Happy New Year?

Hi there, you have a letter to open!

I began the long and still unfinished journey toward seeing the world through the eyes of others, towards knowing the endless joy of entering another's thoughts and feelings and experiencing them as my own.

The change cannot be overemphasized. So often we from our par build our lives around our positions — "I think, I need, I want." Yet the world around us has a life: a particular perspective, and we can begin to understand this life more fully if we give over our perspective and see from other points of view.

This may seem abstract, but in fact it is obvious. Our language contains a tyranny of separateness that wears away at our sense of unity like water dripping on a rock. “I see something, I do something” - the 'I' stands apart from the world around me, linked to it only by an action. Over time my very language increases my separation and isolation by making me see and understand the world as apart from me. I find myself estranged and alone, and I don't know why.

Other cultures, especially those where "being" is seen to permeate all objects, have unity built into their language. That which they see, not the self, is the natural subject of their thoughts. In ours, it is not. We have to make a continual effort to move ourselves out of the center of our point of view.

Very few people ever make that effort. Poets, perhaps, and painters, and artists, and people for whom empathy is a gift of the spirit. But for most of us, the self reigns supreme in both perception and importance.

We need to be shaken from our stance and knocked out of our complacency. We need an epiphany, a koan. Rainaldi gave me mine.

I would wish nothing more than that I could give you yours. But the heart receives such knowledge when it is ready, and your heart will receive it when it is time.

But when it happens, the world will shift in a way you cannot imagine. You will stop trying to find your home in the universe and begin making the universe your home. Judgment will ebb and appreciation begin. Everything will gain the potential to be interesting and beautiful, and every moment will become an opportunity for growth and discovery.

And though you will never completely lose your sense of self — that is the realm of the buddhas and the saints, you will have embarked on one of the most exciting journeys in life. You will have begun to see the world with the heart of an artist, and that, more than anything else, is the secret of keeping the heart eternally young.

— Kent Nerburn, Letters To My Son.

It's been a really long break, I know. I won't say I'm sorry for it; I guess we all needed it directly or indirectly. However, I missed writing to you.

Is it too late to say happy new year? 😅 Uhm, you know what, I have a plan. Why don't we work hard and do all we can to make this year our best one yet? Sounds like a good plan, right?

Great, let's stick to it!

PS: #MondayLetters continues next week. Don't forget to share my letters to your family and friends. I'm sure they'll love to be a part of us.

Till I write to you again,

— Delight Asaph .