Anything Is
Everything
Living in this material world is all about struggling and
surviving. The good news is that it is a human race in which there are really
no real winners and losers in the end. But no matter what, we all have to
finish that race somehow, with no exception. Just do your very best, and let
the Creator do the rest to help you finish your own race with grace and
dignity. The wisdom of your body, your mind, and your spirit may awaken and
rejuvenate you along the rest of your life journey.
Living is always a discovery process. Life is a journey
of self-discovery—finding who you are, why you are here, what
you really need, and how you may meet your basic needs, so that you,
like every one else, can fulfill some of your life goals and purposes that are
exclusively designed for you. But to do just that, you need profound human
wisdom and spiritual wisdom to continue that journey as if everything is a
miracle.
Albert Einstein once said: “There are only two ways to live your
life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is
a miracle.”
Indeed, life is a miracle in itself. Being alive is a
miracle. Having your breaths is already a miracle. Everything in life is
a miracle.
To truly believe and appreciate the miracle of life, you
need the wisdom to grasp the full meaning of anything is everything, everything is nothing, and nothing is everything—they may all
ultimately lead to your self-awakening, without which you will continue to live
as if nothing is a miracle.
What is meant by “anything is everything”? It may have
different meanings and different interpretations to different individuals.
First of all, human perceptions are subjective and
individualized: they are affected not only by the five senses, but also by the
unique experiences of an individual, as well as by the indelible memories of
those experiences retained in the mind of that individual. Therefore, what is
important to you may not be as
important to others, and vice-versa.
For this reason, anything could be everything to you, but not to others.
An illustration
Near
the end of 2016, a road rage occurred in Arkansas
A woman, with her 3-year-old
grandson sitting at the back of her car, stopped at a stop sign. A man in the
car right behind honked her for not starting her car immediately, but the woman
honked back; thus the road rage began with the man firing a gun shot at the
back of the woman’s car.
Stopping too long at a stop
sign, or wanting to get to a place on
time might be everything to the man.
Having the right to remain where she was might also be everything to the woman, so she naturally honked back.
Unfortunately, that anything-is-everything incident ended in
tragedy—the death of the woman’s three-year-old grandson being shot dead while
sitting at the back of her car.
In real life, anything
could be everything to real people—it
all depends on their respective perspectives of anything is everything.
A frog in a well
In many ways,
many of us are just like a frog in a well, looking up at the limited sky above,
in that we see only ourselves, and no
one else, and therefore anything is
everything to us. In other words, we see only our own needs and desires that
have to be fulfilled and gratified no matter how, but without seeing those in
others.
Just like the
man in the car rage who saw only his own need to get going, but without even
considering why the woman might be
stalling her car at the stop sign and not moving ahead right away.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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