500 WORDS, DAY 108: Perspective

It seems to me like life really does come down to perspective. While a case can be made for the idea that life is good and that therefore human beings are ultimately good, there’s also quite a case to be made for the idea that humanity and the planet are ultimately evil and corrupt. Although criminals are running rampant everyday, committing horrible acts of all kinds, there’s also a lot of love that happens every day. There’s all kinds of love all around us, and it often goes unnoticed or just unacknowledged, unappreciated. We might hear the horrible news about the war going on over there, or about shootings and sexual crimes and all kinds of depraved shit that people around the world are doing on a daily basis. There’s always a new drama for everyone to be shocked by and discuss, or to fight about. What I’m getting at is that, if you were to tell me that the world is a horrible place that’s full of needless suffering, you would be telling me the truth. If you were to tell me that life is ultimately good and it’s something to cherish, that there’s love between couples, between families, between friends, that the world itself is ultimately good and that we should care for our planet, you would also be telling me the truth. The fact of the matter is that there’s two opposite truths that are happening simultaneously. How can this be? Unfortunately, there must be duality on this planet, or in this existence of ours, and it’s the reason why everything has a positive and negative pole, and opposites are only different in their degree, as is taught in Hermetic philosophy. One could say that, for the moment, we are trapped in the world of illusion, or maya, as described in Buddhist philosophy. Now, everyone is familiar with the ying-yang, the famous Taoist symbol of duality. From this very simple symbol we can learn that there is bad in the good, just as there is good in the bad. Well, how can this be possible? How can good ever be bad? Well, in a way, it reminds of a Bible verse that says that everything we do, even our noblest deed, is ultimately bad in God’s eyes. Give me a second to search it up. Here it is: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” ~ Isaiah 64:6. Well, it seems to me like, indeed, everything we do in this planet comes with a price that we ultimately end up paying. We do a lot of good as we advance into science and medicine, into technology and everything else that is good for humanity, and yet there’s always a way in which we manage to turn that thing into something negative. I’m not saying these things are not good. I’m saying that even good things have their bad side. Just look at the internet, or smartphones, social media, etc. We all know the detrimental effects of these things, and I would be a total hypocrite for criticizing you for using them. So, we can see that everything good has a bad side. I believe that even the worst of criminals have some good in them, even if only because they were once nothing but children who did have nothing but good in them, until they became corrupted by life and the evils that preceded them. This doesn’t excuse their actions in any way, it’s merely metaphysical or philosophical speculation. Anyway, even with the world’s inescapable duality, the idea is that there is a higher good, something not from this world exactly, something which is our true source of power and of everything that’s good within us, something we all share. In Hinduism it’s described as Brahman, in a process of constant creation, and the Atman is Brahman within us all. In Taoism it’s the Tao, the Way, the way against which we must not struggle, the flow of life, of accepting everything as it comes and understanding that life does not belong to us, but that it is a privilege that has been granted to us, for a limited time only, and that we must treasure and take for what it is. It’s something we should be fully immersed in, and yet never attached to, as I believe the late Ram Dass said. I appreciate you reading!