I experience dualism in my psoas, my piriformis, and of course, in my heart and soul. I try to be on guard for its insidious entry into my thoughts, for it is ubiquitous, unavoidable it seems. I'll be cruising along in perfect harmony with the universe, seeing everyone as a person I could be if not for a few slight details and then...ba-zinga! I'm having a thought about how that person is somehow separate from me, as my mind and ego struggle to fit them into the round hole of a pre-conceived notion, to categorize them or analyze them, or compare...to distill them down into a tidy little image I can have of them, a simple word I can evoke to describe them.
In doing this (or allowing myself to respond to my ego's attempts to influence me to do it), I unwittingly (and unwillingly) objectify the person, try to make them small enough to fit into my mind. That is a terrible disservice, since a person (any person) is an incredibly unique, special, and powerful being whose total essence and glory cannot be fully perceived without spiritual sunglasses. To gaze directly at a shining soul (or even a flickering aura) is like gazing at the sun.
So while we must to some degree simplify our perceptions of each other (lest we become overwhelmed, like two young lovers first discovering each other), we must be aware the person beheld is much more than our conceptual models of them. If we are to place them in convenient categories, let's be sure we place them in categories that honor them, not limit them. If we are to dilute their essence in order to behold them, lets' be sure we concentrate on the good, not the bad in the process.
Regardless of my theoretical knowledge of those facts, there I eventually am, in literal and physical pain that resulted almost directly from dualistic thoughts, perceptions, or paradigms. I feel the error of this not only in theoretical or philosophical terms, but in my kidneys as well. Since I have begun to deepen my yoga practice over these past few years, my body and mind have become much more sensitive to disharmony, and respond to anger and aggression like they do to toxins; they cause an ache in both my heart and body.
So I guard my thoughts, tune my spirit, seek to see one in all and all in one... until next time that I find myself out behind the barn, a big clump of dualism in hand. Then I just remember that dualism is what brought us wars and pogroms, pillage and rapine, hatred and anger throughout history. The insane idea that the problem is somehow outside ourselves, blamable on another...that there even is an Other.
I deviate less and less this way, and feel our commonality more and more. The other day while pedaling through the spring sunshine (yay!), I grokked us all as being individual blades of grass in a field, or leaves on a tree; ostensibly distinct and separate, but undeniably connected and part of a whole. I've been getting this strong feeling of connection, hearing the minds turn and the lives churn, all waving and undulating together in the winds of change, like leaves in the breeze since I was a child. It is now becoming exponentially more frequent.
I love that.
Thou art God
All that groks is God
Sat Nam
AUM, Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi
"iamheasyouareheasyouaremeandwearealltogether"
-John Lennon (and the rest of the Beatles)
In doing this (or allowing myself to respond to my ego's attempts to influence me to do it), I unwittingly (and unwillingly) objectify the person, try to make them small enough to fit into my mind. That is a terrible disservice, since a person (any person) is an incredibly unique, special, and powerful being whose total essence and glory cannot be fully perceived without spiritual sunglasses. To gaze directly at a shining soul (or even a flickering aura) is like gazing at the sun.
So while we must to some degree simplify our perceptions of each other (lest we become overwhelmed, like two young lovers first discovering each other), we must be aware the person beheld is much more than our conceptual models of them. If we are to place them in convenient categories, let's be sure we place them in categories that honor them, not limit them. If we are to dilute their essence in order to behold them, lets' be sure we concentrate on the good, not the bad in the process.
Regardless of my theoretical knowledge of those facts, there I eventually am, in literal and physical pain that resulted almost directly from dualistic thoughts, perceptions, or paradigms. I feel the error of this not only in theoretical or philosophical terms, but in my kidneys as well. Since I have begun to deepen my yoga practice over these past few years, my body and mind have become much more sensitive to disharmony, and respond to anger and aggression like they do to toxins; they cause an ache in both my heart and body.
So I guard my thoughts, tune my spirit, seek to see one in all and all in one... until next time that I find myself out behind the barn, a big clump of dualism in hand. Then I just remember that dualism is what brought us wars and pogroms, pillage and rapine, hatred and anger throughout history. The insane idea that the problem is somehow outside ourselves, blamable on another...that there even is an Other.
I deviate less and less this way, and feel our commonality more and more. The other day while pedaling through the spring sunshine (yay!), I grokked us all as being individual blades of grass in a field, or leaves on a tree; ostensibly distinct and separate, but undeniably connected and part of a whole. I've been getting this strong feeling of connection, hearing the minds turn and the lives churn, all waving and undulating together in the winds of change, like leaves in the breeze since I was a child. It is now becoming exponentially more frequent.
I love that.
Thou art God
All that groks is God
Sat Nam
AUM, Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi
"iamheasyouareheasyouaremeandwearealltogether"
-John Lennon (and the rest of the Beatles)
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