The Suffering

One is born and one dies. In between, one struggles to avoid that fatal destiny. Death, like a persistent shadow, loyal to life. Life, sentenced from birth, obligated to be and to perish. The possibility is one, only one; it is surrendering to the impossibility of eternity. In Buddhism, impermanence is discussed, life as a constant change that cannot maintain a state. But this incapacity, this perseverant mutation, is curiously permanent, infinite in the finitude of being. There is a condemnation to change, to the impossibility of choosing another path. Man, in his body, ages from gestation in the womb, there was no faculty of choice, it is the nature of the body and there is no room for the eventuality of change in its incessant becoming.

Death does not overshadow life; on the contrary, it exalts it. A white point in a vast black excites, imposes its presence more than ever. Thus, the impossibility before denying an idea highlights it and exposes the integrity of its nature, the root of its existence. A sentence that abolishes freedom, first defines it, and even constructs it in the imagination. Just as it happens with space when it is limited: in that condition, it feels with all its weight, it is exalted, it is. The condemnation to be limited does not limit its existence, it incites the reflection of space, as in architecture and sculpture, volume appears precisely when it is restricted.

John Cage composes 4'33'', three movements where performers abstain from playing their instrument for that time. The work is supposed to highlight silence, but sound arrives more imposing than ever regardless of its volume. Cage comments: “What they thought was silence, because they did not know how to listen, was full of accidental sounds.” Now it is felt more than ever, now the sound is gigantic and silence, without appearing, has elevated it to its maximum contemplation. Following this path, the Erhu, a Chinese instrument, is composed mainly of two strings and a bow. The peculiar thing is that the bow is embedded between the two strings; its condemnation is the permanence in this cage of sound excitation. The impossibility of separating the strings from the bow creates an extremely close relationship between the two parts. Ignoring the bow and its own freedom is almost impossible; now it is enormous and its physical characteristics are keenly felt.

Denial can no longer eliminate what is denied. In the mind, early or childhood traumas are often unconsciously denied, attempting to prevent the existence of the memory until it is managed to be hidden. But the trauma persists, it has never gone away, now it is enormous because denial has reiterated it. The impossibility is born from possibility and vice versa. Life is because death has named it. Sound is because silence has flourished it. Space is because limitation has limited it. Perhaps it is a tragedy due to a destiny marked from the beginning or, perhaps, it is just perfect harmony.