What would you do if everyone was very aware and equanimous? When everyone is Buddha, when everyone is clothed, sheltered and fed, would you do anything different?
I was feeling somewhat inadequate, negative, depressed, like-a-loser one day. For some reason, one of the people I was around that day was getting to me in a negative way. In my mind, they were to blame, so I asked myself, why?
I stepped back and asked the question, “What would I have to believe to be true in this situation in order to be reacting in this negative way?” knowing that I don’t feel anything unless I believe something to be true.
If I hear a word that I don’t know, I won’t feel anything about it because I won’t have a definition as to what it means. When we define something, then we feel according to this definition.
I waited for what seemed to be a fit answer.
What came was that maybe the reason I felt inadequate was because I had nothing to offer. The person who I was blaming is a real content person. They don’t need help with anything. They never need advice. They’re a Buddha, basically. What can I do to help this person who doesn’t need help?
Something I wrote recently in my personal writings;
“You know the answers. You really do. You can pretend you don’t, but ultimately that’s pretending and you know it.”
Through meditation you discover that all the answers are inside you. Maybe they’re tough to access, but they’re there. So I went into the nature of helping someone. I thought it through and realized that by technicality, no one can be helped. I can’t really help anyone and nobody can really be of any assistance to me either.
Life is fundamentally meaningless. We decide what we get out of it. Our definitions filter our experience through our belief systems and we either get a positive or negative solution from them, depending on the filter. We give meaning to meaning, imposing our definitions on everything, making us feel how we do.
These definitions don’t have anything to do with the people, places or things themselves. Two people can experience the same event and get completely different things out of them. Their definitions filter this event, so naturally they get what they want out of it, regardless of what it is. So in the same way that I can justify having nothing to offer, I can with just as much conviction, justify that I have everything to offer, because no matter what I do, it is up to each individual to impose the meaning they will get out of it.
So what can I do to help this person who doesn’t need help? Nothing or anything?
We can crack our necks and break our backs trying to do what will please others, but what is important is to have to look at our definitions and how we filter our lives, whether positive or negative. This is what we have power in. Are my beliefs controlling or freeing, disconnecting or integrative? Then, no matter what happens, as long as you can define it in a positive way, whatever it is, you’ll get something positive out of it. Everyone will live to each his own and we can’t do anything about that. Don’t hurt yourself trying.
