“It’s All good!”
By Michael Erlewine
The insight here is that the mundane and ordinary are also sacred and that nothing is that different, and positing the difference itself is at best meaningless, a miss-take. The Zen Buddhists point this out. Or, as we say, “It’s all good.”
As for me, I keep ending up with the inside turning itself inside-out, and it is said that such inversion nurtures the soil of life. Either way, I keep finding myself leveling off on a vast level plain where everything is equal, the same. Everything ends up here. It’s all one.
And where is here? Here is where we are this moment.
“Don’t differentiate” is the theme. Don’t bother with that. Walk it back without effort if you can or just let it lapse on its own. Get beyond the great divide of duality and dividing. It’s what all dharma practice points to. One taste.
There is no difference out there worth remembering. Take everything to the path, good, bad, and indifferent.
And it’s not about loving the mundane or common for its own sake. That would be just another mistake. It’s about not taking notes at all, not keeping track. Voyeurism. Duality. Don’t be the great divider. Let that go. Give up on that because it’s divisive, just another bad habit.
In other words, we have to bend it the other way for it to come out straight. As the Bible says, “Straight is the gate and narrow the way.” And deification is still deification. The same with reification.
The end of the special is the common, the ordinary. It’s all special or it’s all common. Today the uncommon is also quite common, perhaps all too common. It’s all the same.
Ultimately, there is no difference, no place to go, no way to get there, and no one is going.
To recap, what do we do when we are no longer special? Are we free to go (and to where) when we have picked the special out of us?
For that matter, what’s special got to do with it? It’s not a badge of honor, but just something else to do something about, to not focus on.
What’s special about commonness? Specialness is not common, which is why it is special. When special becomes common, everything and everyone is special, and commonness itself also becomes special. The dualistic in us fears immersion.
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That’s the state of the world today, everything and everyone is special, leaving no room for what we have in common, our commonness. As mentioned, commonness becomes special, looked up to, and to be longed for.
Asleep, awake, by night or day, specialness has become common and commonness special. That’s how turned around we are. The thirst for special has become common, and commonness very special. To be unadorned, not pointed out, is a freedom now quite rare.
Everything is flipped on its head. Go figure!
It’s All Good.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
