Written
Mathew Naismith
There were two people of different cultures
discussing the starvation of people, one person was shocked and appalled by how
people are allowed to starve like this, the other person not so shocked and
appalled.
To western thinking, allowing people to
starve to death is unkind and certainly not of love or spirituality. To eastern
thinking it is different because one existence is not separated from any other
existence. So to the western mind it is appalling when humans starve to death
but it’s not as appalling when animals, including insects, are starved to
death!!
In very recent times, a western minded lady
I know was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The eastern doctor sat on her bed,
put his hand on her knee and said that she had terminal cancer, go home to die
because we need the hospital bed. The
western minded lady was in shock, not just because of the diagnoses but of how
she was treated, especially by an eastern minded doctor.
To the eastern spiritual mind, death
doesn’t exist; in fact the perception of death is simply an indication of
transition from one life to another. No matter what you experience in life,
even if you have suffered from life experiences instead of learning from them,
all kinds of life experience’s without exception are worthy to experience. One
kind of life is not desired over another no matter what, so if your life
experience is to starve to death like any living creation without exception,
that is karma or simply the way life is or works. So what does the western mind
desire to do, change the way existence is but in service to what? Self-gratification,
ego.
You see the western mind took offence to
the practicality of the eastern mind; your life’s journey is to starve to
death, as your life’s path is to die at home from terminal cancer. Of course in
the case of the person diagnosed with terminal cancer, the bed was needed for
people that doctors can help, not for people who are beyond help!!
In all honesty, if I was diagnosed with
terminal cancer, I would want to go home to allow another person the bed that
can be helped, and no, I wouldn’t have been offended by the eastern doctor’s
very caring practical honest approach. Yes, shock horror to the western mind,
the eastern doctor couldn’t have been more caring, practical and honest if he
tried. In saying this, the doctor obviously needed to be aware in how the
western individualised self-cantered mind works. Of course to the western mind,
ensuing known pointless medical treatment is more caring!! This is like feeding
an already starving people to bread more so the chances of them starving in the
future are higher!! True, this is how western kindness, love and compassion
works, in other words how the western mind works. If it feels good, it has to
be good even when it obviously isn’t.
So to the western mind, being spiritual has
everything to do with feeling good and being good within the views of the
western mind, in other words, being positive instead of negative. You know
what? The eastern spiritual mind doesn’t separate everything like this between
what is negative and what is positive. In truth to me and people like me, the
eastern spiritual mind is all about the collective’s wellbeing, not the individual’s
wellbeing of; if it feels good to the individual, it has to be good to the
collective. In truth, which the western mind in all cultures is not about, this
is simply not the case, not everything that feels good to the ego individually
is good for the collective.
In all honesty, the eastern spiritual mind
is of the balance of western and eastern thinking. Never expect or even demand
that the western spiritual mind thinks like this, this is unless influenced by eastern
thinking as well.
I am not of an eastern mind or primarily of
an eastern mind but I often balance out the western mind with eastern thinking,
as eastern spiritually aware people often do.
Note; when an eastern spiritual mind feeds
a starving person, this is different to when a western spiritual mind feeds a
person. It is like the love of an eastern spiritual mind is different to a
western spiritual mind; there is no attachment to love of an eastern spiritual
mind, when the western mind often becomes highly attached to love. Attachments
are likened to control, as the western mind is of taking controlling rather
than not being of control. The eastern spiritual mind is actually of releasing
oneself of control, also meaning to release oneself from attachments even of
love. How many western spiritually
minded people of love can detach themselves from the feelings of what love
gives them? In all honesty, this is all about taking control of retaining fixated
attachments the western mind will never give up, unless balanced out by the
eastern mind of releasing oneself of control and attachments.
The eastern spiritual mind doesn't have to
deal with releasing oneself of control and related attachments because this
kind of mind doesn't seek to control but to release oneself of control. There
are no attachments even to what the feelings of love can give oneself.
In regards to starving people, there is no
difference to starving animals, also, this is there life's journey that we
should refrain from taking control of. This is the same with the terminally ill
person; refrain from taking control of someone else's life's journey is as
loving and caring as a spiritual person can get, but of course the western
spiritual mind will understandably always think otherwise through attachments created
by being controlling.
