“Only the shallow man loses responsiveness to the woes of other's lives, as he sinks into narrow suffering of his own. The one who practices a scalpel of self-dissection will know an expansion of universal pity. Release is given him from the deafening demands of his ego. The love of God flowers on such soil.” ~ Swami Vishuddhanandaji, The “Perfume Saint”
I read the above lines a few moments ago.
After meditating on this idea, I decided to write this guest post.
Life feels scary now to much of humanity. Fear triggers pervade global headlines. What can you do? Practice the scalpel of self-dissection advised by the Perfume Saint. Look within. Face fear. Dissolve ego a bit at a time.
Why?
One only gives what they have. Imagine feeling terrified now. What can you give? Terror. Imagine feeling horrified now. What can you give? Horror.
My mother-in-law suffered immensely from May of 2019 to May of 2020. My wife and I traveled back to the States to care for her. She became leveled by stage 4 cancer. The dominant global sickness she contracted in April of 2020 pushed her to the afterlife; fast.
Largely, I have love, compassion, care and empathy. But only because I practiced the scalpel of self-dissection since 2008 through:
- meditating
- doing Kriya yoga
- doing yin yoga
- facing fear again and again and again and again
After my mom-in-law passed from complications accelerated by the sickness, did I give horror, terror and panicked fear to the world? No. I have love. I gave love. I loved my mother-in-law dearly. She simply had her time. The global sickness was an angel of mercy. I framed it this way because no deep fear resided in my ego framing it any other way.
People who have fear, pain, suffering and grief give fear, pain, suffering and grief to the world if one of their loved ones die from the global sickness. Not practicing the scalpel of self-dissection, sinking more deeply into their narrow suffering, grieving folks warn the world to stay inside, because the situation is dangerous. But offering such advice reflects shallowness because thinking only of how life has affected you blinds you to the suffering of 7 billion human beings. Fear finds its easiest outlets; every human not advanced spiritually with a narrow awareness, who you scare back inside of the house, simply falls mentally or physically ill, somehow, fast.
Suicide rates, alcoholism and domestic violence are likely skyrocketing out of control, as is mass poverty in developing nations. I have spoken to – and observed – enough trusted people around the globe who verify this. Simply because my mother-in-law died from sickness complications does not blind me from how most of 7 billion people are suffering in agony, dying, falling deeper into mental illness and losing all of their money as their businesses close and jobs disappear.
What can I do?
Clearing many of my deep fears by going within routinely – no matter how many blunt assaults my ego protests – helps me adopt a 360 world view of suffering versus the pinhole view often offered by those suffering from the global sickness, either individually, or via the death of a loved one.
Face your fears. Be with discomfort. Clear your fears. Develop compassion for humanity. Stop looking through the narrow pinhole of your intimately personal suffering. Ego desires to match pain with fellow humans; we relate to people who clearly know how we feel. But all humans suffer.
Clear your intimately personal fears to give love to a scared world. Teach others to follow your lead. Stop fanning fear flames with your own fear lighter fluid. Douse some of the fear fire; face your fears, feel your fears, release your fears and give love, clarity and truth to the world.
As the holiday season arrives, many undiagnosed mentally ill Americans will suffer from the double-whammy of being isolated from the global sickness and grieving loved ones lost from all manner of death, including the sickness.
Even though it feels rough, face your fears to add light, not shadow, to a suffering world.
You can only give what you have.
