Space Is a Wandering: You See the Road You Chose

Listen closely to the word. In my native Russian, the word for space — prostranstvo — carries another word inside it: stranstvie, a wandering. Space is “about wandering”: a passage from one thing into another, a term for where you are. A person is in constant motion — wandering between energy strata that could be called “dimensions”, standing on several roads at once, and deciding for themselves which of them to be on at this moment. What you see is determined by which road you have chosen.

And time is the embodiment of space: one more known quantity in your coordinate system. Imagine that in one and the same second, one and the same object can be seen from different sides — depending on which line of time you are standing on. It follows that a person sets their own position in space and time — by where they place their attention.

Space is a wandering: what you see is determined by the road you chose.

One place — different spaces

Two people stand before the same painting. One sees only colour. The other sees form, colour, scale and the placement of the elements. Physically they are in one place — but in different spaces of thought: each has their own sequence of looking, their own stage of thinking. That is why the aftertaste of one and the same place differs for everyone. Notice how and why you choose your own sequence of looking — it is the quickest way to understand what interests you. And interest is nothing other than the motivation of your attention.

From this follows a practical conclusion that saves years: space always shows a person where they stand in relation to their own thoughts. When something displeases you, it feels as if you are “in the wrong place”. But space is only reflecting where you are in your own consciousness. So what needs changing is not the place but your relation to it. And when a space that used to irritate you begins to stir different feelings — stop, and understand what has changed in your consciousness. That is your personal methodology of change; hold on to it.

Change not the place, but your relation to it.

There is always an observer

There is a well-known legend: when the first ships sailed past certain islands, the islanders “did not see” them — their consciousness held no imprint of what a ship was, and on the horizon there remained only a blur. An object exists in a person’s space for as long as that person carries an observer connected to it. What you do not know does not exist for you; by widening your knowledge, you are quite literally widening your world.

But an object always has an observer — even when it seems to have none: then the object serves as its own observer. A cell divides because an inner observer for division is built into it. And the same is true of you: until you begin to observe yourself with some purpose, you will not begin to do anything. Self-observation is not reflection for reflection’s sake — it is a principle by which matter takes form.

So if life feels cramped, check not the walls but the gaze. You are standing on several roads at once. The only question is which of them you are looking down right now.

An object exists in a person’s space for as long as it has an observer.

Cover work — “Illusion” →

— Evgeny Fleysher