I’ve been in my drafts folder the last week or so. Here’s another post written in 2020. I mostly still agree with what I wrote then, especially the last paragraph and as for the rest I suppose the excessive wordiness led to the resolution, so I’ll accept it as necessary to my process. ☺️
Five Years Ago:
When lines become attached across various aspects of our life so that the heart and mind also become intertwined, we can feel conflict between the two. When the heart and mind are separate from one another, we can instead develop an interest in what causes conflict and resolve response to our interests. The ability to separate SELF from mind where emotions reside creates room to instead reside in the heart from where purity of right action stems.
Facing conflict can release disguise of avoidance under appropriateness. What can be learned in staying with a situation that appears to present inappropriateness or conflict of interest if you are willing to abstain from your own interests – to deeply examine those, set them aside, and let something larger than you work in your stead?
The external is a reflection of the internal. We bring about situations externally to assist us in resolving what is unseen internally. This is not intentionally manipulated to be so in most cases; it is simply the nature of our world.
If there is no conflict internally, no conflict will show externally. If a conflict arises in the external, can it merely be a reminder to release the ego or does it need to be cut away externally to appease the internal discomfort created by perceived conflict? If the ego is released will not conflict fall away on it’s own?
Perhaps there’s no such thing as conflict of interest, only mind that seeks to be in balance, and the choice of working in the external or internal so that one can reflect the other as desired. Choose the inside work, otherwise the situation will show itself to you time and time again, though the faces and setting may be varied. Growth in peace with what is, as it is, will allow you to dissolve anything external that challenges your comfort.
– from a Chihuly exhibit at The Biltmore in 2024
(Not a huge fan of the Biltmore but a very big fan of this artist & his team. 💕)
Presence and Positivity 