Tag: paradox

The Mystery of Paradox

It feels like a strange time just now.  Even the weather is strange.  The temperatures and ambience in the air signal spring; the amount of sunlight signals still winter.  My body does not seem to quite know what to do with that.  On the one hand, it wants to leap forward with spring.  On the other hand, it wants to hang back with winter and sleep.

I was going to write about something which I can see is true – a broad truth.  However, I have begun to see its paradox – that the opposite is true as well, and that the encompassing truth lies somewhere in the middle.  The broad truth is that although marching and protesting is good, eliminating fossil fuels is good, planting trees is good, giving up plastics is good, and so many more activities are excellent, it is not enough.  It will take all of us making difficult lifestyle changes such as releasing an addiction to convenience, focusing on cooperative decisions and the good of the group more than on individual decisions and the good of the self, mutual respect, ceasing war and competition that places winning above all else, and other deep changes if we are to avert the difficult effects of climate change.  In addition, these changes have an undefined but not indefinite timeline in which to take effect.

However, the opposite is also true.  No one of us can change the world alone.  None of us is responsible for making other people behave in the ways we can see are needed.  No one of us can be devalued for not achieving at the broad level; by ourselves it is not possible, even though we may do much.   Each little thing each of us does is valuable.  Each little increment we achieve is an attainment.  Even if we are making no visible progress towards averting the difficult effects of climate change, or even if we are one of those contributing to the rapid progress of those ominous effects, we cannot be judged – we are still valuable, and our actions still contribute in ways we may not see just now.

I have yet to arrive at the center point of this paradox.  Perhaps it lies in faith and hope.  Most probably, for each of us it lies in our extent of personal growth.  I think it may involve the willingness to continually grow, and to value each stage of our growth.  In the later parts of The Celestine Prophecy series by Dan Redfield,  the advanced people who have created harmony with nature and each other are dispersed by destructive forces (read it, I will not give away the plot), but come back in the next book to help the protagonists grow and avert global disaster.  That may be a good metaphor for us.

No, I don’t think we need to give up or think that we have done enough already. We have not.  Neither do I think that we should chastise ourselves for not doing more than we would like to be doing.   We need to keep trying, and at the same time, give ourselves room to grow and be in the moment that is.   If we keep both ends of the paradox beside each other in our minds, I do believe that eventually we, you and I, will arrive at the center of that paradox, and recognize it when we do.

May we have the courage to continue, and the compassion to love ourselves (and each other) where we are right now.

Peace, Diane

Two Worlds and Energy: Manifesting the Positive

“Focus on the positive,” my friend tells me.  “Envision the results you want, not the problems you have getting there.  Completely accept where you are, and you might move ahead.”   I had been discussing some of my frustrations – something I might not do at work, but which I like to be able to do with friends.  Stomping on frustrations and burying them does not make them go away.   On the other hand, complaining does not make them go away, either.  My friend was not telling me something I did not know already, but something I am habitually too busy to work with.

The advice my friend was giving me is certainly not new advice.  It sounds easier to do than it is, though, including for me.  Focusing on results instead of issues is something with which I have difficulty, even though I understand the instructions.   How can I focus on a solution if I haven’t understood the problem and dealt with what’s holding my solution back?   How can I bring anything about if I haven’t first removed what’s in the way?

Although it seems logical to identify and remove obstacles before paying a similar attention to creating positive results in the vacated space, that reasonable stance is in fact a trap, keeping me – and others – repeatedly focused on obstacles.   Those obstacles seem to obediently keep popping up when one is focused on them, much as in the legend of Sisyphus, who had to forever roll a stone up a hill.

Our minds are creative, even if we believe that there is not an ounce of creativity in us.  They will unfailingly create that which we focus upon.  Often that focus is inadvertent, including the imbedded stories we run repeatedly beneath the level of our consciousness.  Focus can also be purposeful, such as contemplation by choice, as when we are doing a math problem or painting a picture.  Or, focus can be habitual.  We may know what we do, but withdraw our thinking mind from our action, as in riding a bicycle, brushing our teeth, or reacting to a stimulus.  This focus, subconscious, purposeful or habitual, is what draws to us and creates either a desired outcome or a roadblock to that outcome or, sometimes, even a nightmare.

The solution to achieving a goal, be it a personal goal such as a new job, or a more overarching goal, such as bringing healing to the Earth, is theoretically quite simple: focus purposeful, subconscious and habitual attention on the goal to be achieved.  Avoid being distracted by attention- diverting thought-entities with the message of “You can’t”, “It won’t work”, “It can’t happen,” or any other thought or action contrary to steady focus on the goal.  The challenge comes in actually focusing the attention by choice, especially the powerful subconscious and habitual processes.

There is a wealth of information in books, on the Internet, and in various webinars, seminars and presentations on how to identify subconscious thoughts and habitual reactions.  Psychiatrists delve into the past in the hopes of uncovering the particularly powerful occurrence that gave us our negative thoughts, resentful and angry feelings, or stubborn resistance to change;  therapists work with people to help them overcome their fears and anxieties and visions of what might happen in the future.   To some extent, these can be quite helpful.  However, once these techniques and processes are exhausted, there remains what perhaps was being avoided in the first place: what is going on now.  What we focused on in the past or fear in the future have a limited influence on our ability to create because they are nonexistent.  Yesterday has passed away into memory, and tomorrow is not yet born.  Only what is now really exists.  If we are to focus on a result, it must be now, in the present.  We must see, feel, taste, smell, hear and believe the existence of our goal in this very moment.

