Creation and Evolution

These drawings reflect teachings on the evolution of consciousness and the formation a material universe based in the Vedas. This work consists of two sets of paired images. One depicting the initial forces at the moment of creation, spinning outward and the other focusing on the process of evolution inwards from that moment on. I drew the first pair with intentionality. I began with an idea, concept and image and then proceed into ink. The second pair developed through an experiential exploration of the teachings. Continue reading for explanation of the processes involved in making these images followed by my understanding of the teachings underlying these pieces.

I drew these images by dipping the fingers of my left hand in a pot of India ink. For the intentional drawings, I used my fingers more or less the way I would a pen to make a drawing on paper. The experiential drawings came to be very differently. I began by asking myself what it would look like for a concentrated perfection to spiral itself outward to the point of the complete perfection. So I decided to find out. Beginning with a dot of blackest ink, pulled pigment outward in expanding curves. Similarly, to explore evolution and movement towards a unified greater consciousness, I dipped all five fingers in ink and allowed them to wander independently and in concert towards a center.

We begin with a unified perfect being. From that point of perfect eternal transcendence, it spun its self out and diffused to the point of unmeaning so that it could infuse all that was, all that is and all that would be. The diffusion, the edges of the image, are not chaos. They are not meaningless. Rather they are meaning waiting to be made. And so evolution begins. A progression of history towards that place of perfect unity. But is not an active pulling in. Rather it is like drawing concentric a hair's breath wide each minutely smaller and closer to the center. But from that point farthest diffusion, distinct beings came to exist and be drawn into the flow of history and evolution. We must consider how we will engage with that. Will we be swept away, like a stick in flood, abandoning our greater selves to immediate reactivity. Or will we dry to resist, clinging to our own best ideas and selfish isolation. Or will we choose a path of intentional surrender. A conscious, active choice to abandon self-centered ideas and surrender to forces of evolution towards a higher conscious. It is through intentional surrender that we can draw together towards something greater.