Friday, October 26, 2007 Inside outside By Rene Lizado Papa's Table
"We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want."
--Tao te Ching
IMAGINE a pot. On the outside it may look full and pretty. The bigger the pot, the more it attracts attention. It may have decorations of all sorts and can be painted with so much color and detail. We can draw paintings on the surface and attach other decorations.
And when we are done with the painting and the decorating we can place it on a high place so others may see and admire the outward appearance of the pot. We may like what we see, we may be even be awed by it. Yet if there is nothing in the pot, it remains empty. Perhaps worse than being empty would be the garbage that it has collected.
Imagine a person. On the outside he or she may look contented and pretty. The richer the person, the more he or she attracts attention. The person may have decorations of all sorts too. Money, fame, power, titles. Oh yes and more.
And oh yes even more because he can create images by these things. On the surface she may be admired and idolized.
We may even like what we see. Yet we do not know really what is inside. We do not know how vast and piercing the emptiness is.
Then imagine us, imagine our lives, your life. What is it that you see? Perhaps like most of us we have masks and roles. We like to think we are this, or we are that and yet what the truth is may be so vastly different from the projections we show to society, to people. To ourselves.
For try as we might, for try as we can, we really cannot deceive ourselves. The truth will always stare at us. We cannot run away from something inescapable. We cannot deny what cannot be denied.
What does your emptiness hold? A philosopher once said that "most men lead lives of quiet desperation." I love that phrase "quiet desperation." It seems so loud, it seems so real. It is a painful, yet realistic metaphor of the kind of lives most people live, in "quiet desperation."
And yet sometimes the 'quiet' is a noisy thing, the despair can be heard by the clanging of the things we do. We do crazy stuff to show our despair. We all have ways and we know them. Some of us become gaudy in dress and in conduct. Others flaunt their ugliness masquerading in beauty. Still some strut their helplessness in things powerful such as wealth and power. Just take a look around and you will see, you will sense the desperation and the helplessness. And why do we do all these? Who knows?
Each of us has to deal with the demons in their own ways. The brave face their fears, the rest run away from them by denying all that is true within them. What is your emptiness holding? What is inside your pot?
Yet the irony is whatever it is that is within us, we have allowed it into our lives. As the quotation puts it, we shape the clay. We make the clay, we create what the pot projects. We create ourselves, we make ourselves. And whatever it is that is inside the pot is the creation of ourselves.
There is nothing in us that did not enter without our permission. And whatever we are now, whatever we carry now are merely consequences of the things that we have allowed into our lives.
Sometime ago I joined a seminar on karma. We had a lively discussion on the subject and there was a point in the discussion wherein the question of choices came up. It was premised that all that happens to us is because of the choices we make. I asked, even accidents? Even nasty cruel things? The answer was yes.
Yes because we chose that particular event, that particular circumstance. It is all a matter of choice. Only the lost blame others for their predicaments. Only those who are desperate point the finger. The weak will never concede, the weak will never accept the blame. It is always the others who are at fault.
A Chinese proverb puts it well. "He who blames others has a way long way to go. He who blames himself is halfway there. And he who blames no one has arrived." (More on this in the next few articles.)
What occupies your emptiness? What are the voices that you hear at night? What are the things that you allow into your soul? Are they true? Are they real? Are they masks? Roles you play? Are you a hypocrite? Are you true? Can you face what the emptiness holds? Can you hold the emptiness fearlessly?
