Have you ever considered that life is a paradox? Existence is bi-polar in that it has opposites that allow for each to exist. Life itself is the opposite of? – death of course. Without death there could be no life. Darkness – Light. Extreme darkness, extreme light and degrees between. Sweet – sour, love –hate, they all exist in tandem – together. You can’t have one without the other. It is the completeness we call existence.
Osho points out that language is linear, that rules of language put things in a line, one following the other. And it makes thought linear, therefore logic becomes linear, but existence is not linear, existence is simultaneous. Love and hate, light and dark, exist together. They are two sides of the same coin, not much separates one from the other. But in language you can’t say the room was full of light and the room was dark as well.
If you go into a dark room at night and turn the light on where does the dark go? It’s still there. The only thing that’s changed is your ability to see. If you close your eyes during the daytime, where does the light go? It’s still there. Light and absence of light, day and night exist simultaneously.
Zen is paradoxical. Zen thought allows things to exist simultaneously and allows opposites to trade places. Do by not doing is a Zen concept.
Example: Some say Al Gore is running for president. Al Gore says he is not. He’s not purposefully doing any of the things required to become a candidate. But as a result of Al Gore’s quest to inform the world of global warming and stimulate a response from the public, Gore is becoming more electable, All the elements that must be there for a candidate to be successful are falling in to place. Is Al Gore running by not running?
To Be or Not To Be?
Osho goes on to discuss having versus being. That man is constantly trying to enrich his life by accumulating more, by getting more property, more wealth, more power, more knowledge. The mind, the head thinks by having more it will become more, but having can never be transformed into being. Being is accomplished by dropping all desire, just being in the moment, the here and now. In that moment of isness, of just being, says Osho, all is available, all benediction, all blessings, all wonder, all beauty, all bliss.
The recent tribulation of Mel Gibson is an example of attempting to have more as a means to contentment and bliss. Mel’s life is anything but as a result of his quest for more wealth, more power, more things. I’m sure Mel is living hell at the moment, a paradox of love and hate in his mind. What has wealth and power wrought? A poisoned mind? It’s not his drinking, it’s not the alcohol that’s to blame, it’s what his mind has done to his life. One can drink alcohol and be blissful. If the 0.12 blood alcohol content was accurate, Mel was too drunk to legally drive but not excessively drunk, not on alcohol. But maybe drunk with power or stressed out from his obsession to have more in an effort to “be” more.
Mel can be faulted for riding the wave of Christian evangelical fanaticism that’s sweeping our nation by introducing the movie “Passion of the Christ” as a crass opportunity to accumulate more wealth, but the result is not harmonious with Jesus’ message of love and just being in the here and now.
Jesus lived in the here and now and the here and now is the kingdom Jesus spoke of. Consider the lilies of the field, and the birds, and the flowers, God provides and has not forsaken them he reminds us. Why be anxious about tomorrow? Live in the present. Be here now.
The majority of the Christian leadership has twisted and contorted Jesus’ message to mean the prosperity of having more things, of getting more wealth and power as a reward and blessing for following Jesus. That God wants you to have much more than he provides for the birds (impossible, birds are complete) and build up treasures while you are here. That’s not what Jesus taught. We know what he thought about the chances of a wealthy person to find paradise and we know what he thought of the powerful.
Jesus taught about “being” not “having”. When will Christians wake up and “see” what Jesus meant when he warned of those who come in his name?
One last note: Did you see the video clips of Israeli school children writing messages of hate on the warheads and bombs to be dropped on the Lebanese people? And then did you see the video of the dead Lebanese children? Do the Israelis also show those children the videos of those dead children and do the children cheer and clap? That’s how sick western civilization has become. When adult leaders of a nation teach their children to hate and make war how can they call themselves civilized? How can they call themselves God’s people or God’s chosen?
At least Harry Truman was sad and remorseful when he ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan. At least Dwight Eisenhower was sickened by war. How can our current president laugh and joke, act smug and make arrogant remarks as he orders invasions and as any of this takes place? What has happened to Christianity and to our nation? Talk about paradox. This is insanity.
Gary
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