Many people realize at a certain stage of their lives that there is not only birth, growth, success, health, joy, and gain in the world but also loss, failure, illness, old age, decay, pain, and death. Traditionally, these were labeled as “good” and “bad”, meaning order and chaos. For individuals, the “meaning” of their lives is connected to those they define as “good.” However, this “good” is always under the threat of collapse, destruction, and disorder. It is also threatened by meaningless and “bad” when the explanations fail to satisfy and life does not make sense anymore. A kind of disorder will ultimately come into everyone’s life no matter what insurance policy they hold. This disorder may appear as a loss or accident, illness, infirmity, old age, or death.
However, the disorder erupting in an individual’s life may connote that a higher order begins.
Thinking isolates a situation or an event from others and defines it as “good” or “bad” as if it had a different existence. If we give too much credit to thinking, reality begins to fall apart. This fragmentation is actually an illusion, but when you are stuck in it, it seems very real to you.
The universe nevertheless continues to be a whole in which everything is interconnected and nothing exists apart from the others. The fact that everything and all events in the universe are so deeply connected with each other shows that these “good” and “bad” labels that the mind puts are ultimately misleading. They always indicate a limited point of view, so they are only relatively and provisionally correct.
This situation is well-narrated in the story of a wise man who wins an invaluable car from the lottery.
The family and friends of the wise man are quite happy for him. They want to celebrate this occasion. “Wonderful!”, they say. “How lucky you are!” He smiles and answers; “Maybe.” He drives the car with pleasure for a few weeks. However, one day, a drunk driver hits his new car at a crossroads. Wounded in many areas of his body, the man founds himself in a hospital. His family and friends visit him and say; “This is a great misfortune.” The man smiles again and says; “Maybe.” Indeed, one night when he is in the hospital, a landslide happens and his house flows into the sea. His friends come again the next day and say; “It turns out that you being in a hospital is great luck!” Again, the man responds; “Maybe.”
This wise man refuses to judge a phenomenon so he responds “maybe” each time. He accepts the phenomena instead of judging them and harmonizes and coordinates with the higher order. He is aware of what kind of a role or purpose the phenomena looking like a coincidence hold within the structure of the whole and it is usually impossible for the mind to comprehend them. In fact, no situation is a coincidence as nothing or no phenomena can exist by themselves, for themselves, and separately from others.
The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and the comment made on it and the reaction
You may say; “What a bad day!” without realizing that the cold, wind, rain, or any other thing you react to is not actually bad at all. They only exist as they are. What is bad is your reaction, your inner struggle, and the emotion created by that resistance.
Shakespeare stated; “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Moreover, feeling pain or negative emotions is perceived as a pleasure by the ego since it feeds on them up to a point and gets stronger.
For instance; anger and hard feeling provide the ego with immense power since they increase the feeling of being exceptional from others, emphasize the “otherness” of other people, and creates an attitude of being as tough as nails and unquestionable on the surface and “being right” in mind.
Atoms forming your body were once shaped within the stars.
Even the simplest phenomenon has infinite causes and these are in connection with the whole through the ways the mind cannot comprehend. One must go way back to the beginning of creation in order to find the cause of a phenomenon.
The cosmos is not chaotic.
The word cosmos means order. However, this is not a kind of order that can be comprehended by the human mind. Our mind can only take a peek at it for a moment.
