CHOICE (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 100 cm)
WHO WOULD THEY CHOOSE
If aliens chose to whom to talk No necessity for intelligence nor resources Governmental approval not required Their superior awareness, interested in The poetic and artistic capacity of humans
If animals chose with whom to live No need for domestication nor exploitation Business profit not required Their unconditional love thankful for The compassionate and caring capacity of humans
If plants chose by whom to grow No requisite for pesticides nor fertilizing Industrial control not required Their exceptional frugality appreciating of The responsible and modest capacity of humans
If gods chose for whom to care No demand for confessions nor fees Religious punishment not required Their divine grace, inclusive of The spiritual and free capacity of humans
What a significant purpose of life: Life isn’t about learning to fit in somewhere; it is about creating somebody new.
Socio-cultural identities
Of course, you may want to stay social and cooperative with people in your life. However, with time, the nature of these relationships might transform as your awareness regenerates. Separation from yourself and others means, in a psycho-spiritual way, that you let go of your identity, which is based on social conformity and cultural beliefs that would be misbeliefs in a different culture. You also must let go of attachment to others’ judgments, which are opinions only and have little if anything to do with truth. By distancing yourself from the idealized role you have learned to assume during all the years of education, socialization, and enculturation, you begin to see who you really are.
Don’t waste your thoughts on interpreting equipment, façade styles, and fashions. They are not relevant to our true selves, and they go as fast as they came. We are not our social personalities. Clinging to our social identity and old ways of thinking about ourselves makes us, in any case, matter less than we deserve. Artificial rules that protect selfish interests are not natural laws of life. So don’t take them so seriously!
Children are dependent on the care received from their parents and other adults in the culture they are born into. For them, inter-psychological learning, the influence of other people is unavoidable. Their survival depends on following their caregivers. Such dependencies should not exist anymore later in life, though. An adult person can re-build their own identity intra-psychologically. There is a possibility, even a necessity to recognize your socio-cultural independence. It is a trap to let others’ opinions and beliefs define one. Therefore, such an awareness allows you to free yourself from backward-related definitions of your person by others.
Losing one’s identity
When I moved abroad and ended up being on myself in a completely different culture, there was nobody and nothing anymore that would have supported and validated my identity at that time. For my new environment far away from my former social networks, jobs, and possessions that had defined me to a significant extent for a long time, too, I then was left to be just an unknown foreigner. Therefore, I could not and did not have to live up to any story anymore. What an opportunity. I’ve realized how foolish it had been to build one’s personality too much on the unstable ground of externals.
Meanwhile, having left most of the external things and values behind, there has remained one true identity-giving source: The inner self that connects all of us on a deeper human level. I’ve found this true self when mentalizing back to before I had grown into an adult body, before I was associated with a particular social status and related privileges, and before I started to hold on to a variety of achievements and acquisitions. Then, literally as an alien in a foreign country, I became aware of what was left, what will always be left, and I mentally returned to the core of whom I am: The consciousness that is all and my origin of life. For all my life, I was looking for happiness. Then I found meaning. And when I accepted meaning, happiness became meaningless. That’s when I started to really enjoy life again; joy through the effort to create awareness-intelligently an identity instead of blindly assuming one that’s tried to be assigned to me. That’s also when I better understood what it means to be an artist.
When you experience meaninglessness, low motivation, and urges to give up, it is helpful to check the extra-future element and probe its awaring, for example, as follows. Ask yourself: Am I creating in line with life, the life that continues in all human evolution beyond my family, my party, my nation, my race, etc., or do I identify with such social constructs on which can’t be hold on to in the perishable physical world? If it is the latter, feelings of meaninglessness could stem from such a misidentification. One might feel that clearly when losing somebody close when having lost a job, or being rejected from a social group. We must die to our ego during a lifetime voluntarily. As we shift from socio-cultural group identity to a universally valid life membership, we will have found our purpose in life as well. The ego cannot be overcome by disabling the mind (as sometimes advertised in meditation classes). Selflessness is achieved by thinking awareness-intelligently about the egoless self, through non-transactionality in meeting others and focusing on a mutually beneficial future in all humanity’s interest.
Achieving a symmetrical, congruent (awareness-intelligent) identity
We can clearly feel that we separate mental awareness from bodily sensations and instead picture the wholeness and infinity of life. We can change our way of thinking. The most profound, impactful, and sustainable way to change is to change the layer from where thought arises: awareness. The human condition is no longer dependent on social identity alone. It learns to integrate the three modes of the intra-past, the inter-present, and the extra-future into increased and undivided awareness (for the detailed explanation, see https://mathias-sager.com/tag/awareness-intelligence/). As our thoughts and actions become more symmetrical (and our business and private cards more congruent), life will never feel like a lie again.
