http://www.care2.com/greenliving/memory-serves-to-isolate.html
Memory Serves to Isolate
We all cling to memory because it defines us. To bring an end to separation and isolation, you have to be willing to see the unreality of memory. Think of someone you know well–your husband or wife, a sibling or friend. Bring him or her to your mind in detail and ask yourself what you really know about this person. Go beyond mere facts, such as eye color, weight, job, or address. Think instead about the most personal traits, likes and dislikes, vivid memories and interactions.
When you finish this exercise, you may assume that you have compiled an accurate portrait of that person. Yet everything you’ve recalled came from your memory, and therefore what you have described is your individual viewpoint.
That same person could be described entirely differently from another perspective. What seems likeable to you is unlikeable to others, what is memorable to you may be entirely forgettable in someone else’s eyes.
You do not have to go very far to realize that everything in your description is completely relative. Your idea of tall is someone else’s idea of short or average, heavy can be seen as light, fair as dark, friendly as unfriendly, and so forth. You are really describing your perspective, not the person.
Moreover, your experiences with that person are uniquely your own, which makes your description even more idiosyncratic. Because it is completely relative, your viewpoint cannot be called real. Reality doesn’t depend on a viewpoint–it simply is.
Most of us, dwelling as we do inside our private worlds, do not contact the real very often. The unreal is the habit of the senses; the real is the habitat of the wizard. You have to look behind the curtain of memory to begin to discover the true fabric of reality.
Adapted from The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 1995).
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add your comment »Uuuh ~ What was I going to comment ~ I forgot LOL
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thx deepak
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RE" the poem...perspective and balance are near everything plus...LOVE we all gotta have love..look @ any failure to thrive baby...and so it goes and goes this battle called life!! to life i say!! to blessed life!..and blessed be to you and to you!!
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Thank you Deepak.
I think life gives us the answers as we go along on how much we are able to cope with at the point in time.
It feels like one cannot find it out all at once...there is not one answer to the whole universe, at least at human level anyway.
So really there is nothing to grasp..only to take your daily portion of minerals and vitements to keep a healthy body. Only htrought a healthy body can the mind find peace.
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It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approach'd the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -"Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
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The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he,
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
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Added to my favorites Thank you Peace
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nothing from nothing is something!....i'm thinking!! lol!
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SO BEAUTIFULY WRITTEN,, THANK YOU SO MUCH,BEEN DEALING WITH THIS LATELY , PERCEPTION, PERCEPTION, ANOTHER( WOW )FOR ME ,
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But if everything is fabricated out of nothing then what is nothing fabricated out of?? If everyone is relative and we are all distant relatives and I don't like my relatives that would mean that I don't like relating to myself..and if i don't like myself my self might no like me either and if you can't get along with yourself then you might as well be selfless and save yourself all the trouble of trying to get along with you.
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