We met Donna on a flight to deliver a seminar in Christchurch.
She'd just come back from a sabbatical journey to Bangladesh and Thailand, visiting people who are in difficult situations every day, in every way.
This is one of those journeys that challenges every cultural assumption you hold as well as what it is to you to be human.
We started talking about cultural frameworks - about how in the West, we have this concept called duality, where we make sense of the world by placing things in an intellectual framework of "Good/Bad, Right/Wrong, Better Than/Less Than"
That is for a western mind to make sense of something, it either is somewhere on the continuum of Good....or....Bad, Right.....or .....Wrong, or, Better than......or .......Less than.
And most of us don't even question that - "It's just how it is!"
But the funny thing about it- is that it's not really reality. It just helps us create a context around the thing or situation so that we can put reality into words.
But most of us forget that and see reality within the box of Good/Bad,Right/Wrong,Better than/Less than.
And all great innovation, creativity and original thought operate outside of this box.
And it takes a trip (adventure) to the East to really get this - because Buddhist and Hindu religions define "Duality" and operate outside of this.
That's why India for example has driven Westerners crazy, simply because they operate out of our paradigm.
So, the next time you are looking for a creative solution to whatever problem you are looking at, try looking at it outside of the box of Good/Bad,Right/Wrong,Better than/Less than.
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1 comment:
I met Rose and Mike on a flight home from Thailand and Bangladesh!
It was one of those incredible moments that seem quite surreal, where the other party understands everything you are saying and thinking, yet have never met them before.
That kind of understanding on a "chance" meeting is very rare and incredibly valuable! I don't believe in chance, by the way.
In Thailand, particularly, I did indeed learn that "it's just how it is"!
There I felt no judgement, I was accepted for who I was, how I was, where I was, right then and there. Any action by anyone was not a problem, it is just the way it is. Full stop.
It was very liberating to be free of all baggage, be it Western hang-ups, home, family or friends and issues that come with living, and being able to give to people in an open-hearted and full manner.
I like that Donna and will try to incorporate her and all her strengths into my new/old life.
Thank you so much to Mike and Rose for your love and support to a stranger on a plane. It meant the world to me.
Donna
xx
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