Saturday, August 12, 2006

We're here to experience.....Everything is everything

We’re here to experience……Everything is everything.

A wild horse one day appeared and made its home in a farmer’s field. “How lucky you are to have acquired such a fine horse for nothing!” said his neighbors. “Maybe, maybe not,” replied the farmer. The farmer’s son, who was his only helping hand around the farm, tried to ride the horse. It threw him, breaking his legs. “How unlucky for you,” chorused the neighbors. “Maybe, maybe not,” replied the farmer. The young man was left behind when the emperor’s soldiers arrived in the village to conscript all the able-bodied young men into the army, many of whom were to die in the war. Meanwhile, the farmer’s wild horse ran away. “How unfortunate!” cried his neighbors. “Maybe, maybe not,” rejoined the farmer. The horse returned to his field bringing his entire her with him. “What good fortune!” exclaimed his neighbors. “Maybe, maybe not,” reflected the wise farmer.
This small passage of old Chinese wisdom resonates with me each time I read it. The beauty of life is the uncertainty. I remember a time when I wanted to know everything for certain and those moments still come back to me every now and again. I wanted to control jobs, other people, and just about anything I thought might threaten my livelihood. We’ve all had to battle being control freaks at sometime in our lives.

The beauty of the passage is that it reveals an aspect of our unseen natures. We, even through simple statements, are still attempting to control situations that cannot be controlled by our minds. We must embrace what is for what it is….which is not always what we want or what we interpret it as being. The neighbor’s comments reflect their need to feel comfortable in the farmer’s situation. Often the sympathy we feel for others is primarily based in our desire for comfort. We want the situations that make us uncomfortable resolved, often immediately after we hear of them. This is not all completely our faults. We are not in nature individuals who are superficial and bogus concern with the wellbeing of others. We can blame our society we can blame our parents, or we can blame our reliance on tradition without investigation. Not much thought goes into the manner in which we deal with others, specifically if we are not counselors or interested in world healing. For the non-altruists, I’ll add the following statement. If we must think in terms of individualism, then we view a new approach to genuine sympathy as beneficial for us and them. Whatever we do for others we do for ourselves, as we are all contributing members in this world.
An old chaplain friend of mine taught a workshop on HIV diagnosis counseling last year. The most important concept I learned in this workshop was living in the moment with whomever you are counseling. Don’t rush into placing an individual into a category or force them to make complete sense of what they are currently experiencing. Staying with others in their time of difficulty can show whether you are truly committed to showing sympathy. This is but one example of how we can live in the moment as a justice to ourselves and others around us. We often think that the moment is never good enough; that something better is around the corner. Living in this manner closes us off from the free things that we are meant to experience from moment to moment. We can not assume that what is to happen next will be the ultimate in greatness; neither can we expect the worst of outcomes. This passage helps me to think of every moment not as great in a sense of superiority, but simplistically great because It is what it Is.

Put into pop culture terminology, “everything is everything”….we’re just here to experience it. Now go forth my friends and put that in the air.

1 comment:

ek said...

well said.