Becoming a genuine leader is founded on mastering self-leadership and being at peace with oneself and the world. To serve as a role model, one must be ready to give up their title and position. Too dissonant can a professional identity become with the aware self. How could one ever enjoy people who admire rather their title-based authority and social status rather than knowing about their creativity, vulnerability, and loving character in the first place?
In English, there is a differentiation between consciousness and (self-)awareness. Consciousness commonly means the ability to perceive one’s body and environment. Awareness, on the other hand, is the recognition of that consciousness, which includes the understanding of one’s ability to self-reflect on one’s existence.
Thinking, thinking about thinking (self-reflection), emotions caused by thinking, and the control of emotions through self-reflection
THE ANALOGY OF THE FIRE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is the source of our soul’s fire, and awareness is its fuel. Firing energy as the fundamental element of consciousness is the nature of life itself; it exists everywhere and in all of us. It just has to be inflamed. The body does not produce consciousness. Awareness, however, is bound to our existence here on earth. Awareness-generated thoughts are the heat and light of the soulfire’s flames.
Flames of poisonous thoughts come from the impure fuel of ignorance. We cannot stop the inflammatory nature of our consciousness, nor is it desirable. What matters, however, is what fuel is burned, whether it is intelligent reflective consciousness or not; Perceptual awareness alone, however highly praised meditation, is not intelligent, but reactive and detached from the whole.
The quality of thinking is determined by the level of reflective awareness from which it arises. Thus, our thoughts and the resulting feelings are in our control. Through the right self-reflection and appropriate conclusions, the perceptual consciousness and corresponding thoughts can be kept pure as meant by nature itself. In this sense, consciousness directly affects our cognitive abilities and, whenever we think, our state of mind, as well as the emotions that follow the quality of thinking. We can also think of emotions as the smoke created by the flames of poisonous thoughts. Impure thoughts generate uncomfortable emotions, such as dark smoke produced by heavy fuel with, for example, a high degree of moisture, while positive and bright emotions arise from thoughts of awareness-intelligent purity and composition.
Our thinking does not have to be emotionally controlled and potentially confusing, as the flames of thought are not defined by the smoke of emotions, but are generated by a holistic, healthy, and sacred reflective awareness, which emulates universal intelligence and therefore can be called Awareness Intelligence.
ARMS OF AWARENESS (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 cm)
The observation of the environment helps to see the light as all material objects reflect light. Light is everywhere, including in all of us, and time does not let it fade. That’s how reflections become perennial. There is still the reflection of our ancestors in the light, the same light that will transport our visual and energetic appearance forever. That’s how, whether present, future, or past, consequently, everything exists in light in parallel. Besides such a notion of cosmic time, I agree that in everyday life the concept of a timeline is practical. However, such a linear conceptualization of time represents a serious impediment. Maximal temporal awareness bends the imaginary timeline into a circle in which the past and the future, both infinitely stretching into eternity, meet. If you can stretch your linear image of your lifetime between birth and death into this cyclical form beyond our physical existence, you have achieved a similar quantum leap to the one we’ve accomplished when accepting that the physical world is round rather than a finite plate with dubiously ending edges. Don’t fear thinking into the seemingly impossible and become of the infinite, spherical, and parallel nature of time. Don’t stressfully define your mind, stretch it. The farther apart you can stretch, the broader your arms of awareness. That’s how we can embrace the whole universe.
Excerpt from Awareness Intelligence (M. Sager, 2018)
As energy works in waves, life operates in the softness and roundness of circles and cycles. The earth rotates around the sun, we sleep and wake in rhythmic sequels, like the circle of birth and death. What a contrast we create between the spherical, freely flowing world of life energy and the squared and edged compositions of the frightened human mind seeking physical protection. Instead of predominantly angular, cubic, boxed, parceled, square, and sharp constructions, round forms around us would remind us more accurately about the real, non-threatening nature of life. What is in form and still has edges, gets rounded up and polished by life’s allies, such as wind and water, until the shape is smoothened and eventually dissolved at all. And so does the human body’s contours that become softer as it ages. Indeed, all form is coming from round and soft wombs and nests, and eventually everything is returning to the smooth nature of roundness. The life-giving, creative, and protective feminine nature plays an important role in the awareness-intelligent understanding of a return to roundness that we so badly need.
(Edited excerpt from M. Sager, 2018. Awareness Intelligence)
The mountain (M. Sager 2021, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm)
Pleasures are shortcuts for joy, meaning does trump happiness, and everything starts with being your true self as if there were no expectations and boundaries to you. Don’t take the lift and complain about bad fitness; climb one mountain after the other. Unlearn the stories of deficiencies you told yourself. Overcome the illusion of being able to possess or be possessed by any worldly thing or person, and thereby take the chance to choose change toward a more awareness-intelligent humanness.
