Dualistic level of Reality

A Spanish tale

Once there was a Meeting of tools—Hammer, Screw, Sand paper, The Tape and The Saw—to fix their differences.

Head of the meeting was Hammer. But it was decided by all other members that he had to resign. Reason? He was too noisy and pounding all the time. Everyone wanted the Screw to be the Head.

Hammer accepted the verdict about himself but he wanted Screw also to resign. Reason? They had to make him do many turns to perform one single act. So he recommended Sand paper to be the Head.

Screw accepted the verdict about himself but he wanted Sand paper also to resign. Why? Because he was very rough in the treatment. According to him, The tape was the best choice for Heading the meeting.

Sand paper accepted the verdict about himself but he wanted The Tape also to resign. Why? Because he always spent time measuring others according to his level, as if he were the only one perfect.

At that moment came in the carpenter, put on the apron and started his work. He created an an attractive furniture out of the country wood using The Hammer, The Sand Paper, The Tape, The Saw and The Screw. 

When the carpenter finished the work, the assembly restarted its deliberation. It was then The Saw took the floor and said, “Gentlemen, all of you spoke about our defects, but the carpenter made use of our best qualities.  That makes us valuable.  So let's stop contemplating on our bad points and let's concentrate in the usefulness of our good points.” 

The assembly then realised that:

The Hammer was strong.

The Screw joined and gave reinforcement.

The Sand Paper polished and filed down roughness.

The Tape helped to be precise and exact.

We live in a dualistic level of reality. The fact that there exists ‘yin and yang’, ‘day and night’ in life, confirms that everything in this world exists at dualistic level. These dualities exist in ourselves too in the form of joy and sorrow, success and failure, inspiration and depression, likes and dislikes, etc.

Wisdom lies in exploring this duality and allowing life to flow moment to moment, exactly as it is intended, embracing both positive and negative with open arms.

God's Family

By Steve Goodier www.LifeSupportSystem.com

An old story is told of two men who went fishing in a small boat. The day was uneventful until one of them hooked a huge fish, which, in the struggle, pulled him overboard. He couldn't swim and began to panic.

"Help!" he yelled. "Save me!"

The friend reached over and grabbed the man by the hair to pull him closer to the boat. But when he tugged, the man's toupee came off and he slipped down under the water again.

He came up shouting, "Hey, help me! I can't swim!"

So the friend reached down again and this time latched onto the struggling man's arm. But when he pulled, the arm came off! It was an artificial limb.

The drowning man continued to kick and thrash around and his friend reached out a third time. This time he grabbed a leg and pulled. You guessed it -- a wooden leg.

The man continued splashing and sputtering and calling out, "Help me!" until his friend finally called back in disgust, "How can I help you if you won't stick together?"

And that is a metaphor for each of us.

How can people in marriages and families stand a chance when they won't stick together?
How can religious communities, civic groups, schools and businesses get anywhere when they won't stick together?
And how can a nation or even our global village function well when it won't stick together?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it this way:
“We are made for goodness.
We are made for love.
We are made for friendliness.
We are made for togetherness.
We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know.
We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders.
All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow,
rich, poor, educated, not educated,
male, female, all, all, all.
We all belong to this family, this human family, God's family.”

The path for spiritual treasure

Sufi Story

'All the teachers say that spiritual treasure is something one finds alone. So why are we all here together?' asked a disciple of the Sufi master Nasrudin.

'You are all here together because a forest is always stronger than a lone tree,' replied Nasrudin.
'The forest maintains the humidity in the air, it resists the hurricane, and it helps to make the soil fertile.
But what makes a tree strong is its root, and the root of one plant cannot help another plant to grow.
Working together towards the same end and at the same time allowing each one to grow in his own way-- that is the path for those who wish to commune with God.'

We are all One

Author Unknown

After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave, in which he would find a well. 'Ask the well what is truth', he was advised, 'and the well will reveal it to you'.

