The universal connection

I believe in a phenomenon that I am known to call “universal connection”. Yesterday one of these fated events profoundly affected the state of mind I was in and led me from feeling quite down and depressed to feeling a blissful epiphany. Let me tell you what happened. You see, I don’t believe in random and arbitrary matches. I understand that life is a combined relationship between the free will of humanity and the will of a higher power that I call “The Great Spirit.” I believe in a type of paradoxical destiny that is predestined by this higher power, but that can also be Altered by our own decisions that we make in each moment of daily life, opportunities and obstacles arise and then we must decide whether or not to take any action. specific related to the situation.

OK So yesterday I wasn’t feeling very well; I have a history of depression and anxiety and I perceived some events that happened to me as quite negative. Well it just so happens that the day before I had emailed from my Tai Chi instructor that had some links related to depression as they know of my problem. I looked at a site that was about a new form of neurotechnology where listening to a certain type of CD is supposed to send the mind into a deep state of meditation. I admit that I am skeptical about this sort of thing, since of course money is always supposed to change hands. The great thing about this particular site is that they offer a free sample CD that I ordered.

Anyway, I started to peruse the information on this site and came across some quotes from famous people. One that caught my eye was that of a Rabbi Hillel and since my good friend at work is very interested in Jewish culture and religion, I cut and pasted it into Messenger for him to read. Since I was feeling depressed, I left work early and went home to read a little more from a book that I have really enjoyed lately. It’s called ‘The Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior’ and it’s written by Dan Millman. It is the sequel to a book that I loved, entitled “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior.” After reading a chapter or two, I came to Chapter 17: “The Courage of the Outcast.” The chapter began with these words:

If i’m not for me

Who will be for me

And if I am only for myself

It’s me?

And if not now, when?

(Hillel, Sayings of the Fathers)

This was the exact quote I had sent to my friend earlier that day! Of all the quotes in the world, of all the chapters I could have read, of all the days of my life; This quote appeared twice in one day! I knew there must be a reason for it to happen, so with the help of my friend, I did a little research today on the internet. This quote has been translated from Hebrew, so now I have come to realize that it has been interpreted in many different ways. This is the general meaning that I have come to think of the words to mean:

“If I am not for me, who will be for me?” it is related to self-esteem. It means that if you do not believe in the spiritual aspects of your Being and love yourself for your divine essence and not just for your ego, others will only see you as someone who has not really formed an identity of their own. If you don’t love yourself and have no faith in yourself, it will naturally be difficult for others to love you and have faith in you.

‘And if I am only for myself, what am I?’ For me, it’s about spreading your love and faith to those around you. It’s very important to do things that make you feel better about your own self-esteem, but doing things yourself is selfish. The best way to become a strong and happy person is through the service we can do for others. We have to realize that others are simply another form of ourselves, the “I” that is intrinsic to all life forms in the Universe (Great Spirit), and their well-being is just as important as ours.

The last line, ‘And if not now, when?’ refers to action. It is all very well to have this knowledge, but it is the act of putting it into action that is most important. Now is the only moment that is truly real. The past is gone and can never be relived, while the future has yet to appear and for some of us (while in human form) it will never come. Any second could be the last, so now is the time to put our knowledge and beliefs into practice by integrating them into each of our movements.

I believe that these ‘universal connections’ happen around us every day of our lives. We just have to focus our attention to see them; Although sometimes they are so deep that they just jump out and hit you in the face!