Three Little Rules of True Understanding of Life
I have a weird question for you, one you have probably been asked ten times before, – Do you see a glass as half-full or half-empty? My friend’s daughter asked me the same question yesterday and when I said, “half full” without even thinking she laughed and said, “No!” I was puzzled…“Why not?”… “Because it is both!”What?! I was not expecting this from an 8-year old!
But later when I got home I thought about it. And she was right! It is both… and neither… because objectively the glass just is and water in it just is. And only our busy mind, feels the need to make distinctions and evaluate everything.
There is an old Indian story that demonstrates the same point:
One day a rajah’s son came to him and asked “Father, what is the truth of things?”
“A wonderful question!” the rajah said, “Let me show you the answer.”
He commanded his royal elephant and 3 blind men to be brought forth into the palace. As soon as his order was completed, he asked 3 men to examine the elephant and describe it to his son.
The blind men had never known an elephant before and were excited to feel one for the first time in their lives. One found his way to the elephant’s tusk and said, “It is like a spear”, another examined the leg and declared, “Oh noble Rajah, he is quite wrong, it is like a tree”. The third man touched the tail and exclaimed, “Most noble Rajah, they are both wrong, the elephant is like a rope!”
While three blind were bickering amongst themselves, each telling the others why he alone was right, the rajah asked his son, “Do you understand it now? The elephant is like the truth of all things and we are like the blind men.”
Similar, most of us struggle every day to make sense out of situations, to explain our own and other people’s decisions and actions, stumbling blindly, touching only small parts of the reality, and coming away with a narrow and fragmented understanding of what it all means.
Here are 3 Little Golden Rules of Understanding that you can apply immediately to find inner balance and get a more objective understanding of life:
1. Experience rather than judge.
William Shakespeare said “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so”. This is so true. Every situation, every experience, every gesture can have hundreds of different meanings. It is up to us to interpret them in one way or another.
But the truth is that our point of view is nothing but a little dot on the endless line of reality. When we define something as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, ‘just’ or ‘unjust’ we declare, “I stand here!” This is the second, when you lose your ability to see the whole picture, because true reality becomes limited by our judgments.
Instead of trying to make sense of things and placing everything and everyone in a certain category, try just being in the moment and experiencing things as they come, without evaluating or judging them. Because the more direct experience you have with things, situations and people around you, the closer you are to the real “truth”.
I know that it is easier said than done, but it is definitely worth trying!
2. Become aware of how you see things.
We are all unique human beings with our own DNA code, personal set of values, and a unique baggage of past experiences that we drag with us everywhere we go. And our perception of reality is also unique. Our current mood, angle of looking at a situation, and our beliefs “color” the truth, making it very different from the other 6 billion “truths” that exist on this Planet. And it is ok! Because those 6 billion truths are all parts of the big elephant-truth.
When you find yourself reading too much into what you see or getting worked up over something or someone, it helps to remember that we are not seeing things as they are. We see them as WE are.
3. See the value of the other half.
Very often to fully understand something, you need to experience its other half. For example, it is almost impossible to grasp what true happiness really means, without tasting true misery first. Just as it is impossible to experience the gratitude for everything you have, without experiencing the loss. Similar, only when we learn to accept the opposite point of view, our understanding and knowledge grows and multiplies. Because the glass is no longer half full or half empty.
It is both! 
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Tags: awareness, find life balance, happiness, Positive Thinking, rules of understanding, understanding of life
