There is no Good or Bad ...

Some of you might have seen the HSBC adds on airports that show pictures of people, landscapes and other objects, but attach different meanings to them dependent on the perception of different cultures. For example, you see an old man with white hair and you can associate with him wisdom as it is often done in the east or over the hill as it is often done in the west. HSBC wants to make the point that they have the necessary local knowledge to get the meaning right as they operate in different cultures.

When I reflected on these mental images that we form based on what we see and our personal conditioning, I was reminded of Shakespeare's "There is no good or bad, only thinking makes it so" quote. The choice is up to you whether you want to see a wise man who can share a lot of his learned insights with you, or an old man who is forgetful and unreliable. As you choose your mental image, the old man is likely to respond accordingly. Or take the phallus: you can see it as the ultimate engineering device that spreads the cradle of life and divine energy, or you can see it as an instrument of male aggression. Our fall was a mental one, of course there was sex in  paradise, and that's exactly what the tantric sex folks are out to show.

I am fascinated with the subject of symbols or mental images that we form according to our conditioning and the question whether we are able to mentally redefine what we see and experience from ego-driven thinking to right-minded thinking. This is the process of spiritual healing, just keep on doing what you are doing, but experiencing everything on a much healthier spiritual plane. I do experiment with the sexual reprogramming, but cannot really tell much internal change yet. Where I have succeeded already is at work. One by one, I am redefining the people I work with from competitive spirits to my spiritual friends. Amazingly it is true, as my perception of them changes, their attitude towards me changes as well.