A Radical Perspective

A friend recently told me of a conversation she had with Arny Mindell, author and founder of Process Work, where he said how excited he is to be alive in these times of conflict and difficulty. I was surprised and delighted to hear this as it directly contradicts the story of struggle and unknown danger that I have often told myself over these last nine months. What if this is a time of opportunity, new possibility and adventure?

In LEADER AS MARTIAL ARTIST, published in 1992, Mindell writes of a reciprocal beneficial relationship between the self and the world. Rather than viewing this life as a series of challenges to see who is fittest and who can survive, he suggests the world is more like a fantastic playground in which we can uncover and develop our as yet unknown capacities and strengths. He writes:

…the world is here to help us become our entire selves, and that we are here to help the world become whole.   …we seem to use the world as if it were a workshop, a testing ground to challenge ourselves and one another to open up to everything in our inner and outer universes.

The first phrase brings me up short: ‘the world is here to help us become our entire selves’ What an amazing perspective to consider! So different from my usual assumption that life is just one challenge after the next. What if the world is here to help? What if life is not a succession of tests? What if, as one Buddhist teacher says, ‘The world is kindly bent to ease us.’ ?

Then I wonder what it might be like to live in a world of support? What if everything that happens to me and around me is an opportunity to wake up to the fullness of my life? What if everything is an invitation rather than a challenge? An invitation to uncover the fullness of who I am?

Living in a world of support would mean I could relax and be more playful. The serious heaviness would vanish. I would be constantly curious about what wonderful adventure might befall me today as I wander through this wise and kind world.  Though even in this lighthearted dreaming I suspect this way is not just easeful and is not, as we say, for the faint of heart. Adventures often involve dangerous monsters and impossible quests. But who doesn’t long to be the hero—to be the one who discovers their true super powers just in the nick of time to save the world?

Mindell goes on to say that ‘we are here to help the world become whole.’ He dreams a world of mutuality between inner and outer. Inner needs outer to develop and know itself. And, amazingly, outer needs inner in exactly the same way, to develop and know itself. What if the world really needs you? What if you have a part to play in the unfolding of your community, of your country, and of this fragile and wondrous planet we live on?

I know I’m back to ‘what if’, but I can’t find any other way to express the invitation I feel in these teachings. There is not need to work yourself up into a state of belief in these teachings. (Zealots are rarely helpful to a situation, though even for them (us) there is a time and a place.) As human beings we get to step in and out of many perspectives. Each story we tell about what is going on, each view of the world, is a world in itself.

The story you tell is the world you inhabit. If you believe that everyone is out to get you, then this is what you encounter wherever you go. If everything is working to teach and support you, this can also be the world you live in. Of course, we all move through many worlds in the course of each day. Each story we tell (That shouldn’t have happened. / I’m quite a competent person. / I’m an idiot.) is a universe in itself. None of them are, however, permanent, personal or perfect. (Thank you Ruth King.)

So today, if you’re up for a small adventure, try being Arny. Imagine, for even a few breaths, that the world is here to help you become whole. (Pause here and consider this.) Imagine that the intractable problems of your life and the world around you are fantastic puzzles that will allow you to access important parts of yourself that are still hidden from you. (Pause here and consider this.) And imagine that your presence, love and courage are the gifts that the people and the world around you need.

Pause here and consider this.