He who knows others is clever, he who knows himself is enlightened.
Nothing in this post is meant to detract from the importance of understanding the people around us. On the contrary I merely want to take a lesson I learned ten years ago and complete it. I was handed an unfinished piece of art and it has been my goal to finish it; to perfect it. My problem was that I thought I was working with the beginning piece of the puzzle. It wasn't until recently that I realized I was actually working with the final piece. Since then things have been falling into place at a more rapid rate. And as all good things in life, it begins with me. And you.
Know first who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly
Knowing others is practically useless if we fail to know and understand ourselves. We could understand our neighbors perfectly, but if we do not understand ourselves we have no point of reference. It is like staring at a mall map that is missing the "you are here" sticker. If we do not comprehend the light within ourselves, how can we possibly appreciate the beauty inside of our friends, families, and even our enemies. If we turn a blind eye to the darkness in our hearts, how can we do anything but judge, criticize, and hate our enemies, those who are different, and even our loved ones. In fact I believe that the majority of violence and enmity in this world is committed in order to avert our gaze. Not to avert our gaze from the troubles we face in life, but rather to deflect our attention away from glimpsing the deepest recesses of our own elan vital.
So what exactly will we see when we stare into the abyss? Pure evil? Never. Pure good? Highly unlikely. If we believe that the well of the heart is an absolute we will always be disappointed. The mortal man's soul does not deal in absolutes, but rather ebbs and flows with the changes in our lives. The trick, the real trick, is to learn to ride the crests and decrease the distance between the zenith and nadir of the wave. How this is done is up to the individual. As noted in a previous post, we are each beset by our own weaknesses and challenges that a blanket statement on self-realization would not only be worthless, but arrogant as well. But I do recommend that we all find that answer as quickly as possible to quell our own personal storms. For some it will be easy, for others indescribably hard; yet for each of us it is absolutely necessary. And once we see what is inside of ourselves, learned from our personal beasts, we are much more able to see into the hearts of others and understand them; truly understand them.
So what exactly will we see when we stare into the abyss? Pure evil? Never. Pure good? Highly unlikely. If we believe that the well of the heart is an absolute we will always be disappointed. The mortal man's soul does not deal in absolutes, but rather ebbs and flows with the changes in our lives. The trick, the real trick, is to learn to ride the crests and decrease the distance between the zenith and nadir of the wave. How this is done is up to the individual. As noted in a previous post, we are each beset by our own weaknesses and challenges that a blanket statement on self-realization would not only be worthless, but arrogant as well. But I do recommend that we all find that answer as quickly as possible to quell our own personal storms. For some it will be easy, for others indescribably hard; yet for each of us it is absolutely necessary. And once we see what is inside of ourselves, learned from our personal beasts, we are much more able to see into the hearts of others and understand them; truly understand them.
If only there were evil people somewhere
insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them
from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts
through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece
of his own heart?
Thus, once the darkness in our own hearts is discovered we stop seeing others as evil, insidious, or dangerous. We see them as troubled, we understand their trials and their pain because we have lived them ourselves. Those around us become mirrors to our own heartache and triumphs. How could we possibly detest them without despising ourselves? We either have to blind ourselves to our own iniquity or accept our weakness and that of others.
Peace in this world, personal and societal, can never be captured by force, but may only be achieved by understanding. Hence, it is our enduring devoir to minimize our anger and intolerance, thereby increasing our ability to appreciate ourselves and those around us. It is only in this manner that we will achieve our divine potential. So look inside of yourself. You may not like everything you see, but I promise that it will bring a happiness like no other and will protect you from whatever life can throw at you. There is no law or rule that is mightier than understanding, and no endeavor greater than our own perfection.
Peace in this world, personal and societal, can never be captured by force, but may only be achieved by understanding. Hence, it is our enduring devoir to minimize our anger and intolerance, thereby increasing our ability to appreciate ourselves and those around us. It is only in this manner that we will achieve our divine potential. So look inside of yourself. You may not like everything you see, but I promise that it will bring a happiness like no other and will protect you from whatever life can throw at you. There is no law or rule that is mightier than understanding, and no endeavor greater than our own perfection.
Chris. I absolutely love it. As someone who self-describes as reasonable to a fault, I discovered something some time ago that has helped me cope when I can't seem to find a logical explanation for another's words or actions. The idea is that given my particular set of knowledge, experience, and opportunities, I am living my life the best way I know how. It would be unfair of me to assume otherwise of anyone else. We are all trying to do the best we can. Our vastly different backgrounds frequently guide us to make differing choices, which all too often leads to misunderstanding and judgement when viewed from out of context.
ReplyDeleteLiving in a city whose mantra is "Keep Portland Weird" has only solidified these thoughts. It has reinvented my thinking of good and evil, better or worse, and brought clearly to the forefront the idea of different. There are an innumberable amount of paths to take in life, all equally sound... just different. And there is nothing wrong with that.
As a medical student I am taking a class entitled Cultivation of the Practitioner. Your blog post embodies the entire idea of that class. We cannot expect to heal our patients if we ourselves are in a place of turmoil and uncertaintity. We must find a place of peace withing ourselves before we can impart it to others.
One of your quotes reminds me of a line from good omens: "it may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people."
ReplyDeleteAs always. I enjoyed your musings :)