The YIN MIND

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As far back as I can remember,

I have always wanted only that to which I was most welcome.

It even applied to attention, to regard, to respect.

Most of all, it applied to love.

So often, I’ve challenged gestures of generosity.

Part of the reason for that was to try to discriminate

between bartered gifts and that which was really meant

to support, uphold, nourish, what I hold as purpose.

As though I have been guided by an unseen hand,

I have experienced genuine and deep generosity

and totally conditional contributions.

When I have ascribed a selfless nobility to some,

I have only been subsequently jolted

to have them consider something they supported my purpose.

They were only providing for their own gain.

They didn’t share that purpose.

There is a great distinction between collective purpose and common purpose.

Shareholders in a public corporation have a collective purpose:

dividends or appreciation in the value of the shares.

How the profits are generated, what the corporation does,

what it produces, matters little.

Nor does how it produces it matter.

With common purpose, what is produced,

whether as a primary product or services or as a side effect, matters.

How the product or services is produced matters too.

Moral and environmental factors are included.

It goes beyond ethical minimums.

More and more, I have come to highly value gentle ways.

To compete, to conflict, even to struggle or fight for anything,

even core life essentials, comfort or health,

leaves me refusing the pursuit.

The energy, the effort, the attention, required in competing,

conflicting, struggling, striving or fighting, seems wasted.

It also seems to produce the side effect of hurting someone.

I can’t even force my knowledge or influence on anyone.

It goes beyond non-violence. It goes beyond passive resistance.

Can we ever gain anything durable by dominating dominators?

We simply need to allow for a flow of consequences.

Life really provides a flow of consequences.

It is just that we are granted the opportunity of a delay in consequences.

We wrongly presume that the delay in consequences

means there are no consequences.

In the fifth century, reincarnation was declared a heresy

by the orthodox Christian church.

Wait a minute, does it occur or doesn’t it occur?

We can declare, even by royal fiat,

how things work which lie beyond the ken

of the delay in consequences physical life provides.

It wasn’t until the nineteenth century

much of Judaism denounced reincarnation.

What if reincarnation is exactly when, where and by what means

we reap the consequences?

How can we ignore, deny or reject the memories of children,

who recite in great detail, their recently ended lifetimes?

When such as Dr. Brian Weiss finds that health consequences

in one’s present life are derived from events in prior lives,

how can we deflect such findings?

So, the gentlest of ways, cannot want a flow of consequences

from what we do that hurts or what we neglect to do that hurts.

We must be skilful givers.

Everyone wants to be shielded from the consequences of their poor choices.

Do we contribute to someone’s delinquency by shielding them

from the consequences of their choices, choices they need to change?

Of course, they will distribute approval, even accolades,

compliments and charm, in order to gain this shielding

from the consequences of poor choices.

Sometimes, they will claim to love you, need you,

even adore you, and they will believe it,

in order to gain the shield from consequences

you may be able to provide.

They will even curse you, blame you and vilify you,

if you withhold what they seek.

There is much to learn in order not to be beguiled by such expression.

When you can discover, within yourself,

someone whom you admire and appreciate

to the point of wanting to uphold, support and nourish, unconditionally,

even anonymously, you will recognize what you also want.

© 2011, ECOhealth / Eve Revere

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Archived Writings and Recordings, by Eve Revere

[email protected]

[email protected]

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