When I lived in a developing country, every day, on my way to work, I'd see many people living in difficult conditions like close to the streets as an example; and most of those streets had become narrowed due to the fact that more and more people occupy them as “homes.”
Like every family, those people cook, go to the bathroom to brush their teeth and take a bath, and so on — unlike most families however, those people do it close to/on the streets.
A few days ago, I also witnessed someone taking a plastic bag, filled with plastic cups and plates with leftovers — and throw it in the sea. The very sea from which he’d get his fish in the evening.
Again; I condemned it. But I also condemned myself for arriving too late and being unable to stop him.
Funnily enough, half an hour later, I came back to the same place. I was just walking around. And as I gave a look at the sea — I saw two stray dogs, tired, dirty, and rather skinny. They probably didn’t have a decent meal in weeks.
And what where they doing here? They were eating the leftovers from that same plastic bag. There wasn’t much food. But those dogs looked like they were having the time of their life.
It is easy for us human beings to be caged in our own fantasies about life and how it should be lived. To think that one thing is good while the other is wrong.
What we forget however is that each one of us has been conditioned by multiple variables that make up our conception of the world, our outlook, our worldview.
This worldview is carefully maintained in place by our beliefs.
I don’t think like you think. And you don’t think like I do.
This is one of the main reasons why there is so much conflict in the world.
Whenever we’re presented with a different worldview than ours, we become resistant and often express our resistance in frustrated ways.
The more people try to change us, the bigger our frustration becomes, and the more attached we get to our beliefs because we have a reason to — people want to take something from us, at least, that’s what we believe.
The fact that we reason this way makes us feel separated from one another, it gives our ego a boost, which reinforces the belief in separation.
All of it happens at an unconscious level, and that is why it is not so obvious at first. Paying attention to our thoughts, and plucking what’s underneath them will reveal such patterns.
This is when we realize that our beliefs, which are limiting for the most part, have been the sole reason behind our suffering, behind our loneliness, behind our blindness.
This is when we realize that our limiting beliefs distort our worldview.
And because all we see is separation, suffering, loneliness — through our Reticular Activating System, as well as our confirmation bias; this is what we see, and it confirms/reinforces our limiting beliefs.
To see that duality doesn’t exist, as you say it, I could give you poems or read you scriptures, and sure, those would momentarily open your heart to a deeper layer of reality — but I value practicality more than fancy speeches.
The best way for me to help you therefore is through this: All you need to do is to roll up your sleeves, and work on releasing your limiting beliefs.
As you do so, which is the work of the spiritual path, you release all your assumptions about the world, about people, about our nature, about the nature of reality — which are deeply ingrained in the subconscious mind because we believed in those assumptions for many years — your perception stops being biased, and you observe things as they are, not as you think they should be.
I will try giving an example but this can only be experienced by oneself.
Instead of condemning the fact that people live on the streets when there are so many buildings around, and none of those real estate mogul tries to help — you perceive the free will that each soul has been given. You perceive that choices create scenarios. And no scenario is better than the other, but rather, each scenario wants to be lived/experienced by Creation.
Imagine you were the wealthiest, most powerful and beautiful being in the universe. Imagine you didn’t know it. And imagine that to know it, you created a world and a body for yourself, so that through this creation, you experienced yourself as the wealthiest, most powerful and beautiful being in the universe…
We bet on ourselves when we decided to experience life on Earth. We believe in ourselves. Regardless of what we may think right now, regardless of where we may find ourselves at right now, deep inside, we know that we will overcome anything because that’s our very nature. This is who we are.
Knowing this, by “knowing thyself,” you start perceiving an underlying perfection behind everything. In the immediate moment, some things may make you emotional; be patient — life will reveal you the bigger picture, as it did with those dogs that benefited from the plastic being thrown in the sea.
We could go on and on, having more examples, but as said, it can only be experienced by oneself.
I hope this answer brought you some clarity on the subject. If you have any other questions, you know where to reach out.
As a final note.
If you have been meditating, using affirmations and thinking positively for a while now without necessarily integrating spiritual truths at a soul level even though you understand them intellectually, I wrote a book to help you demystify the main blocks to spiritual growth, learn how to heal more effectively, and progress on your spiritual path. You can give the book a look here.
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