and I will be myself.
I am not a cosmic orphan.
I have no reason to be timid.
I will respond as I feel;
awkwardly, vulgarly,but respond.
I will have my throat open,
I will have my heart open,
I will be vulnerable.
I may have anything or everything
the world has to offer, but the thing
I need most, and want most,
is to be myself.
I will admit rejection, admit pain,
admit frustration, admit even pettiness,
admit shame, admit outrage,
admit anything and everything
that happens to me.
The best and most human parts of
me are those I have inhabited
and hidden from the world.
I will work on it.
I will raise my voice.
I will be heard."
Elia Kazan from The Actors Vow
Inspiring as this is, Kazan doesn't mention Compassion. But I have come to understand that it is really compassion that constitutes the very core of what acting means- compassion in the sense of full identification with and courageous inhabitation of the heart-essence of another's deepest sufferings, temptations and joys. It reaches far deeper than just Connection, and far far deeper than mere empathy or pity.
Compassion is a process of going deeper into the heart and soul of another's intimate connection with God, loving that person as the Christ-self loves us. Seeing, knowing and speaking the Other's heart-truth. Acting is compassion at a very profound level- and not a mere coming-alongside and shining a light on their suffering and feeding starvation. It is going deep, deep and deeper within the other and then being their light, the living water and manna.
Neither acting nor compassion are like science; for, like poetry, they are not deemed verifiable sine qua nons in this world. Both are fuzzy concepts, defying definition, and because they are largely indefinable are easily ridiculed and derided as unworthy of serious consideration, at best irrelevant. In the eyes of the cynical and the jaded both forms of worship are just vain, empty, ego-corrupted, sentimental, if well-meaning hypocrisies. But like acting (perhaps because compassion is the very essence and meaning of acting) compassion is not pretence: it is Authentic. Not play: but Life. Not real in a measurable sense: but utterly True.
Acting/Compassion is not self-motivated ego-gratification: it is the utter renunciation of personal identity in honour of another's soul, a humble service for all souls' sakes. It is not about separation or even individuation: it is a clue to cosmic unification and fundamental connection. Not a notion, but a Way as the Quakers would say. Not presentation; not representation, but the real deal. It is never judgmental: for it embodies forgiveness, personifies it in fact. It is not grandiose, but expresses the grandeur of ultimate humility. The grandeur of man and the Creator's love unified, personified, in-corporated. It is at once intimate and universal. Compassion is His Kingdom come. Humanity nearing the throne of perfection. Man as a god. It is the living out of eternal truths hidden within and behind the collective unconscious' metaphors, archetypes and myths. The heart of what it means to be truly human. It is essential. It is the body unifying with spirit, made congruent and harmonic in truth. The invisible power of Love made visible in embodied, authentic and heartfelt action. Simple and therefore very, very difficult.
Blaarrrhhhhh....! Etc! :-)
On a slightly lighter note I just want to finish today's spillage of where my head's currently at by including a couple of quotes I came across this week. They both made me chuckle because they spoke so sagely to my condition:
You may call God Love...
You may call God Goodness...
But the best name for God
is Compassion.
Meister Eckhart
And the other is from Rex Ambler, a bio-spiritual Quaker theologian, who was responsible for the creation of the 'Experiment with Light' groups, a submovement of modern Quakerism that combines Eugene Gendlin's wonderful Focusing therapeutic process with George Fox's ideas of centering down in Friends' worship.
"I think, therefore I'm a very long way from where I am!"
Rex Ambler
1 comment:
Very close to what has been going on in my head recently, though I can't even begin to express it! Definitely to do with the renunciation of the ego so you can understand the interplay of another's ego and higher self...How do we do this? How do we take the ego out of the rehearsal room when to a certain extent the whole industry is BUILT around the wounded ego? This is what I would like to even begin to figure out...
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