reflections of ourselves 1
Part 1: The World
today, mankind has a very bad reputation. the news are full of what went wrong all around the world. people are quicker than ever to tell other people what they should change about themselves, just as quick as they are in telling themselves what stupid choices they’ve made and what they do wrong on a daily basis.
never before have there been so many opportunities for one single person as well as for the whole mankind to upgrade themselves in a matter of the shortest period of time – and never before have there been so many anxieties, doubts and regrets about it.
in this post, we take a first look at the big topic of reflections, how we can see them, accept them and use them, first and foremost for ourselves, and then, in conclusion, for the entire world.
in my last post, i’ve talked about the soul’s journey and how personality and ego are born. the personality is the “mirror of our experiences” and it has two sides: how we see ourselves, and how others do.
now, we all know that mirrors are “reflectors”, right? so let’s go on another thought experiment together: how, why and what do we reflect to each other?
we start with the big picture: the world around us. our own species’ history, the current main view on mankind itself and what our views and perceptions can tell us about ourselves.
Buckle up, lovelies, this is going to be intense, and deep.
in essence, we all come from the same source, and we are truly all one. the implication of this might be kind of overwhelming, because who wants to be put into the same box as the world’s most famous serial killer, for example? who wants to hear that, if you think about it, they’re really nothing more than a pebble on the ground?
the more powerful the human ego became, the more human personalities have separated from the rest of the world. “human personalities” can be replaced by “mankind” here. the knowledge about duality, about future and past, about right and wrong, about good and evil, about now and then, about love and hate – feel free to continue this list, it’s endless – made mankind what they are today, it created civilization, prosperity, wisdom, industry, politics and everything that makes us “human”. It also created separation, and that’s the curse. if you have a moment, you can start contemplating mankind’s story from the very beginning (you know, back to when “we” still lived in caves…) and observe how, step by step, history divided the “most powerful species in the world” from the rest of it.
Animals became domesticated to do the bidding of their masters. trees were first cropped, and then bred to human’s liking. cities were built, a habitat that’s specifically designed for human life – everything can be controlled:
cars on the street, pedestrians on the pavement, bikes on the bikeway. dogs on a leash, children at our hands. traffic lights tell us when to go, and when to stop. houses are separated in apartments, people live side by side but farther away from each other than ever before. garden fences are spiked, flowers are placed in perfect order…you get my point.
is that good? or is it bad?
it sounds very bad, doesn’t it?
let’s have a look on the other side.
the appearance of science has brought countless brilliant findings and inventions. more than any other animal group, humans have learned to work together to reach their goals, far beyond their natural capacities. music, literature and arts reflect the world in its entirety, and even in a way we can’t really grasp with our mind, sometimes not even with our senses. society makes it possible to work together in large groups, to help each other, to nourish each other even though we’re not from the same family. today, we have achieved a point where there’s hardly anything that is not basically possible. our knowledge is so vast that we are able to apply it on other species than our own!
every step in human history didn’t only enhance progress and invention, but also our mind, our imagination, our graspable possibilities. imagination differs us from other species. and it grew and grew and grew over the last centuries. until today, we can truly say:
everything is possible.
now, what does that have to do with reflections? or with love?
i have a question for you: how do you feel about what you just read? is there one side of humanity you got stuck on? is it the first one? or the second one? do you feel mankind has destroyed the planet and will go on doing so? or do you feel that we have the power to use our imagination for more powerful, thrilling inventions? are you afraid of what that might be? would you like to ban everything that feels bad (hunger, war, loss, pain, rape… that list, too, is endless) from this planet forever?
i hear you. me, too. what would the world be without pain? without catastrophes? without war, conflict and loss? wouldn’t it be paradise?
what if i told you that this has always been mankind’s goal? to make the world a better place, like you and me. because mankind is you and me. in essence, it’s nothing more. going back to the beginning of this post – we’re all one. we were all born as babies, little, sweet ones, children who have formed their personalities based on what they experienced. in essence, we’re all love made human, and all our strivings have just one goal: to re-find this love.
to be loved. to love. to love the world. to love others.
the thing is, to have all that, there’s only one thing we need to learn – and that’s probably the hardest task of all. we have to love ourselves.
following the simplest maths:
we are all one, therefore, if i love you, i love me in you. because i am you. and you are me. we are one.
this is not an easy thought experiment. because, you might ask, if everyone really only strives for love in their life, why do people kill each other? why do people hurt each other? why do they wage war and destroy millions of lives? why do the rainforests shrink, why do animal species die, why is there hunger? if everything mankind does is born in the will to love, why is there evil at all?
that’s where the philosophy starts. when we reflect each other, and when we’re conscious about that, we have the direct possibility of seeing how we see ourselves – and therefore, the world. to do this, you must be honest to yourself, and you need a whole bunch of mindfulness.