Having found the well, the seeker asked that most fundamental question.

And from the depths came the answer, 'Go to the village crossroad: there you shall find what you are seeking'.

Full of hope and anticipation the man ran to the crossroad to find only three rather uninteresting shops.

One shop was selling pieces of metal, another sold wood, and thin wires were for sale in the third. Nothing and no one there seemed to have much to do with the revelation of truth.

Disappointed, the seeker returned to the well to demand an explanation, but he was told only, 'You will understand in the future.' When the man protested, all he got in return were the echoes of his own shouts.

Indignant for having been made a fool of - or so he thought at the time - the seeker continued his wanderings in search of truth.

As years went by, the memory of his experience at the well gradually faded until one night, while he was walking in the moonlight, the sound of sitar music caught his attention. It was wonderful music and it was played with great mastery and inspiration.

Profoundly moved, the truth seeker felt drawn towards the player. He looked at the fingers dancing over the strings. He became aware of the sitar itself.

And then suddenly he exploded in a cry of joyous recognition: the sitar was made out of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like those he had once seen in the three stores and had thought it to be without any particular significance.

At last he understood the message of the well. "We have already been given everything we need; our task is to assemble and use it in the appropriate way. Nothing is meaningful so long as we perceive only separate fragments. But as soon as the fragments come together into a synthesis, a new entity emerges, whose nature we could not have foreseen by considering the fragments alone."

Triple Unity

In all His Creations, only human beings are endowed with the ability to communicate through speech. But sadly, more often than not, this power is not utilized the way it was meant to be. Those are the times when our speech is not aligned with our thoughts. And when this happens it impinges on our actions too. The resulting factor is all the three faculties—thoughts, speech and actions are totally askew.

What we would like to communicate is formulated in our thoughts. Recognizing that we should only speak what is formulated in our thoughts is an important realization. Be it a parent, student, teacher, preacher, leader, etc— if we wish to play our roles successfully, then we need to ensure this fact.

“What you think, you should speak; what you speak, you must put into practice. That is real humanness. Unity does not mean gathering of all people at one place. What is needed is perfect harmony between thoughts, words and deeds.” Says Sathya Sai Baba. He calls this Triple Unity.

In 1931, Gandhi was invited to speak to the British Parliament.

Those were the days when Gandhi was one of the most vocal supporters of Indian independence. His visits were always viewed with suspicion and caution by the British Parliament.

Gandhi stood up to speak. He had no notes in his hands. He spoke for two hours with eloquence and passion. The audiences were astounded. They stood and applauded.

Later, an English journalist asked one of Gandhi’s assistants how he was able to stand with no notes and speak so brilliantly for such a long time.

The assistant smiled and is quoted as saying, “You don’t understand Gandhi. You see, what he thinks is what he feels. What he feels is what he says. What he says is what he does. What Gandhi feels, what he thinks, what he says, and what he does are all the same. He does not need notes.”

This Triple Unity is not a complex issue but it does require some behavioral changes. Every night, before going to bed, self-assessing our thoughts, words and actions throughout the day and consciously working towards correcting ourselves would take us a long way.

The goal is to be aware of our thoughts before we speak, express them without any distortion and translate them into actions without any twist.

Needle or Scissors?

There was a noble tailor, who had transformed into a great sage.

The king came to pay his obeisance. The king gifted him golden scissors, encrusted with diamonds.

But the sage refused to accept it. The king was worried that he was not able to help the sage.

So he asked him, ‘What can I give you that would be of use to you?’

The sage replied, ‘Give me a needle!’

The king at once arranged for a needle and presented it to the sage. Humbly he waited for the sage’s response.

The sage said, ‘The reason why I refused your gift of scissors is it cuts and divides. Our minds are like scissors that cut and divide. But the needle would stitch, it would join and unite! Our hearts are like needles which join and unite.’

Today humanity is in need of a needle and not scissors!