I know the first step, but what is the second?
I overheard a conversation a couple of days ago...
Somebody asked another how it is possible to not be reactive to what is happening in the world. The other said, I find in myself what I see in the other, and see that we are no different. And the first responded, impatiently, yes, I know that is the first step, but what is the second?
The second is the first step, all over again, and over again, and over again, until it deepens, becomes indisputable, is a lived realization, deepening and maturing over and over.
Whatever I see in you is also here in myself. Whatever I see anywhere out there, is also here in myself.
Knowing this as a general principle is useful as a pointer, as a reminder to look for the specifics. How is this true? How can I find in my own life what I see in your life? How does it play itself out here. How it is alive right here and now?
This exploration, over and over, is what deepens the realization. It is what puts meat on the bones. It is what fills it out. It is what makes it come alive. It is what allows any sense of absolute separation to soften, dissolve, melt away, leaving only an open heart - available to you and me as we are.
It is what any sense of boundaries to fall away, until there is only Ground left - the Ground of seeing and seen, absent of I anywhere.
Labels: compassion, projections