Misunderstanding

The single biggest story line in human history has to be the Misunderstanding between two people. There are books and movies and poetry written about the effects of this very incidence, in gory detail, in blatant pain, in the complete agony of not understanding.

It's simple really. One person says or does something, and another person reacts to it in anger. Where is the truth in this?

Life is what it is, people are who they are, what is said is said. It is never about you. What another person says or does is wholly and completely about them. You hold the highest honor and prestige of being the King/Queen who chooses how to respond how life is acting or people, and in that choice you can recognize that it's really not about you, or you can react. Usually those reactions are fear-based anger, and that anger sits and festers and creates the whole melodramatic episode that sells so many books and so many movies, and characterizes so much of what happens between people in real life too. But as dramatic as it all is, it's still just a fear-based reaction of anger and has nothing to do with the reality of the other person.

It is said that the highest state of being is compassion and enlightenment, and enlightenment is described as the state of total non-reaction. That means there is no reaction to the stimuli of life - be it a person, a thing, an event, or life in general. The enlightened being has learned that it is not about them, it is simply something happening outside of themselves and they have learned not to react at all.

Not all of us have the patience or the temperament for enlightenment in this lifetime, but the lesson of neutrality and non-reaction is still a valuable one.

So much of our life's energy is spent on Misunderstanding and the consequent reaction and surrounding drama. And that is a choice. If you can train your mind to stop for 4 seconds before responding or reacting to something, you are giving yourself time to recognize that whatever it is, it's not about you. And in that moment, the heat of the moment fades and you are free to answer or respond in a much calmer manner. You become in that moment the compassionate being, easily sidestepping Misunderstanding.

That which there is no room for and that which gets zero attention, fades from the spotlight and, indeed, from your life forever. That's a response that's worthwhile!

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop