Trust Me.... I Am Not Just Going To Stand Here & Wait Forever?

I hate waiting. No, really. I. Hate. Waiting.

I hate waiting more than Joan Rivers hates wrinkles---or signs of life on her face. I hate waiting more than the Pope hates contraception. In fact, I actually have some things in my car that I purchased at Home Depot nearly 2 years ago. I have gone to return them 3 or 4 times. Each time unsuccessfully. What happens is that I end up leaving the store with them because the line to return them has been too long. I will not wait in that line. I figure one day I will show up there and I will have my chance to start a waiting line rather than extend one. :)

In exposing ourselves to the numerous varieties of self-help literature that has flooded the marketplace, or even the well-intentioned advice of yet another self-made Guru who became enlightened on a park bench, we can get the idea that some of our less than desirable traits can be transformed. While this is somewhat true, in part, it also overlooks the distinct possibility that our-less-than-desirable traits (impatience) are wedded with and inextricably bound up with our more-than-desirable traits (exuberance).

Arguably, the most exalted state of consciousness has been purported to be the state of "non-duality." In simple terms, it means that what seems to be in opposition to one another (light and dark, for instance) are really two facets of one reality. There is not a light-Earth and a dark-Earth. Yes, there is day and night. But day and night are not in opposition to each other; they are contending for ultimacy in some all-consuming metaphysical struggle for the soul of humanity. Sorry, Oral Roberts. What they are is more like two shades of a reality that transcends (goes beyond merely being light or dark) them while also embracing and encompassing them.

If we had the ability to extend out into space---and do via satellites and the pictures and images they take---then we could see in an instant that a singular Earth is both light and dark simultaneously. At the same time, a portion of the Earth faces the Sun there is a portion of the Earth that has rotated away from the Sun. This our dance, and not our mortal combat.

Now, what if our own traits and qualities are the same way? What if our exuberance and our impatience are not about choosing which one we want to be more of, and then seeking with all of our might and self-awareness to remove the other? What if the mortal combat in the psyche is just nonsense? What if all the means and measures we go through---and struggle with successfully implementing in our lives--is really just a bunch of half-baked balderdash that literally has us chasing our own tail? What if the notion of transformation is sometimes like trying to make the night day and the day night? What if our traits and tendencies serve a multi-faceted purpose and are, in fact, multi-faceted?

There is so much about contemporary spirituality and popular psychology that I not only do not believe is effective, I also believe it is harmful. I am all for what works. I am a pragmatist. If something is effective, and it has no horrific residual consequences, then I am all for it. I don't care who comes up with it and why. If it works it works. It is that simple. My issue with a lot of the information that is shared in the overwhelmingly "spiritual" climate of our times is that much of it not only does not work it is non-sensical. For instance, this notion that we can parse our qualities and traits and separate our own personal and peculiar wheat from the chaff is a vast notion that cuts across so many diverse areas of human influence that it barely if ever goes questioned. Religious leaders believe it. Gurus believe it and teach it. Educators believe and teach it. Self-help authours believe and teach it. And it seldom if ever really is effective. Yes, it fills seats in auditoriums and Churches, in Synagogues and Ashrams. It sells books. It gets someone a seat on a Talk Show. But is it effective? Can we actually separate our own personal and peculiar night from our own personal and peculiar day? Or.... are we both more-encompassing of either night or day and yet inclusive of them?

What if our exuberance and our impatience are one and the same reality? What if we are impatient because we are so exuberant? What if our exuberance for Life makes us impatient in putting Life off while we wait in line? What if parsing our own non-dual nature as inclusive of both "positive" and "negative" is just a sham. An effective one, but a sham no less?