I grew up in what we refer to as “the west,” meaning that there was a certain complex for how I learned to view the world. I was taught to see myself as a separate self, separated from all the other separate selves that walked around. This separate self was bolstered by notions of having my own life, my own liberty and the pursuit of my own happiness. These notions attached to me even more quickly as I appeared in the world as a white, cis-gendered male. In some sense, I learned to see myself sort of like a chess piece: singular, individual, and with some purpose in life that I was free to discover. Even my understanding of the Divine was that “He” was a separate chess piece, too.
But, I’ve spent some time in “the east” as well, at least in the books, teachings and practices of the eastern part of the world that has its own complex ways life. The sages from the east have taught me that the separate self is just an illusion, and it’s an illusion I should strive to be free of. I might look separate from you or that tree over there, but, in fact, we are made up of the same stuff, the same energy, and ultimately, we are all not only connected but really and truly, one existence. I am not a chess piece, but part of a chess set that only works when all of its pieces are there working together. The Divine, if there is any such thing, must be all of this stuff.
I’d like to think that I am a child of the whole world, even the whole cosmos. I’d like to think that both the east and west are on to something and that neither has it completely figured out, this business of who we are and how we relate to this universe we live in. I do have an individual experience, and I am deeply connected, even at one, with you and everyone else. My white skin came forth from an ancient black grandmother. My maleness is deeply connected with femaleness, non-binariness, and every kind of queerness. Despite how worked up I can get over someone else’s political views, I know in my heart that there are many of the same things that we both value, need and cherish together. And, I’m pretty sure that we cannot be reduced to a game piece or a game set, and yet somehow we are here to enjoy life, delight in pleasure and experience all good things, one and all. We just have to find the way. Each day. Today.
~Bob Patrick
