There is something off about human perception, let's see if we can take it on.
We tend to see things in opposites, black and white, up and down, beautiful and ugly, pleasure and pain, dumb and intelligent, right and wrong, hot and cold, good and bad… You get my drift. But what if there was no such thing as opposite in the sense of the word. Remember how I said that sitting and standing still were the necessary opposite of wise action, so if an opposite is necessary, maybe it is not an opposite after all. We tend to think linearly, while most of life really can be better understood as a circle or a loop. Take two points on a line, one at each opposite end, they are as far as they can be from each other, if there was an invisible line in the center they would be at opposite ends. Now take that line and curve it into a circle, suddenly point A and point B are actually right next to each other, as close to each other as they could possibly get without becoming one. In any loop, the father two things appear to be from each other, the closer they actually are. We see the word opposite and we think of opposite camp, enemy, against, but maybe our opposites are nothing more than allies.
A wolf goes after a deer, we feel for the deer, we want to warn it, shield it and so we get rid of the wolf to protect the deer, thinking we've done something good, thinking it is compassion and wise action. But soon the deer are doing it like bunnies and trying to take over the world. They eat everything, destroying the very system they need for their own survival and soon they too begin to starve and die. Can you say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And so can it be that in this sometime crazy and seemingly senseless world, the deer and the wolf are actually allies, that there is not such thing as a prey and predator and that in spite of their outwardly opposite nature they actually depend on each other for survival?
Ask a group of people to give you the greatest life lesson they have ever learned based on personal experience and I guarantee you that most people will name some kind of tragedy or painful situation. That's us, we can relate to pain, experience it, use it to push our self and find meaning in our existence, while connecting us to each other. On the other hand we consume pleasure mindlessly. It is taken in and gobbled down, like we haven't eaten in days, and then digested out. Just the way most of us eat our food; hardly chewing it, tasting it and enjoying it. And so could it be that our roughest times are actually our best?
There is such a concept as karmic friends. This is a game I play with myself. Is it possible that, before we came down here, you and I have made a pact with the people who truly get in our face and shake us to our core? Is it possible that the people who are your greatest nemesis down here are in fact your greatest friends in an alternate universe. Maybe over a game of cards (in this alternate universe, call it heaven or whatever), we come to talking and I say to him, "hey, maybe you can do 'this' to me in this life and maybe as I am raging against you, I will snap me out of it and realize that this is just a big illusion. If not, then at least it will be a good lesson on acceptance, resilience and forgiveness, then I'll do the same for you on our next trip, what do you say?"
I suppose that does not fix the conundrum of this life, but it does put things in perspective. Things are never as they seem and as we see them. And maybe the way to get our karmic friends to share a cup of tea with us in this life rather than a couple of fists is to have no need for them to teach us lessons anymore. If only we could get as much from the 'good' as we do from the 'bad', then we might only need good or maybe we just would perceive everything as good. As our perception of things changes so does our experience of them.
We tend to see things in opposites, black and white, up and down, beautiful and ugly, pleasure and pain, dumb and intelligent, right and wrong, hot and cold, good and bad… You get my drift. But what if there was no such thing as opposite in the sense of the word. Remember how I said that sitting and standing still were the necessary opposite of wise action, so if an opposite is necessary, maybe it is not an opposite after all. We tend to think linearly, while most of life really can be better understood as a circle or a loop. Take two points on a line, one at each opposite end, they are as far as they can be from each other, if there was an invisible line in the center they would be at opposite ends. Now take that line and curve it into a circle, suddenly point A and point B are actually right next to each other, as close to each other as they could possibly get without becoming one. In any loop, the father two things appear to be from each other, the closer they actually are. We see the word opposite and we think of opposite camp, enemy, against, but maybe our opposites are nothing more than allies.
A wolf goes after a deer, we feel for the deer, we want to warn it, shield it and so we get rid of the wolf to protect the deer, thinking we've done something good, thinking it is compassion and wise action. But soon the deer are doing it like bunnies and trying to take over the world. They eat everything, destroying the very system they need for their own survival and soon they too begin to starve and die. Can you say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And so can it be that in this sometime crazy and seemingly senseless world, the deer and the wolf are actually allies, that there is not such thing as a prey and predator and that in spite of their outwardly opposite nature they actually depend on each other for survival?
Ask a group of people to give you the greatest life lesson they have ever learned based on personal experience and I guarantee you that most people will name some kind of tragedy or painful situation. That's us, we can relate to pain, experience it, use it to push our self and find meaning in our existence, while connecting us to each other. On the other hand we consume pleasure mindlessly. It is taken in and gobbled down, like we haven't eaten in days, and then digested out. Just the way most of us eat our food; hardly chewing it, tasting it and enjoying it. And so could it be that our roughest times are actually our best?
There is such a concept as karmic friends. This is a game I play with myself. Is it possible that, before we came down here, you and I have made a pact with the people who truly get in our face and shake us to our core? Is it possible that the people who are your greatest nemesis down here are in fact your greatest friends in an alternate universe. Maybe over a game of cards (in this alternate universe, call it heaven or whatever), we come to talking and I say to him, "hey, maybe you can do 'this' to me in this life and maybe as I am raging against you, I will snap me out of it and realize that this is just a big illusion. If not, then at least it will be a good lesson on acceptance, resilience and forgiveness, then I'll do the same for you on our next trip, what do you say?"
I suppose that does not fix the conundrum of this life, but it does put things in perspective. Things are never as they seem and as we see them. And maybe the way to get our karmic friends to share a cup of tea with us in this life rather than a couple of fists is to have no need for them to teach us lessons anymore. If only we could get as much from the 'good' as we do from the 'bad', then we might only need good or maybe we just would perceive everything as good. As our perception of things changes so does our experience of them.
experience of them.We want everything to be clear and simple but that is not life. We do not have the wisdom to see that up is really in many cases down and that what I consider small you think is big. We try to put things in nice little packages, put things in boxes and category and the moment we try to name, define and categorize things, experiences and people, we not only diminish them, but we also diminish our self.
How can this play be permanent, clearly defined and set when its writers, actors and audience are ever changing, moving and flowing. So…
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Live fully, live joyfully, live kindly.
ivc
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