I was visiting the Official Calvin & Hobbes website earlier and read the cartoon shown for today.
Hobbes is helping Calvin get the mail from the mail box and Calvin says "Ah! I got the letter I wrote to myself!" Hobbes replies: "What did you write?" Calvin (reading aloud) says "Dear Calvin, Hi! I'm writing this on Monday. What day is it now? How are things going? Your Pal, Calvin." Calvin then goes on to say: "My past self is corresponding with my future self." And Hobbes replies: "Too bad you can't write back."
How many times in the past have we wished that we could go back and tell ourselves what will happen in the future so that we can avoid the heartache/disasters etc. that are lying in wait for us. Hobbes says it's too bad that we can't write back; no matter how hard we try, we can't post a letter to the past. But how often do we actually try to live there? How often have we caught ourselves rehashing old situations and trying to rationalise them or have ourselves say the things that we thought of later that would have been 'clever'.
Rather than trying to change the past in our own heads, we should view these situations, or the people from these situations, as resources - as it says in Ch. 27, "the bad person is the good person's resource." In the scroll of the 3 vinegar tasters, the world for the followers of Tao, is a teacher of valuable lessons, but this doesn't mean that we should be living in the past rather than in the present. As in the story about the Tibetan Monk and his annoying secretary, we need to learn from our resources (the annoying people/situations we encounter today or have encountered in the past); if they are still annoying us then it means that we still have unresolved issues and we need to develop more compassion, patience and understanding.
Ultimately, what we seek in following the Way is a true understanding of ourselves and our place in, and relationship to, the World. Chapter 33 expresses this best:
"Knowing others is intelligent
Knowing yourself is enlightened."
So unlike Hobbes, we realise that it's not a shame that we can't write back; our past, and our present, is our 'teacher of valuable lessons', rather than something with which we wish to be in correspondence.
Tag Taoism Calvin and Hobbes 3 Vinegar Tasters
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
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2 comments:
:) I wrote a poem about how we look at the past and future, and wish they were opposite of what they are at many times
http://www.personaltao.com/tao/mystery.pdf
Taoism is very clear about this issue, that time, the future and the past are not of concern to the now,
they are merely guidelines and hints
Its upon us to live in the heart, in the breath , in the moment to truly be alive.
I just so love calvin and hobbes, :)
The future *does* reach back and touch the past - through the present moment. You have to be in this moment knowing both your past that brought you to this point, and the probable future result of the present action. That is the only way we can "write back". I've often been about to do something I really shouldn't have, and then realized how I would feel about it in the future. Sometimes, I would do the thing anyway, even knowing how it would turn out later. But, I think I've almost always known...
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