Masks of Mind
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has done a series of paintings called cover of this book.crete doorway, which hovers in the unbounded universe, framing the unframeable expanse, inviting entrance yet repelling it at the same time. (^41) The image is that of an abstract yet tangible and con-Liminal Icons, one of which dons the
Through the door is palpable nothingness as a sacred presence. To enter the door is to enter the alchemical space of transmutation; it is the locality of nigredoof these paintings are extraordinary and intense. Deep blues and riveting , the blackening, the place of initiatory death and rebirth. The colors
reds change and deepen with an incredible purity in different lights. The lights, the colors, seem to come from some otherworldly source that is somehow the very soul of this worldly life. Hints of new life beyond death appear through the dark passage; we receive intimations of rebirth from a
cosmic womb.account. It discloses a world of mystery and awe for the imagination. One is freed to feel the presence of a spiritual reality. It empowers one to embrace This painting, and others by Breder, is humanistic and theological, on our
a destiny beyond the moment. This painting is grace embodied, material grace.ditions or the boundaries of social and reflective existence. This opening, in which one can freely dwell, is the possibility and the power for the meaning- (^42) It opens human existence to the integrity of life beyond material con-
ful integration of life. Here art embraces and evokes the integrity of life because it opens to consciousness a range of reflective goods that contribute to an integrated existence. That kind of art enacts the complexity of the integrity of life as it comes to light in human existence. It presents human
life beyond the flatness of materialism or the implausibility of dualism and into the richness of integral consciousness. In this way, the experience of art masks – reveals and conceals – the depth of our inner lives.
The force of our argument turns on the connection between how con-sciousness is conceived and the ways one can and ought to inhabit the realm Inhabiting Reflective Goods
of reflective goods, including the domain of art. Dualistic and reductive accounts of consciousness threaten to render banal reflective goods because of what they imply about inhabiting cultural forms. These positions conceal the reality of consciousness as reflexive, embodied freedom aiming at a mean-
ingful integration of life. In a sense we have then changed the debate by turning around the question. Rather than seeking the in matter, as in emergentism, or the end of consciousness in divine spirit, as origin of consciousness