Hail Ones
Love of JAH and greetings
I just want to share a little lesson that I learned some years ago.
I remember I had this friend who was a very out of the box thinker. He wasn't perfect in all his ways, that's for sure. But a very deep thinker and had ways of seeing life that are different from most (even literally, being color blind).
I remember we were talking one day and he was making the point to me that "it's not This OR That, it's This AND That." His point was to say that, many times people think their view is the only right. And others with an opposite perspective think that person is wrong, and THEIR view is actually the right one. But this is a dualistic reality. And many times it is not one or the other that is right, but actually both. It was also a point that when holding two options in your mind, you don't have to choose one or the other. You don't have to have a set in stone mentality.
For example in his eyes the green trees that we were looking at, as we sat having this discussion, were the same color as the red flowers on the bushes. For me they were two obviously different colors. But it doesnt mean either one of us was right, both can be right at the same time.
Another example is the difference between study of physics of solid materials, and the study of particle physics. Both seem to be true at the same time in this seemingly material yet nonmaterial existence.
Rather than looking at life as a this OR that, what if we looked at it as this AND that?
I am not sure if this makes sense to everyone. But to me it made a lot of sense, and it allowed me to pull myself out of my own perspective and put myself behind the eyes of others, seeing how their opinions also could be right from where they are looking. It also let me be comfortable with unknowns or with seemingly opposing ideas both being true. It was a lesson in compassion and letting go of control, a lesson in duality.
And that phrase always stuck with me: "it's not this OR that, it's this AND that."
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