Do not praise self or blame others is the precept that we explored during the dharma discussion this week. Praising self, blaming others is a source of tension and stress in this life. It’s also based on the view of a divided self. Self vs. other limits our view to a way of clinging and seeing only the separateness of dharmas, phenomena. All things work together.
So what about the oneness aspect, which goes beyond “you or me” and which encompasses both. We function together. Realizing this in action, as it unfolds, is all encompassing? If we live from a view that doesn’t embrace our entirety, we do judge and get trapped in our separateness. How sad. To be exiled from the wholeness of our life. From the infinite relationships of it all. Holding a narrow view of me in here and you out there, cuts off so much vitality and clings to narrow ground, where we are confused about the nature of what is unfolding. And then we have to defend, protect, justify, negate so much in order to shore up what is our very partial experience of embodiment.
Compassion flows readily from a wider view, not fixating on you or me, but instead appreciating the fluidity of our commonality, including self, including other. What is mine, what is yours, is mutually created in an infinite mix of conditions, pointing us to ask, “what can I learn from this?”
