If you
would like to understand the three facets of the existence and events, and if
you are curious about the status of human who is a conscious witness to the
continuous formation, transformation and organization of the macro and micro
realms, let’s set on an imaginary journey together.
Here we are, walking at the seaside… On one side, we are watching the seagulls soar with the wind, and on the other side, we are passing by the people who are sitting still for hours for fishing. It hits us on the face that although many people do not have the patience for a few minutes of prayer and contemplation, they can spend hours without hesitation when it comes to sitting still while fishing or watching a movie. As we go along, we see a person who is doing certain basic exercises and stretching movements. He looks like rather concentrated and abstracted from everything around. This person is not using the open-air, public facility few steps ahead but works totally using his body; and furthermore, he does not look like he is in need of losing weight. We approach this person to chat for little while. After saying hi to each other:
- You look like exercising regularly. It is a must for staying healthy, isn’t it?
- I trying to do it regularly as much as I can. But not just to stay healthy.
- For what else?
- Regular exercise, at the same time, keeps the memory strong. Thus, it helps me memorize the Holy Book. Sports also make the physiological foundation of an innovative mind. To catch original ideas, to make extraordinary observations and assessments, again, you need sports. It is also an effective medicine for habituation, which impair a person’s thankfulness towards God and inhibit remembrance of Him. For example, one way to comprehend and feel the meanings of certain attributes of God beyond their dictionary meanings, you can try gymnastics. By trying to stand on single foot but always with a different position and body gesture, you can experience God’s presence as being The Lord, One who perfects, One who adjusts, One who starts and maintains. By engaging in ever more challenging positions and durations in this exercise, you can observe God as He grows the talent seeds that He planted in your body. Thus, you can better appreciate the equilibrium of the existence by every fiber of your muscles.
We leave this person in his “worship”, and decide to have a seat at the café that is behind him. As we wait for our tea and cookies, our eyes are attracted to the paintings on the wall. After a few minutes, our order comes, and we start chatting with the waiter:
- The paintings on the wall are rather interesting. Where did you get them?
- They are not purchased. They are my own work. Everyone working at this café has an artistic occupation at the same time. The music in the background, for example, is also the recordings of other workers. If you look at the chairs, none of them has the same carvings as another. Each of them, again, the hand work of one of our friends. The designs on the tiles on the floor have been worked on individually, and none of them is the same as another.
Upon hearing these words, on the one hand, we are pleased to be in an exquisite and rare place like this, and on the other, we are embarrassed for having stepped and sat on such art works.
- If you opened an exhibition or commercialized these, it would have been very profitable for you!
- Maybe! But our purpose in doing these is neither trade nor proving something to others. We are doing these because the flourishing and fruition of the talent seeds embedded in us would please the Real owner of those talents. We are doing these art works so that those who look upon them can reflect on the originals in the nature and, thus, can appreciate the real Artist, who is also our creator. And in doing these, we feel like witnessing alive that real Artist at work.
Following these words, this person leaves us alone with our servings. We stay there stuck in time; unable like a baby seated at a table. The morsel that hesitatingly finds its way into our mouth allows a moment of breath, and our eyes catch the glimpse of a small truck waiting outside. Looking at the cement and tiles in its trunk, it is there for maintenance or some minor construction. However, there is nothing around that needs maintenance; so we ask:
- Excuse me for a minute. What are these materials for behind the truck?
- Part of our café is going to be demolished, and in its stead, there is going to be addition to another part.
- Why so? I cannot see anything wrong with what is already here!
- It is not because something is wrong. The land on which this café is established is constant, but the location of the café is changed on that land continuously. By demolishing one side and adding to another side, the café is shifted little by little every year. There is a fifty-year cycle time over the entire land. This means that our customers fifty years from now are going to be able to sit at the same place again. But even them, they are not going to find the same café, because the tiles are going to have different designs, the songs will have changed!
Facing such an extraordinary answer, we are shocked! But still, there is a question unanswered:
- But why?
- Because we are afraid of becoming a veil before the eyes of the people by the constancy of our works.
- This much sensitivity maybe ok, but where are the funds coming for all this?
- This café is not just a café. At the same time, it is a venue for exhibitions and concerts. It also serves as model, and so, its pictures are taken always, and are published in books, magazines. This place also functions as a rehabilitation center, and the patients prefer this setting over the depressive atmosphere of the hospital corridors. Aside from these, there are also contributions of those who support this effort.
- What do you mean? People are contributing to something that is going to be demolished the following year?
- Why does it surprise you that people are donating to a sincere and spiritually guided project, when you don’t feel surprised that they are investing in a worldly life that is certain to end at an uncertain time?
This answer, once again, fixes us in our seat. Behind the smile on our face, our brain freezes and boils at the same time. Right then, that waiter steps aside a little, and orders another cup of tea for me with a voice that hardly differs from a whisper. But that voice echoes everywhere. The acoustic design inside leaves us in the waves of awe. All of a sudden, a miracle happens: a window opens from the wall next to our table, and we are served a fresh, hot cup of tea with nice scents. When that window closes, we realize a feeling that is creeping into our mind. Are we going crazy, or is there something strange going on here?
As we are about to turn our inquisitive gazes towards the waiter, we find out that she is not there anymore. The volume of the music in the background also fades out. That truck that had parked outside so silently makes a great roar and starts moving away. Then we see that little paper on our plate: the bill. We cannot save ourselves from the guilt that is caused by the suspicion that those inquisitive thoughts a minute ago might have caused the cease of that unique experience.
We get out quickly after the payment. In order to secure some distance and to be able look back, we walk towards the bus stop ahead. But still, there is a question in our mind: had we returned, would we see the same extraordinariness, or would those inquisitive looks of ours follow us? At the bus stop, we start staring at that café. Unlike the expectation, we were not hallucinating, it is still there!
Then, we
are distracted by an announcement posted on the glass: “Are we inventing math
or discovering it?” The poster has visuals about the applications of pi, e
and the golden ratio. They are as if saying that mathematics is the discovery
of an already existing order by humans. This is just like that the arts at the
café were meant to be an instrument for the discovery of the art that is
already present in the nature! We are engulfed in a joy of discovery. We head
back to the café to donate to the project …
No comments:
Post a Comment