by Ross Bishop
Sure, you have heard that before. But what does it really mean? We humans are a fallible lot, but there is a good deal more to it than that.
When we make a mistake, it is because we either don’t know or choose not to know, what to do. Either we are ignorant or fearful, and both create opportunities for learning (if we are willing to accept them). That is how we mature and grow! We develop ourselves (learn) through our mistakes if we can get past the shame of screwing up!
Screw up, and you’ll feel that something is wrong. Either that or you’ll get unpleasant feedback from others. Remember when you learned to walk or ride a two-wheeled bicycle? You learned mostly from your mistakes, especially at first. As a baby learning to walk, you were down more than you were up! We didn’t have training wheels when I was a kid, and I still remember my skinned knees! When we had those experiences, we were dealing with the unforgiving law of gravity.
There are laws for human behavior too, but those are far more forgiving, and for good reason. Flexible “laws” give us a great deal of space to make mistakes, change and learn. Besides, as I said, your “screw-ups” mostly come from your fear anyway, so they present perfect learning opportunities (if we are willing to take advantage of them).
For example, we are asked to bring compassion into every interaction. When we do not, we experience discomfort, perhaps even pain, not as punishment but because The Universe is trying to awaken us to what we have been doing (or not doing) and encourage us to change. If we continue to refuse, then The Universe ratchets up the consequences. We know this as karma.
The simple truth is that we don’t want to accept responsibility for our own happiness, because that would mean having to face the fears and beliefs we hold about ourselves. Brianna Wiest said:
”Nobody wants to believe happiness is a choice, because that puts responsibility in their hands. It’s the same reason people self-pity: to delay action, to make an outcry to the universe, as though the more they state how bad things are, the more likely it is that someone else will change them.”
Because we have free will, The Creator couldn’t simply give us self-love or worthiness. We have to decide that we are lovable and worthy for ourselves. You can say it is a clumsy system, but it works!
And, it is not that we don’t have good guidance! We have plenty of living examples of how to live. We have Jesus, Moses, Vishnu, Brahma and Kami. Muslims go straight to to Allah while Buddhists and Taoists use the laws of The Universe for guidance. Regarding teaching, we have the Bible, The Ten Commandments, The Torah, The Bhagavad Ghita, the Kojiki, Bhudda’s Sutras and The Noble Truths, The Koran and the Daoist philosophies. In addition, there are thousands of other books interpreting and expounding on spiritual topics.
Of all of these, one of the most intriguing to me is the Sufi text, Physicians of The Heart, The 99 Names of Allah, which is an incredible work of spiritual awakening. In illuminating the qualities of Allah, such as infinite compassion, endless love, mercy, peace, trust, purity, wisdom, generosity and forgiveness, the Sufis provide exceptional guideposts for our behavior. My point is that we have plenty of examples regarding how to live.
But one must ask, “How much have we really gained from these teachings?” The point is arguable. We have learned to fly above the clouds and have explored the depths of the oceans. Man has walked on the moon. Our species has come a long way since emerging from caves, but we remain unwilling to deal with our beliefs of unworthiness and unlovability. Our compassion for others continues to elude us. We slaughter each other with an almost predictable regularity. And then there is the issue of compassion for ourselves.
And while the West enjoys an enviable abundance, much of Africa, the Far East, and India suffer from want, while we spend an enormous amount of our hard-earned wealth on weapons of mass destruction, to what foolhardy end?
So, the challenge is to learn and grow from our “mistakes” and not simply punish ourselves for doing something “wrong.” Every teacher, regardless of their faith, admonishes us to love ourselves and each other. But at present, that kind of vulnerability presents too great a risk. What if they reject us? What if they confirm that we are unworthy or unlovable? It is through dealing with these issues that our species will evolve.
copyright 2024@Blue Lotus Press
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