I come across them regularly, and this week was no exception: those people who seem to do everything right and yet keep getting generous helpings of misery on their plate. I believe in spiritual growth, and still it regularly feels completely random: the misery. So the whole idea of karma — getting what you deserve, reaping what you sow, or its superlative, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind — is something I'd like to question in this piece. I hope I'm not treading on sensitive toes, because that last expression comes straight from the Bible, and I have nothing else to say against that book.
It may be that the lovely people who came to visit me unwittingly sowed seeds that produced this unhappy harvest. Or something else entirely: the better they do (and what is better, from our limited perspective, is hard to say), the more rubbish they get to process, so that spiritually they can dot their i's. And then there are the slow learners, to whom life perhaps keeps serving up ever more challenging situations, so they can't avoid looking in the mirror. (The mirrors I come across seem enormous, so what does that say about me?) I'm just throwing a few balls in the air. That I don't have the answer will be clear by now.
The question that looms here — and it's quite a question, one my child asks regularly too, believe it or not — is: why are we here on earth? And who was the first human being? And which came first, the chicken or the egg? (Ahem… now I'm getting carried away. Though that last one actually has an answer: the egg. The first chicken hatched from the egg of a bird that wasn't quite a chicken yet. Yes, a bit cheap, I know. And let's be honest: that answer only raises more questions, doesn't it?) I'll leave the chicken and the egg alone for now.
With these questions we run into the very biggest riddles of human existence. And now it's up to me to answer them in the next few paragraphs, so that we can put these difficult matters behind us once and for all… Or, in all humility, I can do a little research and see whether we can map out a few directions, in different flavours and colours, so that by the end of this piece we can stack up even more questions arising from them. I'll have to surrender to the latter; I'm only human after all ;-)
Like everything in life, this has to stay manageable, so that we don't all drown in the subject matter — there's plenty left to learn for next time. So my priority in this reflection lies with the question of why those lovely, good people I mentioned earlier have to endure so much misery. That's what's closest to my heart right now. And perhaps I'm talking about you, too. Do feel addressed — or rather don't, because then you're one of the lucky few.
What I try to do with my columns is plant seeds. (Seeds again — could it be a common thread?) That's really all I can do. Because, as Socrates said: I know that I know nothing.
'Mysterious Mountains' – graphic print | digital mixed media art | 2012
A picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps a parable is sometimes truer than reality, perhaps faith can take many forms, and perhaps the people of old were blessed with more wisdom than we are now… Sometimes the answer comes in a few words you just happened to need in order to move on. I sometimes do the trick of the magic bookcase: at a desperate moment, with an urgent question, I pull a random book from the shelf, open it wherever feels right, and read the first passage my eye falls on. And more than once I can make those words rhyme with the situation: they bring me something, a quiet message, a little nudge, a spark of inspiration.
That's what I'd like to try out with you now. The four stories below are all about a mustard seed. Without knowing which story you'll get, click one of the four seeds and see whether it fits where you stand on this question right now — how you look at the misery in the world, at karma and accountability. I'd love to hear whether the trick helped you along, or at least softened things a little.