Know yourself
Wednesday, 2. August 2006, 05:03:47
: Today's Reflection is about different ways to know yourself.
I just came back from almost two weeks in the wilderness of Northern BC. Camping, hiking, exploring the wilderness, playing with Tobi, getting to know another small part of this beautiful and huge province, and simply taking time to be in solitude. Interesting things one can discover when there are very few distractions and life is simple. There is a lot to be said about noticing my own reactions and thoughts when I am in a tent with Tobi, in some secluded spot in the middle of nowhere in a forest, remembering a story about a 14-feet tall grizzly bear I heard the day before.
:: "When invited to a party, first know yourself.
:: Then, dress accordingly." - Epictetus
Yet, solitude is not the only way to knowing oneself. The other way, perhaps an extreme, is in a community. This following writing (which was written by Jean Vanier), highlights interesting aspects of being a part of a community, with its ups and downs.
"Community can appear to be a marvelously welcoming and sharing place. But in another way, community is a terrible place. It is the place where our limitations and our egoism are revealed to us. When we begin to live full-time with others, we discover our poverty and our weaknesses, our inability to get on with other people, our mental and emotional blocks, our affective or sexual disturbances, our seemingly insatiable desires, our frustrations and jealousies, our hatred and our wish to destroy. While we were alone, we believed we loved everyone. Now that we are with others, we realize how incapable we are of loving, how much we deny life to others.
So community life brings a painful revelation of our limitations. The unexpected discovery of the monsters within us is hard to accept. The immediate reaction is to try and destroy the monsters, or to hide them away again, pretending they don't exist, or to flee from community life and relationships with others, or to find that the monsters are theirs, not ours. But if we accept that the monsters are there, we can let them out and learn to tame them. This is growth towards liberation.
In community life we discover our own deepest wound and learn to accept it. So our rebirth can begin. It is from this very wound that we are born."
I have been fortunate to like both ways, and be able to continuously integrate both into my life. Each brings with it different learnings and lessons. Yesterday, solitude and wilderness. Today, Vancouver and a community of dear friends. Tomorrow? Who knows...
Perhaps the only unfortunate thing about the wilderness are mosquitoes, who are extremely communal creatures...
A sunny week to you all, inside and out.
Simon
Once again, your timing is impeccable. I too believe I have the good fortune to intergrate solitude and community into my life - it's all about balance, right?
Cheers to you Simon!
By anonymous user, # 3. August 2006, 04:30:16