21 Oct «But there are no tigers around here » (MARIO ALONSO PUIG)
We tend to think that the key to everything is “to do” so as “to have” and later “to be”: carrying out various actions to possess certain things which in turn allow us to be recognized, prestigious and happy. I believe that this is not a healthy paradigm and that, perhaps, we could invert it. When the first thing one looks for is to be, to do is in keeping with this being and this is what gives rise to having. Only from a balanced, true, complete and compassionate self can actions be born that are so essentially so different that they end up forming new realities. It is our level of awareness that determines our level of self.
An ordinary consciousness is on the plane of what is reasonable, and so, we do what it is logical to do and we get what it is sensible to get. When you enter this other level of consciousness, you do what you do not because you have reasons. You choose this path and for that reason you get something both extraordinary and unexpected.
When we work to act not based on our emotions but on our choices, this is when we act in freedom.
We often call a comfortable life a life of simple resignation. That’s why, the walls of the mind are more solid than the walls of stone as they have the capacity not even to contemplate the possibility that another reality different from the one we know is possible.
When in our lives something happens that we don’t like such as not being acknowledged or thanked, or perhaps we come across a person who refuses to collaborate with us, we immediately reject that person or situation. This is very sensible and reasonable, and that’s precisely the problem. We choose things with our heart and we use reason to justify them and in the end what we decide to feel will immediately be backed up by solid logical arguments.
The world that seems reasonable to us is not the world of logic but the world of automatisms. That’s why, it is only reasonable that we get tense and angry when faced with stimuli that generate a lack of comfort. The world of the reasonable seems so irresistibly logical that we clutch at it as if it were the only one possible. This is why when we look at ourselves we find reasons, proof and justifications that reinforce the idea that we are in the right and the other person, wrong.
[There is a curious character in the Sufi world called Mullah Nasruddin, known for being both a sage and an eccentric. One day, Nasruddin was dropping breadcrumbs around him, when a neighbour came up to him and asked him,
“What are you doing, Nasruddin?”
“I’m trying to keep the tigers at bay,” responded Nasruddin.
“But there are no tigers for thousands of kilometres around here,” the perplexed neighbour replied. “A clear demonstration of the efficiency of my method, don’t you think?” responded Nasruddin.]
Reinventing Yourself
Mario Alonso Puig