take an hour or so and just walk through the streets. somewhere where you can meet other human beings, like in your downtown, in a shopping mall or maybe on a summer beach. it shouldn’t be too many people, but most importantly, it shouldn’t be too few. a lonely forest path is naturally very inconvenient for this task.
how do you feel about the people around you? do they drain you? do they make you angry? do you enjoy their presence? are you able to stay within yourself? do you feel joyous and part of something bigger?
next, you go to your lonely forest path, to an uncrowded beach, somewhere where it’s quiet and where there’s nature around you. ask the same questions. substitute people with trees, flowers, birds, other animals you might encounter.
if you felt the gap, you’ve just experienced duality with all your senses. if you didn’t – congratulations. you’re at peace with yourself and the world. in this experiment, the other people around you stand for “mankind” in the big picture, and “yourself” in the smaller, more personal one. Nature stands for “not mankind, the other, the rest, nature” and in the smaller picture, it’s – tadaaa – also “yourself”.
today, we have climbed the ladder of duality so high that we even include ourselves in it. it’s “we” and “others”, not in the sense of seeing differences and similarities likewise, but with a very, very big impact on the differences. we drew an invisible line between “us” and “nature” that has its physical manifestations in everyday life: we separate countries from each other with borders, we separate our living place with locked doors, we separate our house with high security fences, we separate our domesticated pets’ food from ours, we separate our inner world behind a well-trained facial mask from the outer world – nowadays, there’s even a physical, visible mask in front of our faces.
we separate birth from the pain it costs, we separate love from the pain it can bring when being hurt, we separate the sick and the old from the living and thriving, we separate “masculine” traits like power, assertiveness and physical strength from “feminine” traits like emotionality, vulnerability and care. and depending on the side we like to see ourselves most, we finally categorize these separations in a good and a bad side.
and that’s where the entire problem lies. duality doesn’t mean there’s either good or bad. duality means there are always both of them present. just like both “people” and “nature” are two different, but always co-existing parts of yourself.
there can be no light without the dark. trying to separate from the dark, fight it until it will eventually disappear doesn’t work, because if you kill one side, you’ll kill the other side.
this inner struggle is represented in the outside, in the small picture of your daily life – think about relationships, jobs, finances etc – and in the big picture of collectiveness – catastrophes, wars, pandemics, politics. in each problem we encounter, there are two sides. one you’ll judge as good (or right) and the other one as bad (or wrong).
so how can we approach that struggle? first of all, we need to accept that it exists. we need to accept duality as the universal law it is and stop fighting against it. think about the following:
imagine you’re on the “good side”. let’s say, good for you is peace, love, harmony, equality and what have you. imagine there’s a bad side, representing everything you don’t want in your world: war, hunger, catastrophes, disease, death.
what do you do about it? you fight against it. you animate others to join you, you start your own argument, you do everything to get rid of it.
think about the words I used. fight, against, argument, get rid of.
in a world of only peace and harmony there can be no fight. the moment you say you “fight against someone or something” you’re automatically on the other side.
now, is that bad? i don’t think so. there will always be both sides. the world, as the big picture, shows us the truth of this everyday. and because the world, as we see it, is a reflection of ourselves, the same goes for our inner world. we can’t be only good, and we can’t be only bad. the universal law of duality doesn’t allow for an either/or.
acceptance is a progress. there’ll be more posts about this powerful tool to self-actualization, self-love and self-alignment over time. for now, i have a little exercise for you to get a first grip on your own duality. again, you need to be willing to be honest and mindful for this experiment.
watch your thoughts for a determined period of time. you need to be rather conscious for this task, so it might probably not be the best idea to start with a whole day. maybe start with several minutes.
go to a neutral place. you shouldn’t feel too comfy, but also not too un-comfy. look around you or just listen and notice what you see and/or hear (for beginners, it might be helpful to start with just one sense). how do you feel about it? how do you categorize it? good or bad? if you want, write it down. be honest and unbiased.
when the time is up, close your eyes. how do you feel right now?
look at your notes. how many things did you put on the “good” side and how many things did you put on the “bad” side? which side has more things or sounds?
based on the law of attraction, the world around us, or rather how we see it, is a direct projection of ourselves, or rather, how we see ourselves. after this exercise, you have a first glance at how you see the world, and therefore, yourself. this is only an information about your own view of the world. it shouldn’t need judging. anyway, if you feel the need to mark or judge your assignment, remember the following:
duality means that there will always be both sides.
i hope you enjoyed reading and would love to hear some of your thoughts. how do you experience duality in the world and in the reflection of yourself? what were your experiences with the thought experiments and exercises? what would you like to hear more about?
