It’s mother’s day in some countries today.
We can look at mother in many ways, including literally, as a projection, and metaphorically.
And although much of it may be pretty obvious, it can also help us shift our perspective. We may be able to shift out of habitual views and into views that are more new and fresh to us, and hold them all more lightly.
And that, in itself, is often valuable.
LITERAL MOTHERS
The most obvious is our own human mothers – whether it’s our biological one or the one(s) who raised us.
Can I find love for my human mother even if she wasn’t perfect?
The more we resolve any issues with our mother and those in our early life, the more we tend to resolve many of the more central issues we have. If you wonder what to find healing for, a good place to start – and end – is your mother and father and anyone important in your early life.
The more we find healing for our relationship with our mother, the more we can find genuine gratitude for her, as she was and is.
Another side to this is that, to us, our mother is as much or more in here as out there. Finding healing for our relationship with our mother (and father) helps us heal parts of ourselves.
MOTHERS ALL THE WAY BACK
There is also the lineage of mothers.
This lineage goes through all our human mothers through the centuries and in many geographical locations, going back to the early human migration(s) from Africa.
It goes back through our non-human humanoid ancestors. The ones that may be somewhat similar to primates today.
It goes back to our non-human and non-primate mammal ancestors. The small ones that lived during the dinosaur era and even further back.
It goes back beyond this, to our non-mammal ancestors. The ones who left the ocean for land, and the ones who lived in the ocean.
It goes back to the very simple organisms that were the pioneer lifeforms in the oceans.
And it goes back to the very first single-celled organism that’s the ancestor of all life today.
All of these are our mothers. They tie us to all Earth life.
Without them, we wouldn’t exist and the amazing living planet we are part of wouldn’t exist.
MOTHER AS A MIRROR
We also have the mother in all of us.
These are the mother qualities of nurturing, understanding, fierce protection, and so on, and also the distorted version of these.
When I see mother qualities in others, whether nurturing or protective or more distorted, can I find it in myself? What stories do I have about my own mother and other mothers? WHat do I find when I turn this story to myself? Can I find specific and genuine examples of how each one is true?
OUR CHILDREN AS OUR MOTHERS
We think of mothers as mothers of children. Is the reverse also true?
Yes, in a sense, our children are our mothers. They are part of making us who we are.
Can I find appreciation and gratitude for this as well?
MY EXPERIENCES ARE MY MOTHER
At first glance, it may look as if the situations I am in are my mother.
The universe, planet, ecosystem, culture, subcultures, and family I grow up and live in form and shape who I am.
All my experiences – whether I call them small or big – are my mother.
THE WAY I RELATE TO MY EXPERIENCES IS MY MOTHER
When I look more closely, I find something else is more true for me.
It’s the way I relate to my experiences that forms and shapes me and who I am in the world.
The way I relate to my experiences – the way I relate to myself, others, situations, and so on – is my mother.
MOTHER NATURE
Nature is our mother in a very real sense.
Without this living planet, we wouldn’t exist. Every molecule in our bodies comes from the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the food we eat. All of it comes from the wider ecosystems we are part of.
We are an intrinsic part of this living system and a local expression of this living system.
Our own health and well-being, individually and collectively, is dependent on the health and well-being of our mother, of this living system we call planet Earth.
MOTHER UNIVERSE
Similarly, the universe is our mother.
All of existence, going back to the beginning of time (if there is any) and stretching out to the widest extent (if there is any boundary), is our mother.
We depend on all of it for our own existence.
Without the whole, just as it is, we wouldn’t be.
WE ARE THE MOTHERS OF EXISTENCE
The reverse is also true here. We are the mothers of the universe.
We bring existence into form and life – locally and through and as our experiences and life.
We are the local expressions of existence as a whole. We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe.
As Meister Eckart said, we are the mothers of God.
CAPACITY AS THE MOTHER OF ALL
There is also the mother of existence, which is what allows it all – as it appears to me – to happen.
When I look at what I more fundamentally am in my own first-person experience, I find my nature is capacity for the world as it appears to me.
I am capacity for any and all experience – whether it’s of this human self, the wider world, or anything else.
This capacity is the mother of the world as it appears to me.
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