उत्क्रांति की राह पर कहीं, भय की वजह से (विशेष रूप से वो लोग जिनका प्राकृतिक वातावरण से संपर्क टूट गया और वे भीड़भरी तनावयुक्त परिस्तिथियों में रहने आ गए ) संकुचित रूप से अपने अस्तित्व को समझने और जीने लगे। हमें सुरक्षित महसूस करना था। और अज्ञात हमें भयभीत कर रहा था। इसलिए हमने अज्ञात को संभालें जा सकने वाले छोटे-छोटे टुकड़ों में बाँट दिया - इस प्रक्रिया में हमने अज्ञात का ज़्यादातर अर्थ और आकर्षण ख़त्म कर दिया।
जब हम इसे अस्तित्व बचाए रखने के नज़रिये से देखते हैं तब बात समझ में आती है:हमारा शरीर नश्वर है, हमारा जीवन अपेक्षाकृत छोटा है, और जैसे ही हम अपने छोटे और सिमित जीवन से बड़ा कुछ है, यह समझने की कोशिश करते हैं, हम मर जाते हैं। हम हर प्रकार की धारणाएं बनाते हैं (धर्म, विचारधाराएँ और मिथक) इस धरती पर जन्म और मृत्यु को तर्कसंगत बनाने के लिए और अपने आप को ये आश्वासन देने के लिए के जीवन का कुछ सार (स्वर्ग, नर्क, पुनर्जन्म) हमारे शरीर के नष्ट होने पर और हमारी आँखों का तेज ख़त्म हो जाने पर भी रहेगा।
हम उन युद्धों के भय से छोटा जीवन जीते हैं जिन में हमारी मृत्यु हो सकती है; हमारे विरुद्ध संभावित हिंसा की वजह से छोटा जीवन जीते हैं, बदले में, वही हिंसा दूसरों पर प्रकट होती है; इस संभावना के कारण के बचपन में हमें जिस मानसिक, शारीरिक और आध्यात्मिक हिंसा से गुज़ारना पड़ा था शायद हमारे छोटे जीवन में हमें या हमारे बच्चों को उस हिंसा से फिर से गुज़रना पड़े।
इसलिए हम अपने आप को सुरक्षित रखने का हर संभव उपाय करते हैं: एक उपाय है अपने अंदर के वीर और साहसी बालक से 'छिपना' - जो बहार जा कर पूरी दुनिया का अन्वेषण करना चाहता था - इसके बजाय अपने आप को एकदम छोटा या अदृश्य बना लेना ताके किसी को हमसे भय न लगे और कोई हमें नुक्सान न पहुंचाए। हम अपने आप को बचाने के लिए छुपते हैं और ऐसा करने पर हम अपनी पूर्णता, तेज, रचनात्मकता और अपने अस्तित्व के वो हिस्से जो ज़्यादा अच्छे नहीं हैं उनको भी छुपा देते हैं। हम अपने अस्तित्व के इन सारे हिस्सों को छुपाने में अपनी बहुतसारी ऊर्जा व्यय करते हैं, इस हद तक के कई बार हम इन हिस्सों के अस्तित्व को ही भूल जाते हैं।
पर अस्तित्व का तेज और दूसरे कम अच्छे गुणों को सिकुड़ना और छोटे-छोटे कमरों में बांटा जाना पसंद नहीं है। इन छोटे कमरों में गुणों को कष्ट होता है और वे दुर्बल हो जाते हैं और फिर भागते हैं (हमारे छोटे सुरक्षित अस्तित्व को डराते हुए) छोटे या बड़े विस्फोटों में जो हमारे आस-पास के लोगों को डराते हैं या आश्चर्यचकित करते हैं, और हमारी खतरे की घंटी को जोर से बजाते हैं।
मनन के लिए बीज प्रश्न :
"अस्तित्व के तेज को सिकुड़ना या छोटे-छोटे कमरों में बांटा जाना पसंद नहीं है" - आप इस विचार से कैसे जुड़ते हैं?
क्या आप अपना ऐसा कोई अनुभव हमारे साथ साझा कर सकते हैं जब आपका तेज अपने कमरे की दीवाल फान कर उफन आया हो?
अपने भय से आगे बढ़ने में और अपने अस्तित्व के तेज को चमक ने देने में आपको क्या मदद करता है?
पेग्गी डुलनी लोकोपकारक और सिनेरगोस (Synergos) के संस्थापक हैं। यह लेख इस कड़ी पर उपलब्ध मुख्य-लेख से उद्धृत है - https://www.synergos.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/approaching-the-heart-of-the-matter.pdf
Peggy Dulany is a philanthropist and founder of Synergos. Excerpted from this article.
Seed Questions for Reflection
How do you relate to the notion that magnificence doesn't like to be shrunk or compartmentalized? Can you share an experience of a time your magnificence erupted beyond its walls of containment? What helps you transcend your fears and let your magnificence shine?
Yes, let's shine! After feeling our emotion (without thinking at the same time) we all can just choose for magnificence! It will be easier and easier. Isn't this wonderful. Of course, I do. I like to do it. It feels joyful.
I'm more comfortable thinking of my innate dignity and worth—I suppose you could call it magnificence‚ a miracle really—life is a miraculous gift, though I can get mired in fear and uncertainty and forget that. What helps me transcend my fears and let my humanity shine is knowing I am a child of God, made in God's image, worth as much as anyone else.
When I stepped out of my safe comfort zone and went to work overseas- different culture-language-New skills and expectations of who I am and what I could be capable of.