For most of us, that seems impossible, like believing lies or inhabiting illusions.  Its basis lies in the essential oneness of everything, the connections between all that exists.   We live surrounded at every moment by an invisible energy (an ‘ether’, to use a very old word), directly inaccessible via our five material senses.  Some of us can perceive this energy via non-material senses; others cannot.  Whether or not a given individual can perceive it, this energy is very real.  It surrounds us, sustains us, connects us, and of it is formed the material world, including our material bodies.  This energy exists independently of the concept of time, which is a concept formed in materiality, and by which humans, who can grasp the concept, bind themselves.  Because this energy, of which we are composed, is independent of time, it contains the past and the future, melded into an infinite now.  It is past, present and future, wrapped in one.  It contains all that was, all that is, and all that will be.   Because we are composed of this energy, we, too, when we can identify with it, are able to move in time.  Most of us do not identify to that extent; a few, who prefer to remain unnoticed, do.  It is in this way that we can perceive our goals, sense them as if they were already here, in our concept of time, and focus our attention upon them in the present moment.

I understand the concepts and the explanations.  I can recognize the feelings in music, dance and nature.   I have yet to develop skill in bringing into material manifestation – actually doing – what I think I understand and feel.  I cannot tell anyone HOW to do that about which I write or which I feel in song and movement.  I am still figuring that out.  Rather, I think I am still growing into it, which is not a figuring out, but a process over time.  In an infinite world, I am skillful now; in our material world, I still need patience.  Patience can be hard when one has been traveling for a while. 

I wish for us all, especially me, the ability to perceive myself as whole, and the ability to draw to myself what is needed and desired.  I wish for us all the ability to heal ourselves, each other and the Earth.

Peace, Diane

The Gift of Being Alone

Humans are a gregarious species.  We have a hard-wired desire to belong to a community or tribe or a group of friends.  We often choose to work in teams, partnerships or companies.  Expulsion from the group or being ignored is a painful experience which can be used to keep members of a group on an accepted path.  Children form bonds within a classroom setting, and recreation or free play is often a group affair.  Truly, we are gregarious, even though many of us need a certain amount of alone time to recharge.

However, we also live in a world of dualities, a world in which paradox is common enough to often pass unobserved.  Look deeply enough, and opposites are linked together in a common continuum, each opposite being true at the same time.   Sometimes we can find the linking thought, the balance; when we do, we are better off for the discovery.  Heads and tails are parts of the same coin.  Sorrow and joy enhance each other, deepening the experience of each.

It follows that being a gregarious species in a world of paradox, we are also quite alone.   Yes, we bond together in groups, desire the company of each other; even more than the company, we desire to be known by another.  We want someone else to understand and hopefully appreciate us. Sometimes, in the closest of relationships, we come close to that.  Yet, even when we are that lucky or successful, we encounter times when it seems that amidst even a multitude, we are completely alone.

In a broad sense, we are never alone; we are all connected in the mystical common web of things, all parts of the original energy of the One.  Some have perceived this mystical energy as holographic, i.e., the total of everything is contained within each part.  In this sense, we are always connected.  It is also true that in order for there to be a universe of entities distinct from each other, instead of a fused glob of energy, there need be boundaries.   Boundaries set us apart from not-us and allow us to exist as individual conscious beings.  They also ensure that we are alone.    We are both alone and connected.

Alone can feel lonely, but it does not need to.  Lonely is having lost sense of one’s connection to the whole, feeling abandoned and vulnerable.  Alone is the realization of one’s uniqueness, knowing that no matter how well we may communicate, no one else can truly understand the fullness of our being, know exactly what we experience or feel.   No other being can make our life’s decisions for us; no other being can take responsibility for those decisions.   If we allow, we may be influenced by others, but the decisions are ours.  Alone is accepting that realization, and simultaneously enjoying the cosmic connection that is our heritage.   Alone is seeing and comprehending the paradox; lonely is seeing only one end.

Some humans prefer to work by themselves instead of in groups; other humans feel a need for more alone time than their peers, desiring time in nature or their favorite retreat.   Even those humans, some strongly inclined to isolation, need connection.  Most of us need that connection with other humans; a few find it in nature, animal friends or prayer.  It is still connection.  At the same time, it is essential, especially for those on the more communal end of the spectrum, to realize their own awareness as unique.  We are a paradox.  For most of us, the alone end of the phenomenon is most difficult to accept. Eventually, even the company, stimulation, adulation (or condemnation) of others falls hollow, until acceptance of aloneness enables our return to connection.

Let us then celebrate with, enjoy and love each other.   Let us also allow ourselves to experience the paradox and find time for solitude and the consciousness of our complete aloneness.  Let us appreciate both the aloneness and the connection, nurturing our wholeness in the process.   Alone is our beginning, leading us back into connectedness in an endless circle.   Alone need not be scary when we embrace it.

Peace, Diane