Healing Self, Healing The World

Physicist David Bohm has long been written that the word health is derived from the word whole (completeness). It is hard to imagine that there is healing without attaining the whole.

Wall of Shadow

In the old knowledge called mythology, it has long been noted that we are all complete as we are. One of the very old myth that originated from Indonesia shared, in the old age the elder did know any gender.  Duality like male-female, you-me,  right-wrong, holy-mundane did not exist at that time. Everything is whole  and neatly stored in a holy place called silence.

However, in the last few million years people love to talk which makes the brain needs a new way of understanding.  And the way brain understands only through duality. It is as simple as understanding day by understanding night. Without duality, brain and human language are lame. This is the origin of the wall of shadows called duality. As if reality is divided into two opposing parts.

Start from this, all is fragmented into different parts. From natural science versus human science, biology versus psychology, the good versus the bad. Put it simply, people make wall of shadow to facilitate understanding, but then they assume that the wall is really exists. The holy is hostile to the dirty, the true strikes the wrong, the success under estimate the failure. This is the fountain of countless mental fatigue as well as spiritual downfall.

Compassionate Witness

Mental fatigue occurs because people spend too much energy on the waves of emotion.  When others praise, the emotion goes up. When others blame, the emotion goes down. Success creates attachment, failure is the source of rejection. More than just mental fatigue, some people even experience dangerous spiritual downfall like suicide, crime, drugs.

In order to heal this deficit energy, the ordinaries then scold, blame, criticize this and that. As a result, the energy struggle happened here and there, it makes mother earth full of fire like war, terrorism, conflict, divorce, crime, mental illness. The harder they fight, the higher and the thicker the wall of shadow appear to be real and finally separate them.

That's why, on the path of meditation disciples deeply learn to be compassionate witness. The steps are simple, anything can happen in this moment simply accept, flow, smile. After years of deep practice, disciples of meditation then directly experience - not understand intellectually - that everything is like snow flakes fall into the lake. They create ripples for a moment then disappear. Success-failure, happy-sad, good-bad are the same snow flakes fall into the lake.

Home of Wholeness

One who spends long time enough in meditative practice to be compassionate witness, then deeply understand through direct experience that the wall of duality is similar to boat. When you need boat of duality to cross the lake of life you may use it. But please bear in mind, duality is simply a boat, it is a vehicle not the driver who determines the direction of the journey. And after crossing the lake, remember to leave the boat behind, not to bring the boat everywhere you go.

After the boat of duality left behind, then the door of  wholeness is possibly opened. And finally one deeply realize that from the beginningless beginning life flows like night and day. Happy-sad, health-sickness, flower-waste, they all flow.  Lao Tzu called it Tao, the old Japanese called it Bushido, psychologist Carl G. Jung called it archetypes, Zen people call it beginner's mind,  Balinese elder called it Embang.

As soon as arrived into home of wholeness, then baby of compassion was born. Too many people carrying boat of duality everywhere they go, assuming the wall of duality is real,  then suffered mental illness and experience spiritual downfall. Please keep in the heart, they're not enemies to be attacked, but the crying babies who miss our gentle hug.  This is what this humble and simple article called as "healing the self healing the world".

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Notes:

In the old mythology of Bible, there was story of Adam and Eve who were expelled from Garden of Eden because of eating the fruit of knowledge. The Garden is the place of unity, of non duality of male-female, good-evil. And the knowledge is fruit of duality. Through years deep practice of meditation, people learn not to "eat" the fruit of duality, and at the same time return back to Garden of unity (non duality). In the language of Bible, Garden of unity (non duality) is a holy place where the Father and I are one.