Some thoughts can be light and airy while others can cause us great pain and suffering. You might have heard about the parable of the two monks about to cross a shallow river crossing. A very old woman approaches them and asks if one of them could please carry her across the water on their backs. Monks, leading a chaste life, are not allowed to touch women. Yet, one of the monks agrees and hoists her up on his back and across the river the three go. At the river’s edge she is put down and they part their ways. The monks continue on their journey. Hours later, the monk who did not carry the old lady turns to the other and angrily reproaches him for breaking his vows to help the old woman. The monk’s response was, “Friend, I dropped her off at the river, you, on the other hand have been carrying her the whole time.”
Being quite familiar with how weighty subjects affect my body and my health, I know for a fact that there are simply unsustainable world-views that with time, will collapse, due to it’s unbearable level of weight on the mind and the heart. Part of the reason I never worry about changing anyone’s mind about anything is because I trust, one hundred percent, that each and every person knows exactly how much they can mentally handle and I trust that in time, people organically pear away the ideas, ideologies and world-views that serve them no purpose or works against them. Humans can only maintain mental gymnastics that do not serve them for a limited amount of time; ultimately, and if we are sane, we seek calmness, peace and joy as our way to feel balanced.
Our world-views can allow us to flourish and prosper or it can tamper with our mojo, our creativity, our flow, or even our joy. Some people go years trying to make an incongruent world-view fit their life and wonder why they feel so drained, so joyless.
I am holding back from giving examples of world-views for that is inconsequential. No matter what your world-view is, whether it’s informed by religion, science, or a set of mixed authors, or even if it comes from your own parents or your culture, we all absolutely benefit from having a framework in life. Having a framework is most helpful in times of stress and deep despair. The world-view “framework” is like a map that helps define and provide meaning and most importantly, hope.
As a teacher I have many times read the book The Biggest House in The World, by Leo Lionni to my students. It’s an excellent, excellent book about this snail that does not like his shell and tries to make himself bigger and bigger by adding more and more to his shell. In life, we try on many shells, so to speak, until we realize that the lightest shell we can ever wear is our very own. No matter what world-view you might adopt in this lifetime, the only one that will serve you well and provide you with an endless source of joy is the one that allows you to be the most genuine version of yourself. Choose wisely.