Doing What You Can In The Face of Everything
It's easy to look at the world today and feel discouraged by how things are in general. Maybe it's getting worse all the time and maybe it's not. How much of this is perception is difficult to know, since we live only a short time in this life-in the grand scheme of history.
So when we consider whether it's worth the effort to move forwards with trying to change the world in a positive way, doubt has this sneakyness about it. It wants to creep into your heart and cripple you.
The truth is...
If what you do personally is but a drop in the ocean of all existence...
with that drop, you change the ocean. It's no longer the same ocean it was, before you. With a glance it seems unchanged, but it's not the same. When you practice positive action in your own life and reach for positive change for the better, within you, you will end up feeling it personally. You become your experience, you become your drop in the ocean. And as part of the ocean, you are changing it.
With enough of us, the ocean as a whole is going to start to show more clearly its differences. The waves may continue, but we can survive and be mindful of the fact that we're all connected to form the whole.
Thich Nhat Hahn said the wave becomes enlightened the moment it realizes it is water.
Focus on what you can change within yourself for the better and you will automatically be changing the world.
So when we consider whether it's worth the effort to move forwards with trying to change the world in a positive way, doubt has this sneakyness about it. It wants to creep into your heart and cripple you.
The truth is...
If what you do personally is but a drop in the ocean of all existence...
with that drop, you change the ocean. It's no longer the same ocean it was, before you. With a glance it seems unchanged, but it's not the same. When you practice positive action in your own life and reach for positive change for the better, within you, you will end up feeling it personally. You become your experience, you become your drop in the ocean. And as part of the ocean, you are changing it.
With enough of us, the ocean as a whole is going to start to show more clearly its differences. The waves may continue, but we can survive and be mindful of the fact that we're all connected to form the whole.
Thich Nhat Hahn said the wave becomes enlightened the moment it realizes it is water.
Focus on what you can change within yourself for the better and you will automatically be changing the world.
posted by Perry Lewellyn at
8:21 AM
2 Comments:
the Upanishads had a saying: "One can never step on the same river twice."
I think your ocean analogy is particularly interesting in that you mention the appearances of things vs. the reality of things.
The ocean seems unchanged by your additional drop on the surface but of course, the ocean is changed by your drop whether anyone notices or not. Also, the fact that no new water can be made, the drop you place in the ocean is part of the ocean in the first place, so basically we are putting things back where they belong, starting with ourselves and nature.
Most literally, the closer we bring ourselves to nature, the easier it is for us to see the contents of which we are made. We are the tree. We are the rocks. We are the moss, the bugs, the worms, the decay, the air, the clouds the scent the time.
Thanks for the post.
I love this post! I just linked to it. :)
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