I was listening to Oprah Winfrey the other day, and she said
something that hit home, in a way things do when we are ready to hear them. She
said, “No one makes it alone…All those people who have come into my life are
the bricks in the building that I am.”
I am currently involved in an educational initiative that has a
mentorship arm that I now realize is crucial in the growing up process. Mentors
help us expand our concept of ourselves. I know my mentor did for me and I want
to pass it on. If I didn’t have someone who hadn’t believed in me, I wouldn’t
be who I am today; neither would I strive for progress. I wouldn’t have looked
for new direction or believe in my worth…I think it’s important to believe in
another’s capability too.
So who would I thank for helping me travel along this road of
life? My parents, of course, my partners, my friends and students…also floods
of people I have encountered, some even momentary encounters enter my mind,
especially the challenging ones. For all these I feel a sense of immense
gratitude.
I am learning and growing because of the people who crossed
my path and who help me fulfill my role as wife, mother, sister and certainly
as a teacher. Our own well-being is deeply tied to the well-being of others. I
deeply resonate with the universal concept, “people are not people without
other people.”
This is exactly what Nelson Mandela personified. He became the
embodiment of what in South Africa, is called “Ubuntu”. It is a beautiful and
old concept based on human kindness, connectedness, community and mutual caring
for all. Its hallmarks are reconciliation and harmony. It reminds us of a need
for understanding but not vengeance, a need for reparation and not retaliation,
a need for ubuntu and not for victimization. It speaks of the very essence of
being human, which to me means our generosity of spirit, friendship,
hospitality, caring and compassion. It is to say, “My humanity is inextricably
bound up in yours. We belong in a bundle of life.”
In many ways Ubuntu mirrors the Hindu spiritual teaching of
Advaita, or the law of opposite polarities. The night exists because there is
day, yin and yang are part and opposites of the same concept, anger is our
reality because some part of us has the potential for willingness; plus and
minus, positive and negative…one cannot exist without the other.
Contrary to the division and separation implied by western science
our entire world is connected and full of organisms and particles that work
together in harmony. It’s a giant, cosmic, spectrum of potentiality. Our planet
is dependant on all of its parts and something that affects one part affects us
all.
At times, this infinite energy and endless potential seems too
vast and daunting where I see myself as the tiniest grain of sand. Yet, I know
that behind everything there is not nothingness, not emptiness, but a vast
energy seen as matter. It is not enough to say that this energy surrounds us or
engulfs us….we are this energy! We arise out of its gentle embrace!
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