Find the Holes

From the Swietlistej Drogi, Death; from Mirrors of the Heart, 'Touch:'

          Against the backdrop of an eclipse, a woman breaks free of a body that seems to have been composed of dried clay. The ego death that Buddhism encourages is releasing the belief that our sense-of-self is a permanent, separate thing and understanding that it is simply a continually changing process. I'm struggling with this identification on the eve of the midterm elections. My opinions make me want to push others to vote as I do through whatever means I can. Yet Mark Epstein reminds me, "There are many things in life we can do nothing about—the circumstances of our childhoods; natural events in the outer world; the chaos and catastrophe of illness, accident, loss, and abuse—but there is one thing we can change. How we interact with our own egos is up to us." If I spew hatred and stir up fear, I'm no different than those I oppose. When I loosen my identity of who I think I am, it is easier to see my interconnection with all others. The Touch card seems to reinforce this loosening and makes me think of a quote from Sri Nisargadatta:

The real world is beyond our thoughts and ideas; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes.