Insight on the Cross

There is one insight I gained during my more than three and a half decades on this blue ball in space: There is nothing from which I cannot learn something. Everything has a deeper level - all we have to do is change the angle from which we look and the seemingly plain and meaningless becomes deep and mysterious. Jesus on the Cross: "The father and I are one". Which reminds me of a line in Pessoa's "Book of Disquiet": "I am equal in size to all that I see". The sentence is part of a meditation on the relationship of the individual and the Universe at large, the inner and outer world, the assumption that "Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu" - that we create the world inside of us, with our sensual perceptions as the building blocks. Also Science offers near mystic insights: The atoms of higher elements which form my physical body were once created in the fire of a distant Supernova. It's ashes formed interstellar dust, which were part of the raw material that formed our solar system, and its neighbouring sister stars and planets. The sub atomic building blocks that make up each atoms are as old as the Universe itself. So I and the Universe are indeed one! Jesus also did not say that his being one with the father is exclusive. We all are the Buddha. We all are one with the Universe, part of it, every our cell is penetrated by it. Nobody is an island - and finally nobody is alone. Unfortunately revolutions in the past never lead anywhere in the end. After it was over, people couldn't decide on what to do. The results were either chaos or hideous dictatorships. And look what happened to the peaceful revolution in East Germany: It began as a movement by the people in the East, it ended up as an unfriendly corporate takover by the west. East Germans still have over 30 percent unemployment in many areas, social problems, and everything of value in the region is owned by West German corporations. Now they are free. They can speak out - but nobody listens. They can go where they want, but they can't afford to. They have the freedom of choice between McDonalds, Burger King and Wienerwald. Between Coke and Pepsi. I am a West German and I grew up with the image of the Communist East as enemies, but in fact I now know quite a few people who say that the price for this kind of freedom they got may be too high: the price is the devaluation of self, a person only being of value if they are financially successful. So even this peaceful revolution that brought nominal freedom and ended the cold war has two sides. And in fact the largest power groups all over the world had no real interest in ending the cold war because it was a hell of a business. But now they got their business back, of course. I don't believe in revolutions. I don't believe in any form of organized extremism. I don't believe in violence. The Taoist Wu Wei may be a good start: no wrongdoing. To get beyond desire and only do what is necessary and good. Walk over the Earth without leaving any sign of your existence...