Meeting Life: Aug 1, 2023
She was very tender in her voice, and her small body emanated a sense of vulnerability and fear, the fear of being attacked. She said that other’s opinions of her are very important, and most of her life was built around those opinions. So, her life is sometimes pain, the pain of being degraded, criticized, and that is the source of hurt. Yet, there is also the pleasure of being praised, and that motivates her to a great extent.
She said she couldn’t decide whether to let go of these opinions, or to continue living based on them. Although it is painful, she said, it wasn’t always pain. There were also moments of pleasure and happiness derived from positive opinions. It just seemed to her that whatever she chooses is natural, is fine, then there really isn’t a need of choosing to let go of other’s opinions, because living based on them is also natural and fine.
If everything is natural and fine, then haven’t you already solved the problem? Then, aren’t all the opinions also natural and fine, and therefore there isn’t actually the good and the bad? When everything is natural, there isn’t good, nor is there bad, but simply existence. I am not good nor bad. They are not good nor bad. And that is already the freedom from all opinions, isn’t it? This is, really, the complete acceptance of everything, of all that I am, of all that they are. When there is this complete acceptance, one goes beyond mere opinions of oneself or others. And that is real maturity.
She felt like something amazing had happened. This problem that has confused her had suddenly been clarified. Actually, it was only an illusion made up by thought naturally dissolving under completely rational thinking. Thought cannot hold an illusion as true until it has been pointed out as false according to its own rule, until its veil has been unveiled, so it has to stand naked before the eye of awareness. And when that illusion is unveiled, it is seeing the false as the false, and one will no longer be deluded by that falsehood. This is wisdom in action.
Cover photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash
