PRINCIPLES
FOR PERSONAL GROW TH, CHANGE, AND TRUE
SUCCESS
IN OUR LIFE AND SERVICE TO
OTHERS
How
to become all we can be and live at peace in our
world.
Principle
3 - Our human experience is full of paradox.
We must seek to understand its power and embrace
the truths that it brings to us.
We will not fully understand this principle, but our
lives will be fuller, richer and easier as we seek to
do so. We said in Principle two,
“We need
to assume full responsibility for our lives, our
performance, our relationships, and how we respond to
what happens to us.” That is
true.
However, this is also true;
“We must depend on others and on God, and be
responsible to someone else in order to improve our
performance, our relationships and how we respond to
what happens to us.” In these contrasting truths,
we find the dilemma and, in some cases, the delight of
paradox. We ask the question, “How can they both
be true? They are opposite.” When someone
asks, “ well which is it, which of these is
true?” The answer is yes. This is a
“paradox.” A paradox is where
contradictions are true. The dictionary says a
paradox is “a seemingly contradictory statement(s) that
may nonetheless be true . . . it is an assertion
that is essentially contradictory though based on a
valid deduction.” Paradox has power to help us
and to perplex us. Paradox can be illustrated and
expressed in the classic literature of Dickens who said
of the French revolution in a Tale of
Two Cities, “It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times.” This is a
statement to which the logical, analytical, symmetrical
side of our mind cries out, “Well, which is it?”
Again, the answer is “Yes.”
But before we become dismayed, we must understand that
our world wells up with paradox. We have heard it
said that if you want to gain more, give away
more. In many of our great spiritual traditions
we find such statements as, “The first shall be last,
and the last shall be first.” We hear that “from
death comes life.” We also discover the paradox
in the modern technological world. We now know
that the more time saving devices that we seem to have,
the less time we seem to have. Often the faster we go,
the behinder we get. All of these things perplex
us and in some cases deeply puzzle us. But the
clue to peace of mind is to have a path of thought
through the paradoxes of life. We need to
understand the dilemmas they bring to us, and how they
make life perplexing and yet give it depth and profound
wisdom. We need to embrace those things that may
mystify us, but in the end give us
peace.
In terms of our personal growth, change, and
development, we may need to understand that we can only
be fully self-actualized as we delight in who we are
and accept who we are. We may need to know that
we can only be fully responsible and fully independent
as we surrender ourselves to others and become
interdependent. Most importantly, we do need to
know that if we seek to be successful and have others
serve our goals and ends, that we must surrender to and
serve others. Yes, paradox abounds and is
with us always.
So we need to remember that
in order to be successful and have peace of mind, we
must embrace the principle that says,
“Our
human experience is full of paradox. We must seek
to understand its power and embrace the truths that it
brings to us.”
Stan
Hustad
PTM
Group