Beside myself yet sane

 David Bohm: I can see that the concept of a center produces a reaction that produces a feeling. In other words, the feeling of a center is produced by the concept of a center. So, it has no independent reality. It seems that this center is one of the basic causes of illusion, because once the center is established, then the next thought attributes itself to the center, and therefore it becomes the truth. In other words, thought then somehow seem to have achieved to have gotten itself beyond reality into truth.

David Bohm

 

Language is a strange thing. Mostly there is so much wisdom in it, but the expression “being beside myself” would be the exception that proves the rule so to speak. In the common language being beside myself is a negative experience, but in spirituality that’s the feeling when a higher dimension of awareness kicks in. It’s like being underwater, a serene perception of the world that also includes the “me perspective” which somehow doesn’t get activated. The German language has a similar phrase, “verruecked”, crazy, which literally means moved away from the center. Yes, I am both beside myself and crazy, in the sense that I have spotted the root cause of all our struggles, the center this “me, myself and I” identity has created. Yet, language cannot follow us when we move beyond this center and end up being serene, loving and sane. Go figure!