Andrew Holecek’s Reverse Meditation is becoming more important to me as I read it a second time, and as I find similar messages in other books I’m reading. For this go-round with Reverse, I’m marking paragraphs with page flags as I read. At the end of a day’s foray, I go back to the first page flag and review what I found important. I like linking later chapters with beginnings in this way, as it makes everything richer and creates bonds that I’d likely not otherwise notice.
So, today, the earliest page flag marked words (on page 15) from someone other than Holecek. He introduces the passage this way: “The same view [everything is naturally perfect just as it is] is echoed in the doctrine of ‘basic goodness’ in the Shambhala tradition (founded by Trungpa Rinpoche)”:
At the most basic level of our being, we have everything we need to celebrate our lives on this planet. . . .The basic goodness of our world is not the “good” side of a world divided into good and bad. When we divide the world in that way—even in our minds—we automatically put conditions on everything around us so that it is good if it fulfills our conditions and bad if it does not. Basic goodness is unconditioned . . . [it] has nothing to do with “feeling good.” —Jeremy Hayward and Karen Hayward, Sacred World: A Guide to Shambhala Warriorship in Everyday Life
Nearly three years ago, when I began my healing journey and already had at least one foot out the door of the Catholic Church, I began looking at things like religions, ideas, and policies in terms of power and division, asking Does this consolidate power for those who promulgate it? and Does this cause division, or does it unify?
