(This is Part 2 of a series. Go back to Part 1.)
Consider the possibility that not only is everything in our "personal" life like this but that everything in the universe is too. It's all happening by itself.
If that’s so, then what we call "decisions" about this or that may be just part of the fictional self-concept, the notion that we exist as separate entities who are living a "personal" life—a "chooser/decider".
From this perspective, all events in existence are simply the working out or the effect of other previous events. From this perspective, if something was "meant to be" nothing can stop it. On the other hand, if something was not "meant to be" nothing can make it happen. So we might as well relax—because what was meant to be is surely going to happen and vice-versa.
The incredible complexity of it all, with everything affecting everything else, can make predictions difficult or impossible. Nevertheless, everything that takes place was "meant to be" since, despite appearances, nothing could have happened other than how it did.
Again paradoxically, this doesn't mean that we cease attempting whatever is important to us. There is a level of existence at which we appear to be separate entities living personal lives, and at that level it's perfectly appropriate to form intentions and go towards them as best we can.
However, to the extent that we do so from a surrendered place, knowing that existence will always go where it's "fated" to go, then our "intentions" become like playing with toys in a sandbox. We enjoy working/playing with our goals and intentions even as we're falling endlessly in surrender inside.
Thus if we "decide" to lose weight—a "decision", if it happens, that was fated from the beginning of time—at the very same time we're hopelessly in love with how our body and weight are now, knowing that at this point of time they couldn't possibly be any different than they are. This is where the universe "had" to go.
Sometimes we're tempted to reject our "present self" in favor of some "future self" that will be better appointed. The problem is, this doesn't work. When we can surrender to the facticity of existence, including our own "personal" existence, then the flowering begins. And our "personal" existence then evolves to whatever and wherever is next.
However, if we fall in love with reality as-it-is so that it will change, we haven't actually fallen in love yet. When the true love affair happens we celebrate the fact that life, including our "personal" life, is just the way it is. Yet because of that very acceptance and gratitude, in the glow of that love for both the light and the dark of life, things do start changing. As they were “meant to” from time immemorial.
This is the basic context in which I see the function of the shadow in life. Yet this doesn't mean we need to go looking for it; a portion will inevitably come to each of us just in the nature of things.
Indeed, at the level of existence where things seem to exist separately it makes perfect sense to study the sources of "evil" in human life so that we don't unwittingly create more of it than is warranted.
So let's look at these sources:
(This is the end of Part 2. Go to Part 3.)
—jim sloman, 03.19.05
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