Perspectives

Essays of a more general nature including ethics, thoughts about life and views about human nature, our times and evolution.

Is That Right?

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,

there is a field. I will Meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.

Rumi

I love this statement! It has spoken to me since I first heard it many years ago. I suppose there are two reasons why, one being a form of aspiration to spend time in that field. The other is that it suggests notions of wrongness and rightness are artificial which brings their value and merit into question. In so doing it illustrates that there is, shall we say, a certain flexibility in what is considered as wrong or right. The statement has stuck with me ever since and seeded a garden full of appreciation. It is a bold statement that stands in stark contrast to the way most of us live our lives. It speaks clearly to the idea that right and wrong are not absolutes and that we can get beyond such mundane notions. And it whispers the way there.

A Friend In Deed

"Friendship is about mutual respect, affection, help, and providing comfort in times of crises. Friendship is a mutually supportive relationship between two or more people." (1)

This is a simple and succinct statement, is it not? It covers the essentials of friendship and what it means to be friends. At one time pretty much everyone understood and accepted this definition. Friendships are not to be taken casually, though one can have casual friends, and it is not to be seen as merely a label for it is more like a title bestowed upon another because of the nature of relationship. Further, friendship must be reciprocated and shared for we cannot have a true friendship without that essential ingredient. A friend is almost an extension of self rather than a relationship between two mutually exclusive people.

The Long Shadow of the Dreamer

We humans tend to be silly creatures even at the best of times. Compared to even our grandparents we have pretty much all we could ever want or need, let alone compared to what the thousands of generations before them had. Yet here we are floundering amid a sea of plenty because we spend so much of our precious time wanting, needing, hoping and searching for nameless outcomes. We should be both gracious and joyous that we have so much more than our basic needs met, just as we were as children, but most are not. Instead we allow the minds we create, with their incessant demands, to gradually obscure our true nature and in a way we become lost to it.

What is Going On?

There has been a great deal of change over the course of my lifetime, on many levels, and this is showing no signs of abating. All one has to do is compare the toys and capabilities we have now compared to just 40 years ago. In that time, roughly since the mid to late 60’s, we have seen the gradual development of a new view of reality and the birth of new possibilities. It is no accident that, along with this, there has been a tremendous shift in technology that has expanded our capabilities at an accelerated rate.

In the essay Our Modern Times (1), I wrote about the massive changes that have occurred over just the last century and that these changes have not only significantly affected our collective consciousness, they have added new stresses. Certainly, this ‘new age’ is one of almost limitless possibilities, especially when compared to a century ago. It is one that has been fueled by the new found freedom to imagine and manifest.

And What of Evil?

Over my years of exploring, learning, writing and teaching I have been asked many questions, often they are the same question just asked from a different angle. I have explored a number of them in various essays. One of the most common ones I have not explored relates to the notion of evil and acts perceived as evil. Nor have all the conversations about it “gone well”, as I have had to end a number of them when the reactions of people have become so intense, even leading to verbal attacks, that continuing would do little more than create even stronger emotional reactions. This would negate any value that could be gained by discussing it.