Man In The Mirror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps

Every once in a while, I remember to watch this old music video again... “Man In The Mirror,” by the gone but certainly not forgotten Michael Jackson. The song, by itself, is excellent – an emotional and articulate call to look at ourselves and make the changes within that we wish to see made manifest in the world. What makes the video so moving is the juxtaposition of historical images that capture so clearly the conflicting emotions we all struggle with... fear and anger, love and compassion, baseness and nobility. No one is immune from this human predicament; no one is above the fray, no matter how we try to remove ourselves. We all feel all these things, even if we do not express them, or even admit to ourselves that we do. The various levels of human consciousness, or, if you will, the various evolutionary pieces of our brain, dictate that these feelings will forever exist within us, in conflict.

So what do we do?

An answer, I believe, lies in the model of the human being put forth by an Indonesian spiritual leader, Muhammed Subuh Sumohadiwijojo, or “Bapak,” as far back as the 1930’s... he envisioned the human being as composed of Life Forces, starting with the Material, then Vegetable, then Animal, then what he called Ordinary Human and finally True Human. Without going into great detail, I’ve found this hierarchy, or ‘layering’ of forces to be instructive in looking at what part of me is making choices, or reacting to a given situation. Each choice or situation then teaches me about myself, slowly, over time, with my errors being as valuable as my successes.

Bapak had a great saying, which I have remembered for many years... “Are you sitting on the chair, or is the chair sitting on you?” In other words, who is in charge? Is it you, the True, or Noble Human Being, making choices, or is it something lesser – a lust for the material thing, a desire for too much pleasure and comfort, a desire to dominate, be right, or ‘win’ that is making the call? The True Human, I have come to see, (a little) makes choices from a place above these others, quietly, from a perspective unavailable to the other ‘lower’ forces.

This perspective cannot be taught, for the mind – a material thing, after all – cannot hold it. It is not a ‘learned behavior,’ in an educational sense of the word. There is no degree in it, nor is there a course of study available at any university to teach a person how to become a True Human Being. The school we are all enrolled in is this world, and unfortunately, most of us have become too entranced, too enamored with our distractions to hear the Teacher’s voice. We stop going to class. We forget our homework. We drop out. The Man In The Mirror’s image becomes blurred, out of focus... and sometimes, the mirror even breaks, leaving us truly shattered in every sense of the word.

I suspect we come back to this amazing and terrifying school, over and over, lifetime after lifetime, until we graduate, until we understand who we are and what we’ve been given. I am more conscious every day of the incredible gift of this life, and of the opportunity it affords me to ‘make that change’ that will make choices from a quieter, more Human place. I still see myself affected by all the forces – the chair sits on me still – but at least I can occasionally see when it does and laugh at my foolishness. Condemnation is pointless... forgiveness of self and others the homework for the day. The Teacher is so patient, loving us all, for we are only human... and then, just barely, sometimes.

Enough for now. Time to go to school.