Post 4 Our Return to Sanity
Title of Painting: Burning House
What is this madness in my house?
This house is burning!
Yet, as I look deep, there is an underlying peace amidst the chaos.
Now we are again on the path.
What felt like thorns beneath the feet
has become flower petals falling from above.
(The date of the original social media post: Oct. 14, 2015)
All of us have had those dark states where it felt as if we stood on the edge of insanity. Or it may be more accurate to say, where we had fallen over the edge of insanity—those dark states where fear overpowers us and we feel ungrounded and vulnerable. (These are the dark holes the main character, Tobe falls into in my book Tobe and the River Is.) This painting arose out of such an experience.
It is precisely moments such as these that can be our strongest ally in our heart-felt quest to awaken. We see our vulnerable situation as we experience the unstable ego self—the feeling of being someone in particular. We see how unreliable this ego self is. We realize we cannot make our home in such an unstable place.
About the Painting
The woman sits calmly outside her mad house all aflame, praying with her rosary. Her expression is one of amusement and detachment. She has reached the point of the transformation of her chaos and darkness. The pot next to her is still full. The faces of madness are reflected on the surface. That same pot lies on the ground behind her, now empty—symbolizing the body empty of the heavy false sense of self with all its suffering.
The same woman can be seen in the distance beginning her journey of enlightenment. Now that she has let go of her identification with her old home, her journey of self-realization can begin in earnest. As she walks little putti hover overhead, dropping flower petals upon the path she travels.
“For now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father's house. We have been gone too long, and we would linger here no more.” A Course In Miracles
“Here will you understand there is no pain. Here does the joy of God belong to you. This is the day when it is given you to realize the lesson that contains all of salvation's power. It is this: Pain is illusion; joy, reality. Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy alone is truth.” A Course In Miracles
