This article is inspired by something the author recently read.
The author read how someone strongly insisted that a spiritual teacher should take responsibility for the unhappiness and confusion of the world.
From what the author read, it seemed that the person who made the comment held the spiritual teacher accountable for what is apparently 'wrong' with the world. He demanded the teacher to do his job and free the world from its unhappiness.
This was quite funny, and the author thought of writing a short article about this.
The author had thoughts like;
"Why are these teachers not helping us with our suffering?
Why is God not fixing things?
Why does God allow this evil to exist?
When will the Guru show grace to me?"
Does this sound familiar?
See, these thoughts arise, because we see a world, and we mistakenly see ourselves as separate from the world. We think that we are this speck on earth. A 'separate self.'
Accordingly, we impute our own confusion and suffering onto the world, and we say that "the world is confused and suffering". Then, we point at a spiritual teacher or at God, and we demand that the teacher or God take care of the world's confusion and suffering.
We hold a teacher or God responsible for the apparent unhappiness of the world.
Confusing ourselves to be this limited, 'separate self', we experience unhappiness.
Instead of pointing at the Guru or God to 'fix' the world, why don't we first 'fix' our own ignorance?
We can start by asking ourselves "Who does this confused and suffering world appear to?"
See, we do not know ourselves, but we claim to know the world and how the world should be.
Investigating our own unhappiness and confusion, our perception starts to change. Taking care of our own ignorance, the apparent 'ignorant world' is taken care of too.
Related articles on this blog:
Me, my, I - 19 February 2022
Our own reflection - 21 January 2022
The origin of the universe - 10 January 2022
The author read how someone strongly insisted that a spiritual teacher should take responsibility for the unhappiness and confusion of the world.
From what the author read, it seemed that the person who made the comment held the spiritual teacher accountable for what is apparently 'wrong' with the world. He demanded the teacher to do his job and free the world from its unhappiness.
This was quite funny, and the author thought of writing a short article about this.
Confusion
This situation was funny, because the author remembers having similar ideas in the past. Not directed at this specific spiritual teacher, but at spiritual teachers in general, and at God too.The author had thoughts like;
"Why are these teachers not helping us with our suffering?
Why is God not fixing things?
Why does God allow this evil to exist?
When will the Guru show grace to me?"
Does this sound familiar?
See, these thoughts arise, because we see a world, and we mistakenly see ourselves as separate from the world. We think that we are this speck on earth. A 'separate self.'
Accordingly, we impute our own confusion and suffering onto the world, and we say that "the world is confused and suffering". Then, we point at a spiritual teacher or at God, and we demand that the teacher or God take care of the world's confusion and suffering.
We hold a teacher or God responsible for the apparent unhappiness of the world.
Pointing inwards
Instead of blaming someone else for the unhappiness and confusion of the world, why don't we investigate our own confusion and unhappiness?Confusing ourselves to be this limited, 'separate self', we experience unhappiness.
Instead of pointing at the Guru or God to 'fix' the world, why don't we first 'fix' our own ignorance?
We can start by asking ourselves "Who does this confused and suffering world appear to?"
See, we do not know ourselves, but we claim to know the world and how the world should be.
Investigating our own unhappiness and confusion, our perception starts to change. Taking care of our own ignorance, the apparent 'ignorant world' is taken care of too.
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| Changing the way we see ourselves, we change the way we see the world. |
Related articles on this blog:
Me, my, I - 19 February 2022
Our own reflection - 21 January 2022
The origin of the universe - 10 January 2022
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