(no subject)
Mar. 28th, 2003 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamomI had a rewarding read from Eckhart Tolle last night before bed. He was telling me about the dangers of thinking that we can alleviate suffering in the world or even that the world can become a better place. He said that if we focus uniquely on the level of cause and effect without there first occurring a profound change in human consciousness, we will encounter only frustration and despair. Without such a change in human consciousness, the world's suffering is a bottomless pit. Even with respect to war, in which certain among us may feel a calling to help stop unconscious humans from hurting each other, we can't forget that just as we cannot fight the darkness, neither can we fight unconsciousness. If we try to do so, the polar opposites become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. We will become identified with one of the polarities, thus creating an "enemy," and so be drawn into unconsciousness ourselves.
In terms of how we choose to live our lives, I feel like this calls us back towards finding a middle path. There's not enough that can be said about this middle path, about finding the silent, watery way through which to wind our way in and amongst the rocky riverbed of our apparent lives. Peace for its own sake is just as meaningless as war for its own sake; it's clear that humans live their lives swinging on a pendulum from one extreme to the other, and the apparent position of that pendulum is not truly significant in the cosmic context.
That is to say, we are where we are, and whatever is happening is happening. It is possible to observe this and accept it without feeling any particular way about it or wishing that it were in some way different. It cannot be different than it already is; nothing can be other than how it already is. And if that seems like a meaningless observation, just ask yourself if you create any stress in your life by not accepting things as they are right now.
In terms of how we choose to live our lives, I feel like this calls us back towards finding a middle path. There's not enough that can be said about this middle path, about finding the silent, watery way through which to wind our way in and amongst the rocky riverbed of our apparent lives. Peace for its own sake is just as meaningless as war for its own sake; it's clear that humans live their lives swinging on a pendulum from one extreme to the other, and the apparent position of that pendulum is not truly significant in the cosmic context.
That is to say, we are where we are, and whatever is happening is happening. It is possible to observe this and accept it without feeling any particular way about it or wishing that it were in some way different. It cannot be different than it already is; nothing can be other than how it already is. And if that seems like a meaningless observation, just ask yourself if you create any stress in your life by not accepting things as they are right now.
