The Projections: Labour and Glory

„Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”

Rumi.

Some work upon others and others work upon themselves. Such is the difference.

The glory of the first only last as long as their subjects do. The glory of the latter last for an eternity, for they’re are no subjects within themselves at the end of their inner work, only the Being. And the Being is Forever.

People have died in wars, died for others’ sake, died in the name of others, died by others. People killed for lots of reasons. Some killed to survive, others killed so their ego could survive. Some killed for their country, their nation, their kin, protecting their future. Others killed to protect their past and their vainglory.

The image of the world is twofold: one is the image of a high creative energy looming the world and the other is the image of man looming itself. The ones who labour for the first get immortality and receive the flow within their soul. The others who labour for their image, destroy it due to the push upon it. Push upon push, material upon material, patch upon patch and the whole sculpture of oneself will look grotesque because we go to far and forget the image of the Allmighty.

Such is the history of the world.

It was a crisp early autumn morning in the mountains, after a long while of staying and working in the city, taking care of other matters than the artistical ones. I delayed my artworks, I admit. I’m not proud of it. I still write, though…

I was hiking, ascending after leaving the chalets in the valley. After reaching a certain range I stumbled upon an information board saying „Memory Lanes” and depicting the resistance in the mountains against the tyrannical regime in my country after the second world war. Folks, I have to tell ya! We could have had sovereignty, we could have had prosperity, prestige, the open doors to create, we could have had everything, but yet, the powers behind the curtains moved the pieces on the board in such a way that we lost almost everything with our own help. What do I mean by this? We helped on our own betrayal! And many of our people died, due to this, others have been tortured in prisons scattered all over the country. Others were taken to labour camps in Siberi. History barely unvealed these.

Some people do labour upon the shoulders of others, while other people labour upon their own shoulders, or better yet, upon themselves, until bits and pieces of their own ego dies day by day and they reach what we used to call sanctity back in the days. But what days! Days of Art, Science, Philosophy and true Spirituality! Now we only have bits and pieces of them!

When knowledge is shattered, it leaves bits and pieces of the Great Work. We don’t remember all of our favourite philosopher’s work, but only quotes. And we build upon it. We remember the best. It helped change us, our mind, our conscience. I remember when the maoist communist army took hold of China, they raided most of the cities and villages of the country in search for those beautiful vases and sculptures people kept from the Ming Dynasty era. The ones who were caught, were forced to take them out and shatter them in front of their houses. People, then, kept all the pieces and made beautiful jewels out of them. This is eclectic!

So, let me get back to the mountains. As I said, I came across this information panel depicting some of the resistance fighters’ quotes back in the postwar days in my country. My veterans! My martyrs, my saints of decades ago! They spoke of how they were beaten, tortured to state horrible things about their peers, friends, families, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives even. It was unbearable! They did not give in! Many of them! Though they suffered greatly until some of them fainted, lost their conscience. It reminded me of some experiments done by the secret services of this world I read about depicting enhanced interrogation techniques. The same thing happened in Eastern Europe, especially in my country, back in the late fourties and early fifties. Who could’ve imagined? And thus, how many historians are still speaking of it today?! I take it one could count them on the fingers of one hand…

I read and hiked, and read and hiked.. a great distance, for eleven hours or so, until dark. It was a journey… Many have been taken out from their homes by the political police to be later on taken to the precinct where hell broke loose. The Calvary of martyrdom! All they had to do is resist and not say a word. But did they? Have they? Many of them, yes, others have fallen.

The stories they told, how they were abused, tortured, massacred allthrough in almost all the lands of my country, much like what China went through during the Mao regime, or Russia during the Soviet era. Many millions have died there and more than a million went to prison in my country, almost all the intellectual elite. It was a program of self-destruction, I should say.

In fact, this is exactly the problem with people labouring upon the shoulders of others: pushing others with so much labour (slavery and abuse) is self-destructive because they stand on their shoulders. Being unable to work any longer, the economy stops, money circulation stops, everything stops. They no longer have the power to dominate. History witnessed it! And history now is burying it!..

Therefore, such is the history of the world. People living on people, not on themselves…