What remains when it all melts away?
The Paradox of Praxis 1 and the enjoyment of being continued
Tell me you have seen Francis Alÿs’ art called 1Paradox of Praxis 1(Sometimes Making Something Leads To Nothing)! Tell me you have because I just saw this 1997 performance today for the first time. I have included a video here but let me just tell you why this art really got me excited today.
In this exhibition, Francis Alÿs pushes a large rectangular block of ice through the streets of Mexico City for the nine hours that the ice took to melt. 2Britannica describes this conceptual performance as “kind of quixotic absurdity that is very compelling, juggling as it does the earnestness of that cumbersome task, a recognition of the importance of ice for street vendors in a tropic clime such as Mexico, and Alÿs’s making of an absence in the end—all of which invited a range of poetic interpretations that can be both disorienting and liberating”.
I could talk about the lessons, the beauty of this performance, the parallels for ever but I will stay with the one theme that’s been recurring for me throughout this year(if you can tell from the majority of the essays here)— surrender.
Francis Alÿs’s Paradox of Praxis 1, gives modern expression to the theme of the ancient book of Ecclesiastes. Pushing this block of ice for nine hours through the streets of Mexico City, Alÿs engages in a seemingly purposeful act that results in complete futility. The ice melts, leaving nothing behind. Like Ecclesiastes, it raises questions about our obsession with productivity, control, and tangible results. We may ask, what happens when all our striving leads to “nothing”? At the same time, we can ask “what happens when it leads to ‘something’. What happens after that?” When we look at all our efforts and all of our fears about producing or not producing, are we able to question the very foundation of our efforts—are we chasing illusions that inevitably dissolve?
More importantly, and more relevant to the letting go of suffering, of our fears, our worries, can we see that this heavy block of ice we often with us everywhere we go may still dissolve into nothing?
Ecclesiastes, a poetic meditation on the futility of human effort has its refrain, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” confronting us with the fleeting nature of everything we labor for—wealth, success, knowledge, even legacy and our clinging of internal states. The Hebrew word hevel (translated as vanity) evokes vapor, a mist that appears briefly and then vanishes. The writer of this book observes that no matter how hard we strive, everything dissolves into the endless cycles of time. And this could initially sound terrifying when we consider everything includes wealth, success, relationships etc. I know! But we gotta examine this more carefully. We have to see why this examination of the futility of life sometimes terrifies us. No, I am not trying to be nihilistic here. I seek to explore the part of existence that is void of nihilism, void of hope(yes, totally void of hope) but rich in Wonder! It is when we rest in this that we may notice that it is liberating. Of course, this only makes sense when we stop gripping too hard on experience.
Of recent, I have written a lot about surrender, and I almost always preface by saying that it seems really clear here that most of our struggles are based on our wanting to control life in order to get certain outcomes.
It is self-evident that when we sit — when we really do sit with all of what’s unfolding, in all its complexity and flavors, allowing life to be life — something else emerges. In that instance, we may start to see with a little bit more clarity. The illusory self-identification, the "me" fades away, and all that’s clearly revealed is the unfolding of life as it is— self-illuminating.
It’s no wonder the writer of the letter to the 3Philippians(in the Bible), wrote “do not worry about anything but pray about everything”. He didn’t say to pray about anything so that you won’t need to worry about anything. It was the other way around. Do not worry about anything! Oh, when I remember the sweetness of this realization!!
In the clarity that unfolds, wisdom unfolds simultaneously. We may begin to see that any action we need to take becomes effortless. Perhaps this is the rest that’s referred to when the anonymous author of 4Hebrews says(and I lightly paraphrase), “those who have entered into the Sabbath rest cease from their struggles”.
If we cease from struggles, then what struggle is left? Is the struggle we experience not then only created in the mind? Is this mind-created struggle not evidence of a fundamental distrust in the workings of Mystery?
So how may we stay steady in this recognition? Of course, in life we would always have challenges. We can recognize them as appearances. But like any and everything, all appearances pass. Life will definitely always “life.” But perhaps our job is to not latch on to the appearances by giving ourselves so adamantly to the belief that we may be carried away by the storms of life.
Instead, we put our attention to the source of all that is. A dogmatic take on the object of this attention tends to be something external— a God that’s external and in heaven, or that’s separate from all that is. Look again! All that is is right here where you are, as who you truly are— closer to you than your own breathe! This may sound abstract, but take a look at it again— your attention goes from object to object. Maybe right now, to this essay. If I asked for you to bring attention to your toe, suddenly you'd be acutely aware of sensations on your toe (which was there before). Now, bring your attention to that which attention comes from!
Through this pulling back of attention to the source of attention, we may find it easier to move attention from the circumstances and drama of life(appearances) and resting it inward— towards the source.
One sweet tip is to start with the gate of our most true experience— the body. We can bring attention to the surfaces of the body, then move it toward the emotional space staying closely with the felt senses( so if excitement or tiredness, confusion, boredom is the experience — by felt sense here means to examine the location of these sensations within the body without forming narratives or thoughts about them). Afterwards, gently move the attention to that which is aware of the body and feelings.
The excitement of this realization is that that which sees itself is of the same essence as the Divine. In this awakening to our true essence, it becomes so obvious that there’s no me or you ‘here’, and the Divine ‘over there’ —Oh! It’s just like the ray and the sun are not separate.
In contemplating the beauty of this realization— that all of experience, all of our clinging to outcomes, all of the asserting that life must be a certain way, worrying about the storms that life constantly brings are totally futile. Oh, I’m reminded of the story of Jesus and the disciples while they were at sea(as told by the author of the book of 5Mark), a furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. The disciples, totally freaked out, did all they could do to keep the boat afloat. Suddenly, they realized Jesus was not with them. He was sleeping in the stern. The disciples woke him up disappointed that he wasn’t with them trying to help keep the boat from sinking. They challenged him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
He got up, told the sea to be quiet and then turned to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith?” For some, the miracle of this story is in the stopping of the wave. But do you not see that Jesus initally didn’t bother about coming to stop the raging waves. For him, there was an unnecessariness(if you would excuse my literary neologism) in trying to control anything. The disciples would have been safe if they didn’t do anything. They would have been safe if Jesus didn’t come up the stern to talk to the waves.
“Do you not have faith?”, he said. Perhaps, there’s an invitation here for us to stop clinging to outcomes and instead embrace the present moment as a gift, trusting in the mystery of life’s flow. Perhaps the magic is in the surrender. What happens when we let go and allow the melting to reveal what’s always been there?
Presence!
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Video credit: https://francisalys.com/sometimes-making-something-leads-to-nothing/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Paradox-of-Praxis-1
Philippians 4:6-8
Hebrews 4:10
Mark 4:35