(Excerpt from Awareness Intelligence, M. Sager. 2019)
It’s easy to be smart, but difficult to be kind. Indeed, kindness requires courage and strength. Awareness-intelligent thought and courageous efforts to act in kindness reward with feelings of egoless affection, as everybody knows who has ever, for example, only helped a lost tourist despite low likelihood to ever meet again and get reciprocity. By caring for somebody’s soul, we care for the collective of all souls, we affect universal consciousness. Through timeless kindness, which heals, liberates, and amplifies the consciousness of all humanity and time, therefore, opens an interpersonal present into parallel time. The ineffable bliss of giving up one’s fictitious personality comes from detaching from the experience of momentary being and serving life itself that comes in the form of another human soul in need. True kindness is the ticket to detach from time and to access eternity. It is eternity where we all meet at the same time. The ability to surpass the fear of losing oneself in service to others offers a door to Awareness Intelligence.
(Excerpt from Awareness Intelligence, M. Sager, 2019)
Here are some pictures from the currently running group exhibition at the Van der Plas Gallery in NYC. Happy to be part of this rich and inspiring show with lots of new ideas beyond the notion of conventional art.
Van Der Plas Gallery Cordially Invites You to View “Vor Kunst”
Exhibition Dates: November 23, 2020 – December 3, 2020 Location: Van Der Plas Gallery, 156 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002
(NEW YORK, NY) From November 23rd to December 3rd, Van Der Plas Gallery is pleased to present the works of sixty-eight local and international artists. We have asked artists to submit works inspired by their subjective interpretations of the Hegelian concept of “pre-art”, or “Vor Kunst.” “Pre-art” (Vorkunst), according to Hegel, arises through the direct and primal expression and representation of forms and symbols. Hegel’s account of symbolic art encompasses the art of many different civilizations and shows his considerable understanding of, and appreciation for, non-Western art. In contrast to “art proper” The sphere of “pre-art” comprises art that rests on a relatively abstract conception of spirit” (Hegel’s Aesthetics). We have asked artists to create freely and directly without inhibition through their own unique visual languages. We encourage artists to embrace their own artistic self-expression in relation to the primitive “pre-art” of forms and symbols described by Hegel.
“Vor Kunst” displays sixty-eight different perspectives from a wide range of artists. The show challenges notions of what “proper art” is and how we can break free of these limitations and constraints. The show will look at how we can expand upon and move past ideas of what is deemed proper or acceptable in the art world today. From figurative to abstract, expressionistic to illustrative, this collective body of work shows how these artists have responded intuitively to their interpretations of Pre-Art.
THE POSITIVE KILLJOY. Acrylic on wood panel, 70 x 100 cm
Hoping, speaking out for, and acting for social justice and change is not coming from negativity. Instead, it is the expression of positive thinking that things can be done better and a healthier and more peaceful world is possible.
M. Sager
PIECE WITH THE UGLY. Acrylic on canvas 100x 100 cm
It is easy to love people when they smell [look] good, but sometimes they slip into the manure of life and smell [look] awful. You must love them just as much when they smell foul.
As we deserve to be not judged by our past, we should not judge others according to the labels they are given. The socio-economic status of people doesn’t tell us much about their human qualities. Try to see people’s soul regardless of social personality appearances. Don’t waste your thoughts on interpreting equipment, façade styles, and fashions. They are not relevant to our true self, and they are gone as fast as they came. We are not our social personalities. Clinging to our social identity and old ways of thinking about ourselves makes us in any case matter less than we deserve. In that sense ‘reality before appearances.’
Excerpt from Awareness Intelligence (M. Sager, 2019)
Rueda dance of life (M. Sager, 2020). Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
Do become an attentive and agile dancer who controls the body, cooperates with the mind, and coordinates the congeniality of the souls to dance the socio-temporal dance of life. Every movement is your decision, and harmony comes from being intelligently aware of your, your partners’, and the music’s desire to unfold. When the spirit of the music intuits your individual and collaborative intention to the imagination that the music is just perfectly reflecting the vibes of melted body and soul, Awareness Intelligence has come to play.
Excerpt from Awareness Intelligence (M. Sager, 2019)
A face also seems to me to be in three parts (instead of just left/right, up/down) -> ࿋ wheel of joy. It’s a bit more difficult to recognize, but all the more dynamic/harmonious (as with everything :-)).
Comprehensive awareness is like the capturing of light, which is our soul’s essential yearning. Life wants to reveal itself to us. Even if we close our eyes, some light is shining through the lids. The clouds are not a part of the sky. It’s never completely dark; there is always radiating vividness. To see clearly, wait until the clouds are gone. They are just the changing and passing stories others and we tell ourselves. Look inside, reflect the light, and enlighten your awareness. That’s how you regain orientation and freedom that comes from foresight, providence, and trust.
