The Myth of Fingerprints continued
and time, a loose bundle of named qualities...he is
You and fills the firmament..."
All are one, therefore all are in God, and of God.
In most of the world's mystical traditions, to believe otherwise is a delusion.
The Myth of Fingerprints.
But people are different, we insist, with different
traits, some good and some bad. To which the late Zen master Shunryu
Suzuki responded by suggesting the metaphor of a river, going over a waterfall.
The cascading water separates into a million distinct drops--each droplet
different, yet sharing the same properties of water (just as human beings
have different feelings and personalities, while sharing the same basic
properties). In Suzuki's analogy, as the drops of water return to
their natural state of oneness in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall,
so too do we find our true nature in an awareness of our Oneness with all
things.
A sublime, profoundly simple image. Perhaps
too simple. Can we make such a leap? As human beings, we seem
so eager to differentiate ourselves from each other by roles and jobs and
income, by faiths and national borders and political affiliation, by skin
color and blood type and body shape, by gender... We wrap ourselves in
our differences, even celebrate it as diversity, and go on staring at each
other, literally and figuratively, down the barrels of guns.
Which brings me back to Sarge. Because the
simple truth is, it doesn't matter whether the sight of him elicits anger
or pity in me. Until I can understand that, at a fundamental level,
there is no difference between us, I'll continue to see him--and those
like him--as a problem to be solved, an other to be dealt with.
And so I stay behind the wheel, avoiding his gaze,
waiting for the light to change...
Reprinted from the AHP Perspective
magazine, July/August 1995, Association for Humanistic Psychology.
dennis@dennispalumbo.com
