Today, just like any other day, passed by quickly. Within my own observation, each day is no different than any other day of habitual-beforehand-attention – ignoring what is only real here in each moment, unnoticed and gone – in exchange for another beforehand imaginative moment of what should lie ahead. I can be deeply obsessed in what I am doing, yet in between lines are spells of trepidations or anticipations of what is to come. Things are not done for no reason, but in the hope of a future return which is dear to my heart and very much connected to past experiences of which I do or do not want to experience again.
Life is just that, a meaninglessly repeating cycle of what the past has taught me to handle. I may wish for a drastic change – a change that will hopefully redefine my future – yet the change I want must be something connected to the past; else the meaning of change will not arise at all.
If my past is haunted by unfairness, all I want is justice for equality. Yet, it is not equality that I wish to have but rather justice done for a past that I am unable to forgive as to put me at ease of that appalling experience of unfairness. By making others pay the price for what I once suffered, my perceived equality comes to be.
Similarly, if my past is haunted by my need to re-experience again, I will go all out to make it happen, as to justify my need for it. Whichever or whatever way I heed, I am merely playing justice to my needs.
What is justice but guilt replaying itself? It does not matter whether it is on someone or towards oneself as long as guilt is being ‘done’. Until this is clearly seen and realised, guilt runs the theme. Our minds are run by guilt. The playout in relationships, corporations and countries are not any different. Those who oppose are similarly, doing the same. Whence is fairness? Whence is change?
Where guilt is approved, its result will be guilt orientated. It never ends except a vicious cycle of guilt ridden outcomes. This is the path of the known world; rarely is Love introduced, bringing forth a truer means of forgiveness as an antidote to guilt. Forgiveness releases, guilt condemns. In guilt, wrongness is seen. In forgiveness, error is realised. Fear, guilt and shame is in our blood, universally. The only change worth changing is not what is separated from us but rather what is within each of us. Only then a new world is possible. It begins here in the Now.
“Few among men are those who cross to the other shore. The rest, the bulk of men, only run up and down on the hither shore.”- Dhammapada 85