Genuine self-expression
strikes me as a very fundamental, yet under-rated aspect of being alive in the
world. It is intimately linked to presence and might be described as an organic
becoming—the process of unfolding who we are born into the world to be.
Expression, as
I’m coming to know it, is also contingent on a strong sense of personal
integrity—fruit borne of a more nuanced knowledge of self, though this need not
be an unnecessarily complicated venture. A rose, for example, isn’t busy ruminating
about what it means to be a rose or befuddled as to how to express its
particular beauty. She is what she is—it’s all a function of her innate nature.
What does this
mean for you and I? It means we are already a complete and beautiful entity in
some sense, but because layers of social and cultural conditioning can sometimes
obscure our ability to see and appreciate this, it becomes necessary to edit
and revise any misguided beliefs, goals … habituated ways of being in the world
that are not resonant with a deeper, more authentic sense of self.
Expression,
then, requires re-aligning our internal compass with more native, resonant and
deeply rooted sources of nourishment. And this is where things get interesting
because resonance is a function of openness, in particular the function of an open
heart. It all comes down to love as the most fundamental and basic part of our
nature finding expression in the world, so that anything we do may be infused
with compassion, empathy, intelligence and kindness—the wisdom of the heart.
Usually we are busy
crafting our façade—an image of ourselves designed to conform to social
expectations of one sort or another, often taking the form of “tribe”
membership. This is not genuine self-expression, though there may be elements
of genuine expression involved. More often our façade is the self-defensive
creation of our ego, made to give us the appearance of somebody or something we,
essentially, are not—a substitute self.
When we detach
from this substitute self, we are, of course, left with what might aptly be
described as an original Self, the expression of which is both more and less
than the carefully crafted façade of our substitute self. This Self is grounded
in reality, an integral part of the nature of all things, much in the same way
that the aforementioned rose is.
Remember, the
original Self isn’t something we invent, it is something we gradually unfold
and come to know through a careful examination of our inner life, a
contemplative practice of some sort. Such a practice provides space away from
the noisy rhetoric of the world, space where we might contact and experience a
more original and genuine expression of life—life as it is and as we are, not
as we wish it were or wish we were.
In a world busy
trying to sell us substitutes, artless self-expression is a welcome relief from all
the nonsense—a wellspring of genuine freedom, fulfillment and happiness.
