answer that makes the need for any differences disappear. Once we have learned what this world is and that we belong to Truth, it will flow lightly over us without a difference of any kind, for we will need no contrast to help us realise that this is what we want, and only this.
Now, in order for us to learn, we must first evaluate, and an insane belief system cannot be evaluated from within itself because its range precludes this. We can only go beyond it, look back from a point where sanity exists, and see the contrast, because only by this contrast can insanity be judged as insane. The further we are willing to look at ourselves as a complete and total creator, the more of creation we will allow within our reality.
Also, while evaluating, we should acknowledge that certain fundamental concepts or ideas cannot be understood and fully comprehended in terms of opposites. It is impossible to imagine both darkness and light, or both everything and nothing, as potential joint possibilities. All of these are either true or untrue. We must acknowledge that until we make a clear commitment to one or the other, our thinking will be inconsistent. A firm commitment to darkness or nothingness, however, is impossible. There is no one who has ever lived who has not experienced light or anything. Because of this, no one can completely deny the Truth, even if they think they can.
In Truth there is no darkness, and there are no contrasts. There isn't any difference. Nothing is interrupted. There is a peace that is so profound that not even the faintest dream in this world has ever brought even a dim imagining of what it is.
Everything boils down to what do we want. Do we still want to play with contrasts or find the Truth? Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance, are ours, but not both. Opposites must be brought together, not kept apart, for their separation is only in our minds, and they are reconciled by union, as we are. In union, everything that is not real must disappear, for truth is union. As darkness disappears into light, so ignorance disappears when knowledge arises.
NOTES
Photographs, C-Type Printed on Fuji Crystal Professional Archive Maxima Paper
Matt Coating · Weight 245 gsm
Mount: Aluminium Dibond