The great garden.

So we were going. Everything okay? Let's think about it. Let's think of the world we know. Is there injustice? Is there suffering? Is there pain? Are innocent people hurt? We may think that, in spite of this, everything is fine because it is precisely in this that the balance lies. Perhaps we have been told that this is what non-duality is all about. But that may be a lie. It's not about looking at two opposite trends and pretending it' s the same. That's seeing an illusion. What we'd like it to be to be more comfortable. Tell us that there has to be suffering for there to be balance. So we don't feel responsible for anything.

Is everything all right? No. We have to accept things as it is. No blindfolds. Without looking the other way. Everything is as it is. But that doesn't mean everything's okay. Do we see the difference?

What happens if our leg hurts a lot, for example? We are being aware, through that pain, that something is not right in our leg. It is the same with suffering in the world. It is the materialized effect - that is, it has taken shape - of a cause.

Let's think cancer. This occurs when the cells stop communicating with each other and instead of carrying out the usual oxidation process, it begins to ferment. Now we extrapolate it to the world we live in. Let's imagine that all human beings are cells of a body. Do we realize that? That is exactly the state in which we find ourselves. We have become so obsessed with our individual consciousness that we have forgotten that we are part of an interrelated whole. And we behave in a selfish manner, becoming oblivious to the pain of others and worrying only about ourselves. Like the cell that no longer communicates with others and ferments.

Our world seems like a reflection of a disease. And an illness is an indication that something is wrong. Then it's not all right. Illness, suffering, is the mechanism for us to realize this. So we can be aware of it. Do we understand?

Let's get back to non-duality. Do we know what it is? That body in which there is no cancer, in which all the cells communicate with each other, play a role and cooperate. Having each other's independence, it function as a whole. That is true non-duality. And with us, internally, the same thing happens. Non-duality consists in our thoughts, emotions and actions going in the same direction, behaving as one.

It is the justification of cruelty and suffering that benefits the ruler. And the dominator can only be a dominator if there is a dominated one. And the dominated one can only be dominated if he submits to the dominator one. As a symbiotic relationship between two parties. Duality.

Maybe we think there's no right or wrong. That the morale is relative. Another fallacy. Of course there's good and there's bad. Not on an absolute level, certainly. But it is within us. It's called consciousness. Every thought, every emotion and every action has an intention. That intention is what produces the movement. And only we know what that intention is. Let's watch each other. Let's be honest with ourselves. For one can only be honest with others to the extent that one is honest with oneself. We're back to knowing yourself, indeed.

No, it's not all right. This may serve as an initial framework, but we will not necessarily all agree on everything.

What is "good and bad"?
What is "pain"?
What is "injustice"?

It all depends on the point at which we put the focus on analysing - or framing - these concepts. If we take a "human" perspective to analyze and measure it it might make sense but, in a universal context our perception may be absolutely limited and incorrect. An example for us to understand each other:

Let's say an extraordinary gardener who is making a dream garden. The garden is beautiful and, those who can appreciate it consider it an exquisite work of art.

The gardener takes care of his plants with care, selects the combinations, feeds the soil that nourishes it and depends on the existence of bacteria and fungi and insects -in the appropriate proportion- that give life to the soil.

Bacteria eat each other, fungi eat bacteria and vice versa, all of which makes the soil fertile, nourishes the plants that produce this exquisite garden.

Now.... does the gardener care if a bacterium dies or lives?, eats the bacteria next door, or is eaten? He names his bacteria and cries when "John" suffers a mishap when it is eaten by "Peter"? Or he doesn't even know how many bacteria are in each root - even though he knows that there are many and that the health of the soil that feeds the plants in his exquisite garden depends on it -.

If on the cosmic scale we are just a bacterium, our work collaborates with the "great work" that is the exquisite garden, but our individual destiny is totally irrelevant.

Can the bacteria, from its tiny position in the great work, be the one that puts the "moral" stick of what is right or wrong? of what is pain or pleasure?

And in fact... the garden takes a hundred years and will last another hundred years... but the bacteria only live for a few hours.

Just a few hours into hundreds of years of the garden's existence.

Is the bacteria so relevant?

If we think of ourselves as the 'centre of the universe', we must accept our scale of values, but if we realize that we are 'just another bacterium, living for a few hours' in the exquisite garden of hundreds of years, we cannot see that we can impose such a biased worldview.

Although the words written above may seem like semantic paradoxes to confuse the mind, for a cat everything is fine.