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