Have you ever used a “mandolin” to slice vegetables? Be careful. I wasn’t and sliced my thumb a week ago. I applied Neosporin and a band aid; my body did the rest. It is almost completely healed. What percentage of this process was my helping and what was something else and mysterious way beyond me. Ninety-ten, eighty-twenty, something else; you chose.
When I was young I was under the delusion that life’s processes were all about me. Thankfully, now I see that the healing of my thumb was infinitely greater than me. Is this not life’s progress for all us? I certainly hope so. What after all is “spirituality”? Is it not the realization that we are a small part of life’s equation? Here is a quote by the Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj, that I love. “When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. Between these two my life revolves”. Of course we are not “nothing” but again what percentage of it all are we?
I think of all the ego maniacs that dominate our history, our media today and our economy. Did they ever grow up or did their phycological histories prevent them from doing so?