THE FEAR OF WHAT IS DIFFERENT

“To direct the mind towards the basic unity of all things and to divert it from the seizing of differences - therein lies bliss.”

~ Tejo-Bindu Upanishad

The eye can see what we have in common or focus on what keeps us apart. And the heart can feel what joins us with everything or replay its many cuts. And the tongue can praise the wind or warn against the storm, can praise the sea or dread the flood.

It’s not that there are no differences - the world is made of infinite variety - rather it is the seizing of differences, the fearing of differences, that keeps us from feeling grace.

Paradoxically, everything in life touches the same center through its uniqueness, the way no two souls are the same, though every soul breathes the same air.

When we fall into the illusion that one creation is better than another, we remove ourselves from the miracle of being and enter what the sixth-century sage Seng-Ts’an called the mind’s worst disease: the endless deciding between want and don’t want, the endless war between for and against.

~ Light a candle and sit quietly before a window.

~ Relax your heart and breathe deeply.

~ Notice the many different things that come into view: trees, wind, clouds, the rattle of the window, people walking.

~ Notice the candle and the quiet flame rising from it.

~ Breathe calmly and imagine the same quiet flame rising within the heart of everything you see.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo