The Inverse Logic of Life
When we experience utter hopelessness, we realise the futility of all human effort. There is nothing more that we can do. It is at this point that we experience true inner freedom. A moment when we see life through a different lens. Just like when a person with a terminal illness is told that she has only 6 months left to live. There is nothing more that she can do. And in that nothingness, she finds meaning in doing whatever she wants to do. She tastes true freedom. The illness becomes a blessing in disguise. She comes to appreciate life like she has never done before. In her hopelessness she experiences hope. A spiritual awakening!
Similarly, we experience power in our powerlessness. Unless an alcoholic accepts his complete helplessness and the crippling bankruptcy of his life, entering the AA program will not prove useful to him. Step one of this program begins with the statement: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.” Through accepting his powerlessness, he experiences power. He comes to believe in a Power greater than him. His surrender results in his victory. Addictions become possible benedictions.
Thich Nhat Hanh observed very perceptively that when one looks at a flower one sees garbage and when one looks at garbage one sees a flower. The flower withers and turns into garbage. Garbage turns into compost for the plant to grow and allow the flower to bloom. There is an inter — being between the flower and the garbage. From dirt arises beauty. The lotus arises from the ‘muckiest of muck’.
And yet in our lives we seem to adopt an adversarial attitude towards our greed, lust, anger and all that is negative within us — what we consider dirty! We desperately try to avoid these realities. Suppress them. They are too painful to be faced. We push them under the carpet. However, Thomas Moore reminds us that they provide the necessary food for our soul. The shadow side of our existence has a treasure hidden inside. We understand the truth of ourselves by acknowledging its existence. It requires toughness to gently acknowledge the existence of our inner demons. Befriend them. Not indulge them or avoid them or fight them but quietly observe them attentively. Moore elaborates “Observance is homeopathic in its workings rather than allopathic in the paradoxical way that it befriends a problem rather than making an enemy of it”.
We seldom realise that what we consider hostile to life can prove to be very beneficial. From poisons which kill, chemists create useful drugs. Many plants create toxins to protect themselves from hungry insects and other animals. From these plant toxins, chemists extract effective drugs like Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) which is used in the treatment of malaria and Foxglove (Digitalis lanata) which is used to treat irregular heartbeat and so on. Poisons become medicine.
We are empowered by our weakness. Hannah Merker an author with a hearing disability understood what real listening was only after she lost her hearing. She says “To listen means to be aware, to watch, to wait patiently for the next communication clue.” One learns to listen with one’s sight, intuition, mind; in fact, with one’s entire being. Perhaps we need to lose our sight to understand what it means to see. Not having a sense empowers the other senses. We become strong through our weakness.
Inverse Logic challenges the way we see and live life. Often truth lies in the opposite direction in which we are looking.
