Gospel 69 from the Universal Mind:
Terrapin’s Magical Guide to the World

“Me’s a common sense man.  Dat mean me can explain tings to a baby and da baby will understand.”
- Bob Marley, Rastafarian
“The biggest man you ever gonna meet was once a baby”
- Bob Marley, Human Being

Tuesday, June 11, 1996    9:38:00 PM

The best looking woman you’re ever gonna meet was once a baby.  The most perfect companion you’ll ever come into contact with was once a baby.  Meaning that they were once frail and helpless, too.  But most importantly, it also means that they are a human being.  Which is not to put limits on them or lump them into a specific category, but just the opposite.   The fact that everyone is the same being means that we’re all different.  We handle things differently, we have different feelings about the same event, and we don’t understand everything perfectly from a foreign point of view, no matter how hard we try.  And that’s because we all have different perceptions.

Our past experiences, feelings, and point of view all affect the different ways that we interpret everything.  So how do we deal with these biases that affect our view of the world?  First, be open minded.  That doesn’t mean be weak and accept everyone’s views, but rather question everything.  It also doesn’t mean be a skeptic either, but question your own beliefs, too.  Change is good.  Can you imagine what everyone would be like if they never changed their beliefs, intelligence, or perceptions from the way they were in kindergarten?  We’ve probably come a long way since then.  But there isn’t ever a point we reach where we’re perfect and don’t need to change.  Change should always be in the air.  It keeps things exciting and the susceptibility to reasonable change keeps people open-minded.  With this open-mindedness we can all accept everyone’s differences and perceptions more readily without basing decisions on rash, prejudiced and ignorant factors.  Open-mindedness also teaches us to think for ourselves.
Second, to be more compatible with others, we not only need to recognize that everyone is different, but be able to accept and understand these differences.  The best way to do this is through communication.  Non-verbal communications such as stance, facial expression, touch and sex can be some of the ways to communicate these differences.  But beware!  These forms of communication can easily be misinterpreted through our different perceptions.  So then we turn to language.  But language is also imperfect.  It cannot always express the way we feel.  We constantly search for the words to fit our perceptions, only to substitute imperfect or incompatible words that only complicate things more.  So, a good rule of thumb is to keep it simple.  Not always, but when things get complicated, jumbled, and confused, go back to the basics: simple and easy.

And the search for these imperfect, incompatible companions who have strangely alien perceptions (no matter how similar they may seem - everyone is imperfect, incompatible, and has strangely alien perceptions) is a quest that we have all embarked on, whether we realize it or not.  Despite our differences, we are drawn to one another.  We don’t want to be alone in our strangeness to the world.  We want to have others that we can relate our experiences with and have new moments to share together.  Everyone is lonely and wants to spend time with others, but as much as we need this area of our life fulfilled to feel happy, in order to feel complete, we also need time to ourselves to experience our own inner differences.  These inner differences are not necessarily incongruencies within ourselves (which also exist in everyone), but rather differences between ourselves and every other member and thing of this great univers(al mind) of ours. 

So when you’re out there searching, keep in mind that there are others out there searching, just like you.  And when you finally find one of these amazing adventure seekers (as we all must be - searching for something as strange and similar as ourselves), remember that this creature shares a different perspective of the world than you.  And no matter how similar that perception may seem, it is a thousand times different in a thousand different ways.  And remember to communicate when these perception differences cause problems with the happiness of sharing experiences together.  And keep it simple.  And don’t forget to change.

Igziabeher.  Let Jah be praised.  Good karma be with you.  And also with you.

 
 
 
 
   
 

© 2003