We know the universe mirrors back to us the map of reality we carry inside and yet getting in touch with our own internal map can be a challenge. We wish our inner map reflected a world of peace, harmony and love but find ourselves surrounded by a very different existence. We are living and breathing cognitive dissonance between our wishes and our reality and it taxes us emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Realizing we need to make changes, we must first find and accept our actual maps and then own and accept our own perceptions and projections. By owning all you feel is amiss in the world you realize that all the violence and duplicity you perceive to be in the external world also is alive and well in your shadow.
A guide to accessing your own internal map is found in the Parable of The Two Villages.
A man who was traveling came upon a farmer working in his field and asked him what the people in the next village were like. The farmer replied by asking “What were the people like in the last village you visited?” The man responded “They were kind, friendly, generous, great people.” “You’ll find the people in the next village are the same,” said the farmer. Another man who was traveling to the same village asked the same farmer what the people in the next village were like. The farmer replied by asking “What were the people like in the last village you visited?” The second man responded, “They were rude, unfriendly, dishonest people.” “You’ll find the people in the next village are the same,” said the farmer.
The beauty of parables is that they make a general point about larger philosophical issues that guide us to answering life’s great questions. When applying The Parable of The Two Villages to our own lives, on a micro level we might ask ourselves how we would describe the people around us, those who are part of our everyday village? Take a moment and write your answers down with radical honesty. Then consider applying the parable on a macro level, recognizing that the entire global community is our village. Write this down too.
Your answers will illuminate your true internal map of reality. Perhaps on a micro level you are pleased with your everyday village, describing it in glowing terms, and project into the world your expectation that other villages you come in contact with will have the same characteristics. But on a macro level, you describe the global community using negative words, projecting into the world an expectation that any new global community would likewise have negative characteristics.
Words have great power to influence our internal map of reality both personally and globally. In this time of great transition, the way we describe our global community today will impact our expectations for the future. We can choose to shift our focus from all that is wrong to all that is beautiful and right, and project that instead. What words will you choose?
