You exist.
You are there.
You know that.
From here, the mystery starts.
As we are evolving beings, "I am" is not a statement of permanence but of change. You change all the time, just as the environment around you and the other Selfs around you change all the time.
We are here in this world, but we are quite a mystery to ourselves.
There is a lot and a lot to discover.
And not just ourselves and our change.
But also the other selves around us.
Those other selves are also mirrors of our selves.
Our self is perceiving other selves.
Without us being a self, we cannot recognize another.
And so every recognition of a self is an act of relationship.
I acknowledge that others around me are also selves.
With everything that comes with being a self.
Emotion, thoughts, desires, needs, dreams, impulses, involuntary and voluntary actions, etc., etc.
And through this acknowledgement, I also realize myself.
Acknowledging the other selves surrounding us is crucial for truly living in presence and connection.
Presence and Connection act as the hands that take off the covers in our self-dis-covery.
The idea of the Act is that you take a decisive and present action or non-action.
Through the seriousness of being present with what you are doing, the Act can transform you.
Such transformation through the Acts connects with the idea of discovering the self.
The Act is a way of Self-Discovery.
A transformation can be massive or very, very small, almost unnoticeable.
But it is there.
We are not the same as we were before. Something made an imprint on us, or a change, and we feel expanded.
An Act can happen in many different ways:
Through training or doing motions, through presently listening, sitting, standing, looking, smelling, creating, thinking, feeling etc.
What the action or non-action of the act is, is not bound to certain categories. It can happen in anything as long as there is an internal opening for the Act to occur.
An internal opening for transformation.
The Act is the foundation of the work I do.
I do and share Acts with my students and participants.
There is utter seriousness behind it.
There is utter playfulness behind it.
We discover ourselves. Through Acts.
Self-discovery itself is an Act.
Let's Act.
Joseph Bartz
Note: Self-Discovery in Western Culture is the follow-up to this essay.