There is no you. There is only us.
Enlightenment-lite
Everything that you are is due to the forces around you, the nature of your environment and the nurture from your caregivers and other agents of socialization.
Everything that you receive is given to you from those around you. Everything that you give, you give to those around you.
You are nothing more than a product of this organism we call Earth. This is why some environmentalists liken humanity to a pathogen because it kills its host, not realizing that in doing so its own death will be hastened.
But we are a very interesting virus for two reasons. One, we need not hurt the planet that forged us into existence. Two, we are a virus that hurts itself.
If we aren’t bombing each other, we’re cutting each other down with harsh words and insensitive acts. When we experience this, we then learn to attack ourselves. That is, I attack myself. We don’t value our intuition. We don’t take care of ourselves. We don’t choose life-affirming options. Why? Because it is unfamiliar territory and we love consistency. Even if we are liberal, we consistently want to push for change. Even when it leads to our death, we still might opt for the tried and true and disastrous.
Yet, one has to admit that we evolved to be this way. And it did us good in the past. We’ve just outgrown it in some ways.
So we continue to evolve and grow and change as Mother Earth would have us do.
But it would do us good to remember that we are one thing, and that what I do to you, I do to myself.
If I yell at you, I do not just leave you in a state of petulance. That anger I felt would’ve corroded me as well. That’s cortisol in my bloodstream. That’s stress in my skin. That’s discomfort in my body. The other person is in the better position because she may interpret my actions in a way that wouldn’t cause her harm, but she would still feel the energy.
If I give love, I give that to myself as well. After all, am I not feeling that boost of dopamine? Am I not smiling? Wouldn’t I feel great? Furthermore, you may have something that I value. So by showing love to someone who has something I value, that’s just me validating my own value system. I love myself.
I’m trying to highlight the connectedness of life because we often miss it.
If I want piles of cash, that would imply doing excellent work that people need, enjoy or respect. The money I want comes from others. And if I want love, I could do things that would make me loved, or I could just do what I value and the people who value me would love me for me. The love comes from people. Many and possibly most good things come from others. No man is an island and we need each other for the various roles that are to be fulfilled. The trashman really is as important as the doctor. The teacher really is as important as the musician.
But is the villain as important as the hero? I would say yes. Villains only appear when there is an injustice. Let’s face it. Who is going to try to con or hurt others who were not conned or hurt themselves? Villains show us our blind-spots. They are our psychological shadows. They appear when a problem has not been addressed for too long.
Heroes seek to re-establish justice but they must also be those who prevent disaster from occurring in the first place. They see the blind-spots, the shadows and shine a light on it. They help to improve a situation that could’ve gotten worse. They are rehabilitators.
And we are all heroes and villains as we don’t suffer from every ailment and can see injustice but we have all been molested by wrong treatment of some kind.
Think about your body. There are billions of cells that make your singular body. Similarly, we are cells of this planet along with animals and plants and such. Any cell that hoards resources compromises the body. Any human who hoards resources compromises her fellow cells and the planet. They also compromise themselves because if the body dies, they will too. The rich person and the fat cell cannot survive on its own.
When we watch hoarders on TLC we can clearly see that that person has a problem. But when people hoard information, money, medicine, their talents, etc. we aren’t as quick to see that they have a problem. We just think they’re bad. Villains. But they have an ailment too. Their actions are saying something.
If there is anything to leave with at the end of this post, it’s this: the notion that you are a separate entity in a sea of separate entities is understandable, but there’s more to it; there’s another perspective to consider. There is no you, there is only us and remembering that everything is connected and everything works in the way it should.
Even though there’s a lot we don’t like. But we can work on that.
