Mystical Reality

 

Literal Mystic

“My point, of course, is that each of us is our own master at constructing the boundaries of reality, determining whether to be open-minded or close-minded, literal-thinking or capable of imagining the universe in letters and numbers, or perhaps even within the design of the mystic’s inner self and soul.”

Caroline Myss (Part 1: Big Things that are Really Small, posted August 30, 2012)

          Any mystic will tell you that what we take to be reality is only a figment of our imagination. That is somewhat true—but only if you are not too literal about it. If I drop a hot skillet on my foot, the burn and the pain will be all too real. It’s what I do with that accident that is in question. For instance, I would start berating myself as a stupid oaf, clumsy, and idiotic—and that firestorm of criticism would continue for as long as it takes the burn to heal. You know, I could drop a skillet on my foot for any number of reasons—I tripped over the dog, the hot-mitt slipped when I was picking it up, the handle broke—whatever. But in my reality, it could only be because I did something stupid to cause it. I wonder whether you do this too.

          I can’t tell you how happy it made me feel to read that Caroline Myss made terrible grades in higher mathematics—she couldn’t leap that hurdle of adding letters to the numbers either. I feel even more like her kindred spirit. I managed to pass classes, but it wasn’t because I actually understood algebra, or geometry, or cared to. I just learned how to work the patterns enough to eek out a passing grade. Some of us are simply not literal thinkers, and those who are, are able to fit the whole universe into categories that they find acceptable and accurate. They can throw a few letters into those numbers and it all makes sense. We mystical types find a hundred different possibilities for everything that exists, and never land squarely on any of them. It must drive concrete thinkers crazy.

          Knowing, however, that our reality is of our own making is important for all of us because we must live together on this one planet. Believing that there is only one reality, and that we know what it is, is causing so much trouble in this world. It is responsible for the divisiveness and brutality of our politics and our economy. Being able to rationalize, for instance, that it’s okay for millions of people in America and around the world to have food scarcity and pinning it on their laziness and unwillingness to work, is simply wrong-headed and cruel—it isn’t smart and sassy at all. That attitude says more about the people who embrace it than about the folks who are hungry.

Our moral and ethical responsibility in a civilized society is to feed the hungry and then go about creating the conditions that help them to feed themselves. That is an example of a big thing that we make small because it serves our personal reality to make it so. Are we capable of breaking out of our close-mindedness long enough to entertain the possibility that there is plenty to go around? That more for the least of these does not mean less for the rest of us. Let’s give it a try. It’s a big deal.

                                        In the Spirit,

                                        Jane