I'm sure you must have heard somewhere that we are all "whole, complete, perfect beings." The feeling I got when I heard this saying was not too different from the sensations of nauseousness I experienced during pregnancy. To me, it just sounded like an unfounded statement that begged the question "what about all the horrific acts of violence that people engage in on a daily basis? Are murderers, rapists and criminals whole, complete, perfect beings?" Their behaviours are the antithesis of good.
It took me awhile to really understand this concept, and my comprehension was enhanced when I developed a better understanding of the nature of our reality. In plain English, we live in a world of duality and contrast. The way we can understand and make sense of everything around us is by comparing what we already know. I'm sure you've heard the analogy about the fish in the aquarium that had no idea what water was...until he was lifted above the water and was able to experience what an environment without water felt like. Only then was he able to say "yeah, I know what water is now", even though he had spent his entire life in the substance! It's really the same for us, we need a frame of reference upon which we can integrate new experiences and information.
The new information that comes in via our senses automatically gets compared, categorized and analysed in relation to what we've already experienced. We can't fully understand what "hot" means until we experience "cold" (damn, that Katy Perry song just popped in my head). We don't really realize what health is until we become sick for the first time. The same goes for our emotions, we can't know the meaning of happy until we've been sad. We make sense of reality through contrasts. Duality is everywhere. Yin-Yang / Positive-Negative / Good-Bad.
Credits for this image go to www.tigerfreedom.com
Once we acknowledge this, the idea that we are "whole" beings starts to make more sense. Just like the Yin-Yang symbol above illustrates, we all carry the complete array of emotions / feelings within us. Some are located on the bright, open side, others are on the dark, shadowy side of our persona. We tend to hide our emotions from this dark side from others and even from ourselves, because we've learned over time that it's not acceptable to express these "negative" feelings. We feel like we're only allowed to express positive emotions and something must have gone terribly wrong with us if negativity comes to the surface too often, right? Our sense of "balance" of these two sides is actually quite unbalanced!
Is it realistic to expect ourselves to always be happy, confident, grounded and strong? How would we even understand these states if it were not for their opposites that have a healthy place in our psyche? As I've said before, all our emotions are important, they deserve to be validated and expressed in an appropriate manner. If we deny our darker side and always repress the anger, the rage, the fear, the sadness, the resistance, the jealousy, they will inevitably blow up in our faces. That's when we are the most likely to do something really stupid we'll regret.
Yes, we are indeed whole, complete, perfect beings. Obviously, our behaviours are far from perfect, but we can improve, simply by allowing ourselves to fully embrace the full spectrum of our humanity. Let's give ourselves a break! Let's be courageous enough to face our shadow, because it's beautiful and in the end... it makes us stronger.
Warmly,
Lise
Health Coach / Reiki Master
www.lisevilleneuve.com
Good reminder about the negative and positive, yin/yang contrast. Don't know if you've really answered my question -not that I think you have the right answers for everything, so I don't expect you to answer them. If you DO have all the answers, I nominate you for Supreme Being/President of the planet. Here goes:
ReplyDeleteWhat about the sick, chemically imbalanced, mentally retarded, psychotic, schizophrenic people who commit murder and unspeakable acts? Are they perfect beings? Is it really "good" or "bad" that, without medication, rehabilitation, confinement to psyche wards and whatnot, they are not able to be “good” people and to choose to do “good” acts and become contributing citizens of society? Is it reasonable that we should expect them to attain that balance of yin/yang? Do they know the meaning of their emotions?
Or did you just use the comparison of good/bad to show that there is good and that there is bad in the world?
Bonne question Yvon! Let me see if I can answer it properly...
DeleteOn this physical, material level, most of us experience the complete range of emotions -the "good" and the "bad" ones. I realize that these terms can be quite relative, so maybe "highs" and "lows" would be more appropriate. This is what makes us "whole", complete beings. That's somewhat easy to understand. It's the word "perfect" that raises questions. How is a murderer a "perfect being"? Well the "perfection" is simply on another level, on the spiritual level.
Obviously, some of us are more "challenged" than others with mental illness, addictions, past traumas...etc. Those affected by such challenges will experience varying degrees of the high / low emotions. Maybe they will be unable to feel their emotions (such as psychopaths), maybe they will feel them to the extreme (bipolar disorder). The extent to which we feel or don't feel our emotions necessarily affects our behaviours.Everyone is different in that regard. Some will fit nicely into society, others won't. Some will never even strive to evolve (at least in this lifetime).
When we look at humans through their individual personas, it becomes evident that our behaviours make us anything but perfect beings. It's only when we look at ourselves as an extension of consciousness that we can begin to see the perfection. Source consciousness has flowered into all our separate, diverse and imperfect forms. It's flowing through you and me. This divinity is not evident on the individual level of our body, our mind, our character, but if we look beyond that, we can get a glimpse of the perfection of it all.
We all share the same unified consciousness that expresses itself through very different forms: humans, flowers, animals, minerals, air particles...etc. Some of these forms happen to have mental illness and are considered extremely violent. From our physical perspective, this seems to be a mistake, and we may ask "what purpose do these people serve?"
If we look closely at our own individual pain and challenges, we can see that their purpose is ultimately to help us grow and evolve. When we are unhappy, we ask questions, we seek a way out, we open our minds, correct? On a larger scale, consciousness will also be challenged to bloom through the perspective of a serial killer!
Under the multiple layers of his ego, his mental illness, his past traumas, his unbearable pain, the serial killer is made of the same stuff you and I are made of. Love. Light. Consciousness. Perfection. If you picture the serial killer as a newborn baby, it's easier to intuitively understand where he came from before the damage started.
We all have some healing to do, not just the serial killers. We can start by accepting and getting more comfortable with our dark side instead of denying it.