From the Inside Out and From the Outside In
What you clean up on the inside is for you to enjoy.
What you clean up on the outside, everyone can enjoy.
Both parts are important — the inner and the outer work.
But to conclude that unhappiness is a personal problem is myopic and disconnected, and it clearly shows that there is no faith in love beyond self-love. While the idea that everything will be fine without introspection and inner adjustments shows that there is no faith in inspiration.
A situation can only improve if you work on the inside (by influencing inner processes) and work on the outside (by influencing the structures you find yourself in).
History shows abundantly that the improvements are marginal and short-lived, if the focus goes inward alone or if the focus goes outward alone. Force, or some unforeseen disaster, can change these improvements in a second and make them invisible.
Therefore, quality of life needs both: commitment within and commitment without.
There is a very interesting text in the ancient scriptures of India about the topic:
In dark night live those for whom the world without alone is real.
In darker night still, for whom the world within alone is real.
The first leads to a life of action,
the second to a life of meditation.
But those who combine action with meditation go across the sea of death through action
and enter into immortality through the practice of meditation.
So we heard from the wise.
— Isha Upanishad
May this month renew your drive and your priorities, so you can show up with clarity and with love.
NJ
1 November 2016
#integration #balance #aum
