The Gate To The Long Path
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David Berry, 2002
acrylic on masonite, 24" x 32"
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At The Meher Spiritual Center (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) the long path to Meher Baba’s house connects to the maze of trials around the cabins where there is the ruin of a modest gate. A long dead tree serves as a sentinel next to the pair of wooden posts. Once I pass, my focus strengthens and my destination fills my thoughts, reminding me of my quest.
In recent years I bypass The Gate if I am heading that direction to go anywhere else but the house, preserving the long path as my spiritual sanctuary. I imagine that there is a path from the sea to the Meher Abode that corresponds with the evolution and involution. While both evolution and involution are not portrayed in some scientifically accurate sense, there are physical places that are distinct reminders of the spiritual journey of the soul.
The Center Path
The ocean and the unbroken sky are the beginning of existence, representing the inhospitable beginning of plasma and gasses. The sea is a threshold to a world beyond our own, and it is not hard to imagine that far over the horizon is a reality beyond imagination. The division of sky and ocean is finite, and the expanse of both is infinite: the properties of the om point. The beach is the first stage of stones and metals, a granulized desert of basic elements. Approaching the high water mark grasses and scrub symbolize the evolution of vegetation. The woodland provides earth and decay for the worms, and freshwater springs offer pure clean water for the fish. At Gator Lake all aspects of evolution are in play in a natural symbiosis. There are even alligators from the age of dinosaurs along with all other manner of plants and creatures.
Continuing on the trail the first significant sign of humankind is the barn. As a Holy Place it reminds us that humankind is the completion of the evolution of consciousness. From that point on there are trials, buildings and various signs of man invading the natural landscape. Yet, still there are only basic intrusions. In the cabin area there are signs, game courts, specialized buildings and complexity of intellectual influences that provide evidence of the Subtle Sphere. The minor miracles of foam mattresses, books and microwave ovens distract us with practicality from the most gross necessities of the body, mind and ego.
Beyond The Gate to The Long Path, where the cabins all but end, there is a return to a natural state. There, the mental sphere is free from the façades of the subtle world. The focus is on the destination, the most Holy Place where the spirit of God is most obvious. It is at The Gate that the path shifts from external to internal. It is on The Long Path that the reality of God becomes overwhelmingly obvious for me.
The painting is a state, a concept and a place. The flow of the pigments is both clockwise and counterclockwise. The progression of organization is focused around God and disharmonious at the fringes. The path flows both forward and backwards, up and down -- as a footpath and a river. And the destination is the light: the unpaintable perfection of God.
The Blind Can See
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