In the book, “the Skill of Wisdom”, we mentioned that the ability to bring together a deeper, spacial area of the mind, referred to as Nothingness, together with being-in-the-world, is much like an actor, for she is two people at the same time: she is the person behind the role and she is the actor in the role. This metaphor has been used before, particularly with William Shakespeare in “As you like it”.
We will elaborate on this idea here, for even though we speak of it as metaphor, there are interesting correspondences. With an actor, the play is the work. When she is not working, she has to live a life outside of the play. When she is working, she is “on”, as we notice the energy and change of personality when we see actors perform, but a philosopher is always, “on”, because of the reasons we will mention below. The play of the actor originates from a playright, who writes dialogue. A philosopher is not given dialogue, but must improvise through her decisions and the emergence of circumstance.
What are the lines of a philosopher and where are the sets? In a play or movie, the sets are constructed or utilized in “locations” (if a movie) that are staged. In “real” life, there are sets also, but we do not notice them as such, because we are too involved in our minds. Our real life is a “set”; the different social areas that we engage are also “constructed” through phenomena. We do not know the “set directors”, but each social area we encounter is a set in a “scene”. For example, if I see my wife, this social process is a scene, just like in a movie, and the “set” is the living room or the bedroom. The social areas of our life are also constructed from parts, just like on a stage. What are the lines of a philosopher? That is a big point.
In the play or movie, the lines are given by the playright or screenwriter and must be learned by the actor. She not only has to memorize the lines, but she must also have the training. Any person can read lines, but it takes training to act. What are the lines of a Philosopher? How does she act in the world? The lines are the deeper Qualities. These are improvised on the stage of our life in each scene, or in every encounter with every social process, from morning to night. We construct a deeper Quality, through the mysterious interaction between the deeper Space of our mind and the feelings of our own existence. This “produces” the Quality. There are many of these: love, patience, clarity, discipline, joy, etc. These are the lines. Why? Because this is the what the “playright” wants from the philosopher. The mysterious originator of the “scenes” of our life are meant to “act out” Goodness. These qualities are all “Good”; these deeper Qualities are emanations of essential Goodness. The true philosopher, not only observes or examines himself, but also brings forth the good into the world. This is the “good life”. What training does the philosopher go through in order to find the right “lines”. It is through an inner work, particularly the stablization of important faculties, that are conventionally dual, or utilized in the positive or the negative (discussed in the second book, of “the Skill of Wisdom”.
Let’s use an example. I am in my car on the freeway, and it is in the middle of a traffic jam. We may think there is some problem and this is some mistake because what I really want to do is get to the restaurant in time. However, to the philosopher, this is a “scene”. The big, mysterious playwright, is putting us there to see if we can come up with the right, “lines”. In this case, there is no dialogue, there is only the quality, which can be either Surrender or Patience. If we are resistant (the deficiency of Surrender) or impatient (the deficiency of Patience), we are “flubbing” our lines. We are displaying “bad acting”.
What is the play and who is the audience for a philosopher? In a play, the dialogue or action takes place for a certain segment of time and in specific locations. It may last two hours, or perhaps may involve different short segments of the charachter’s life. For the philospher, the real play begins when she is self-aware and begins the process of self-knowledge. Then the play is in every social process in her life and extends to the duration of her life. In a play, there is the exit; with the philosopher, the exit is her death. The locations are where she is and whatever she is doing, whether is an exotic location or at the supermarket. Every action contains contains a scene, because every social process can utilize a trait which comes from a deeper Quality. The philosopher is always, “on”. With a conventional actor, the play begins and ends with the actual art form, but in actual life, only occurs at certain moments. These moments are thought as “special”. In other words, when things are going well, or when the external world shows pleasure, supplies of attention of success. Otherwise, life is ordinary and has little meaning or understanding. The actor must wait until she gets another part. The philosopher sees that all living processes have meaning, because of the meaningfulness of the qualities that can emerge.
What is the audience for the philosopher? This reveals the crux of the acting process for the philosopher. In a play, the audience observes, sometimes reacts, but does not get involved with the play. Same with a movie. The sets are both real and unreal, for they are actual material objects and therefore, “real”, and are really “directed” in certain locatoins, but are not happening in actual time and space. Furthermore, they are taped by a recording device, observed by an audience that is outside and does not take part. For the Philosopher, the audience is Nothingness or the deeper part of the mind. It is different than the audience of a play or movie, for different reasons. First of all, it is not a person, but a “nothing”. This nothing is not a person, thing, substance or cateory. Yet, it is “watching”. This clear space wants to observe all the actions of our life, whether growing, stabilizing or destroying. However, since it is not a person, it will not react. It does not get happy from good events, nor does it get sad from thwarting circumstances. It does not cheer or cry. It just enjoys the watching. Also, this neutral watcher does not criticize; there is no thumbs up or thumbs down. It is just fascinated by the unfolding of circumstances. Two other differences. First, it can “leave”. In a movie, an audience member can leave through either dislike of the movie, or through having to use the restroom, buy snacks or use the cell phone. Nothingness only leaves through the continuity of the mind. When the mind is identified, through feeling and thought, this deeper space, goes into the background. There is just the events with no audience. When the observer arrives again, there is the “action”. Secondly, the observer that is this Space is not separate from the “scene” as in a movie theatre. It is observing, but it is not a separate “thing” which stands from a distance, and then watches. Nothingness observes but it is not separate; it is just untouched. There is no separate watcher, but it is very intimate, through non-separation, and does not get “involved” in the scene. In a normal life, we get involved in “dramas”, through unintelligent living, specifically, through contacting the excesses and deficiencies of qualities: lack of clarity, confusion, loneliness and impatience. The philosopher is not involved in dramas, although external conflicts will emerge as a part of circumstance. When Nothingness is anchored, there will be very little reacting, so life will not be a crazy, unconscious drama, filled with anxiety, confusion and complication. The philosopher is trained, through stabilizing his faculities, to engage each scene, every set of living with the appropriate Quality. This is the movement of the play she is in, for the rest of her life. There is no applause in the beginning the middle and the end. The two parts, the audience - the internal space- and the “scene”, the world, are united. That is the “applause”. In a movie, the lovers kiss and the good guy catches the bad guy. In the life of the philosopher, the applause comes at all times, because there is always appreciation of their unity.
This leaves the question of the “acting” for the Philosoher. The sense of Nothingness is who the philosopher really is. She is this deeper Space, transcendant from her mind, just as the actor is not really the role in the movie. The internal space is “outside” the role, but not separate from it. Secondly, the “role” is what is required in every “scene”, every set of living, which is none other that the many social processes that the person interacts with. The role is the way one acts within this social process, engaged through the Quality. This is her real self, also. If in the earlier example on the freeway, the qualitiy of Surrender is also her real self, besides the watcher of this process. Both are her. Same as in a movie. The person and the role. The actor and the philosopher are “two People” roled into one. The philosopher is always “on”, acting out a quality. She is the deeper, untouched Space and also the Quality that is displayed on sets or scenes, the many social processes we encounter in the day and through our life.
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