Compared to the massive investments put into the marketing of consumer goods and the enhancement of our five senses, investments into understanding and developing the human mind to increase well-being and health, stay comparatively modest. It would not only make sense, but it is our responsibility to promote the empowerment of the human mind, to teach how to use the most powerful tool there is, human awareness, as a matter of priority in all societies.
The indefinite power of the human soul and mind can be unlocked as human beings evolve from doing ‘sightseeing’ to ‘thoughtthinking.’ This will intensify the understanding and appreciation of the mental world and propel the development of Awareness Intelligence. No field of science or any advanced forms of artificial intelligence have been able to solve the disconnect between the people that causes all the issues of inner and outer conflict. It’s the power of awareness that has the potential to link separateness together and to unify. It’s time to become more aware of our absence of awareness, the only way to solve the remaining problems of humanity, which are all due to shallow lives lost in thoughtless wandering.
Excerpts from Awareness Intelligence (M. Sager, 2019)
ME, WE, ALL OF THEM. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18 cm
Today’s state of consciousness and social intelligence still seems to rest on the limitation of “me and we.” Aren’t we capable of adding (especially as concerning the future) “all of them” to our social scope?
Humans are social beings equipped with the mental capacity of social intelligence whose ultimate enabler is awareness. What is the scope of most (scientific and popular) definitions of Social Intelligence? Does being socially intelligent deploy intelligence to all social forms and levels of humanity? Social Intelligence as typically understood today is applied to individual, organizational, national, and racial purposes, and usually ends at some of such outer social perimeters that societies, depending on culture, have created and therefore may never really comprise all humanity. There may be endeavors considering humanitarian aspects, but one can be commonly called socially intelligent without being truly inclusive of the full possible social scope. If we indeed risk not to develop a more comprehensive view of the human species, this might have dramatic outcomes. For whom? For everyone.
There is agreement, that intelligence types of the like of Social Intelligence are mostly acquired. In other words, tact, sensibleness, and people smartness typically develop in dependency to experiencing rewards and punishments in specific social settings over time. We never meet whole humanity though and so we assume to have seen all that is relevant for us. Our friends, families, relatives, work organizations, friends, communities, parties, religious institutions, nations, and ethnic groups define our social world view. However, if one wants to be genuinely human with all that humankind has to offer, seeing beyond these narrow organizing social concepts is necessary. Only if we care for all humanity, our happiness will be unlimited. Awareness Intelligence includes the ability to switch with agility between different possible social layers and to see the commonality of all the fights that are fought on any level. Awareness Intelligence goes deeper than a skill set for motivated behavior in a specific situation. Intelligence is a permanently maintained and applied deep attitude that continually re-defines one’s personality. If a foreign soldier kills our mother or father, we find it, correctly, of course, terrible. But what about parental gatekeeping and alienation that leave children growing up without parents too? It takes Awareness Intelligence to see the analogy of the same tragedies just happening on different levels of social identity. In both cases, the reason (a defense mechanism and revenge) and sad consequence (a child growing up without a parent) are the same, but the judgment can change depending on the social scope of awareness. It requires sobriety to recognize any aggression, violence, and war on any level as intolerable and to apply humantime critically to any situation, be it on family, firm, communal, national, and any other (up to a truly humanistic) level.
Excerpts from Awareness Intelligence. Holy, wholly, and wholesomely human (M. Sager, 2019)
As with predominant dualistic thinking, (parent-children) relationships are also wrongly understood as between two parties. It seems to be the insecure ego’s desire to own a person. A trinity warrior, on the other hand, doesn’t have to control through exclusive possession. Instead, he or she recognizes an individual’s right to be complete by one’s own and to maintain other relationships with both parents too.
Take the mother, who can separate her romantic bonding from exclusive rights on the common child. Look at the father, who respects the child’s need to have a mother and a father. Real adults know that balanced and meaningful contact with each parent in everyday life is a most powerful predictor of a child’s future health, well-being, and positive social functioning. Responsible parents respect that maternal and paternal parenting is equally vital for a child’s well-being.
Time distribution arrangements that ensure the involvement of both parents in essential aspects of their children’s everyday lives and routines—including bedtime and waking rituals, transitions to and from school, and extracurricular and recreational activities—are likely to keep nonresidential parents playing psychologically important and central roles in the lives of their children. The insecurely egoistic parent, in contrast, practices parental gatekeeping and works towards alienating the other parent to let their selfish urge win over reason and the well-being of others. That’s not right; we all can feel it. And, there is plenty of research showing the benefits of shared/joint parenting(https://mathias-sager.com/2017/05/23/shared-parenting-research-geteilte-kinderfursorge-forschung/).
