Our worldview, and our assumptions about ourselves and reality, inevitably color our perception and how we live our life.
And one element of our worldview is whether we see reality and our own nature as fundamentally kind, neutral, or somehow stained (e.g. original sin).
A PARTICULAR BRAND OF CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE
I grew up in a Christian protestant culture, and although Christianity didn’t explicitly play much of a role, I too absorbed some of the views from Christianity of our nature as inherently stained. Also, from the particular brand of science popular in the 1900s, I learned that reality is inherently neutral and in many ways cruel and merciless. So, naturally, somewhere in me, I didn’t really trust reality or truth.
This is in no way inherent in Christianity or science in general. It’s easy to imagine and find approaches to Christianity and science that see it differently. Approaches that are more life-affirming, and perhaps closer to reality.
WHAT I FIND
When I explore this for myself, I find something else.
When I explore the actions of others or myself, and what’s happening in the world, I find innocence. It’s not personal. It’s the local expressions of the movements of the whole of existence.
Often, actions that harm ourselves and others are a result of pain and trauma, and more accurately how we react to our own pain and trauma. And how we react to our pain and trauma is often absorbed from those around us and our culture. Often, the pain, trauma, and how we react to it, is something passed on through the generations.
I also find I can use anything as material for my own healing, maturing, and even awakening. In that way too, what’s happening is ultimately innocent and even – in a sense – kind.
HOW WE CAN EXPLORE THIS FOR OURSELVES
Having a general mental framework for a more kind reality is a good start.
And the real shifts in ourselves come from a more thorough examination of specifics, and especially of what seems the least kind to us.
To do that, it can help to initially use a more structured form of inquiry. For instance, The Work of Byron Katie, Living Inquiries, or the Big Mind process.
As usual, there is a lot more to say about all of this. I decided to make this post short since I have addressed many of the topics here in other articles.
INITIAL OUTLINE
- the truth is ultimately kind
- one element of our basic worldview, assumptions about ourselves and reality
- is reality/truth kind or not?
- for me
- find innocence, not personal, movement of all of existence
- find it’s happening w/in and as what we are
- ….
- one element of our basic worldview, assumptions about ourselves and reality