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Nancy May
Feb 20, 2022
I let my magnificence erupt wh I invited some women to my croning ceremony which I designed myself. I also let myself shine when I drummed and sang in women's gatherings
Another good rabbit hole to ho down. A ahhh moment for me was falling in love with my being at the age of 60. I was doing a creative exercise using head, heart â¤ï¸, hand, a reflective collage of my life. I liked where I had been, where I was and where I hoped to go.
Once a friend of mine who I had joined in living so that she could find her own magnificence said to me: "I was always my best with you---I just couldn't hold onto being it." I look at that comment often when I feel like my magnificent has shrunk or fallen into a box and move back into it's light in Crystal's honor and my own.
My magnificence erupted when I volunteered to sing a short solo part in my chorus' concert and I "found" my voice, finally! These days, my fear is transcended whenever I tune into my guides and my truest self.
While I certainly appreciate Peggy Dulany'ssentiment to not be small, to lead large lives, I must say that the "Hero's Journey" (as conveyed by Joseph Campbell) is not mine. I prefer smallness and do not experience my life as shrunk or compartmentalized. My journey is with close members of my family and friend circle. I enjoy a consulting practice with a few dozen clients over two decades rather than thousands of clients. I take delight in the title of E. F. Schumacher'sSmall is Beautiful. Smiling on the cover is a photograph of Gandhiji surrounded by a bicycle, a butterfly, and a bulb. All small things that have their own magnificence.
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Surya
Nov 13, 2019
I could resonate with the point"(especially those who lost their link to the natural environment and came to live in crowded, stressful living conditions)" nature makes us feel confident and share with others making us feel one with whole, while crowded, stressfulliving conditions induce competition and shrinking from whole to self. Guess gaining knowledge of stressful conditions and handle situation in right way could lead to whole, unfortunatelywe find it difficult to handle condition with right approach because of the fear of being wrong or lack or knowledge, complications etc.
Very good article to reflect on. I feel each of our inner self is unique and how each of us perceive things could be different and could be seeing a different angle to the reality that others might be missing. So rather than containing and hiding our magnificence with the fear of being wrong, it is good to express ourselves with an anticipation that we could be wrong and willing to correct ourselves. With this approach, we can see the reality better, accept the reality better and our collective goal should be how can we make the reality better for ourselves as well as for everyone around us.
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
―Gospel of Thomas
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Ku Kahakalau
Nov 12, 2019
Just had an intense conversation with my daughter who is 26 about thinking too large, and visioning too big - which has always been my way of living. She warned me of failing and I almost listened to her. So this article came at the perfect time. Thanks.
Normal zones of life get punctured by outbursts of different emotions....unpredictable, intense and powerful....getting in touch with how, within me is literally an assembly line that sorts out emotions and puts away some of them in the warehouse, all the time.....
And then, once in a while, they erupt (or might)....This happens for me with anger...with magnificence it is still a more complex web of humility, my own smallness et el
I agree that magnificence (the real self of each of us) doesn't like to be shrunk or compartmentalized, which we do to a great extent in an effort to control, such as to try to control outcome or try to control how we and/or the other will feel. There have been many times I have allowed myself to express my magnificence and it or I has been well-received even when I expect disapproval. There have also been times that my magnificence has erupted beyond my walls of containment, such as when I erupted and rebelled against childhood beliefs, which resulted in some disapproval but overall the outcome has been positive, except on those occasions when my magnificence came out angrily, and then it was my anger rather than my magnificence that was the problem. What helps me transcend my fears is trusting me, trusting what I am seeing/perceiving/experiencing, and trusting that expressing me honestly and caringly is my responsibility and is good for me and others.
When we are not in the fight, flight or freeze survival zone, our mind and heart are open to see and experience amazing, vowing and magnificent presence of natural beauty and beauty of human mind and human heart. We are born with the sense of curiosity, wonderment, and magnificence. As we grow up, our natural tendency to relate and welcome the mysterious unknown gets shrunk and compartmentalized. Sadly our mind and heart shrink and become narrow by the fear of the unknown. The shine of magnificence gets obstructed by the clouds of fear.
My true self is not bound by attachment or aversion. It is vast and open. My ego self lives in a closed, fragmented and narrow world. Whenever I am in the being zone free from fear of losing my self, in the zone of unconditioned love and unconditional acceptance my magnificence eruptsbeyond its walls of containment.
I am grateful to my beloved lifepartner who provided an ambience of letting me to be me in my relationship with her. In this relationship... View full comment
When we are not in the fight, flight or freeze survival zone, our mind and heart are open to see and experience amazing, vowing and magnificent presence of natural beauty and beauty of human mind and human heart. We are born with the sense of curiosity, wonderment, and magnificence. As we grow up, our natural tendency to relate and welcome the mysterious unknown gets shrunk and compartmentalized. Sadly our mind and heart shrink and become narrow by the fear of the unknown. The shine of magnificence gets obstructed by the clouds of fear.
My true self is not bound by attachment or aversion. It is vast and open. My ego self lives in a closed, fragmented and narrow world. Whenever I am in the being zone free from fear of losing my self, in the zone of unconditioned love and unconditional acceptance my magnificence eruptsbeyond its walls of containment.
I am grateful to my beloved lifepartner who provided an ambience of letting me to be me in my relationship with her. In this relationship we become one. In such relationships there are no walls of fear, worry and other obstructions.
I become mindful of whatever arises in my mind that blocks the experience of wonderment. I accept it, investigate it and learn from it. Living in the world of fear, anger, hatred and cruelty gives me an opportunity to work on myself and help others to work on themselves.
