Comparing

Comparing
By
Bill Marshall

How do you define YOU? Or, in other words, what allows you to set yourself apart from someone else. For instance, I know I’m short because of people who are tall. I know I’m in good shape because of people who are in bad shape. I know I have a big nose because of people who have a small nose. I know I am smart because of people who are not. I know I am getting old because of people who are still young. Short/tall, good/bad, big/small, smart/dumb, old/young are all part of a world that is, in part, shaped by duality. It’s part of the blueprint WE designed. We weren’t thrown into it as some Neroesque prank.

Duality is what allows us to consciously discern differences. This isn’t something that channeled entities such as Elias and Seth have informed us of. We’ve known about it for thousands of years. As Lao Tsu put it: “When everyone knows beauty as beautiful, there is already ugliness; When everyone knows good as goodness, there is already evil. “To be” and “not to be” arise mutually; Difficult and easy are mutually realized; Long and short are mutually contrasted; High and low are mutually posited;...Before and after are in mutual sequence.”

In Aion, CG Jung wrote: “St. Thomas himself recalls the saying of Aristotle that "the thing is the whiter, the less it is mixed with black," without mentioning, however, that the reverse position: "the thing is the blacker, the less it is mixed with the white," not only has the same validity as the first but is also its logical equivalent. He might also have mentioned that not only darkness is known through light, but that, conversely, light is known through darkness.” And again: “Union of opposites is equivalent to unconsciousness, so far as human logic goes, for consciousness presupposes a differentiation into subject and object and a relation between them. Where there is no "other," or it does not yet exist, all possibility of consciousness ceases.”

What does this have to do with how you perceive yourself? Everything! Now, how you FEEL about yourself has to do with our near-neurotic penchant for comparing and then judging better or worse, good or bad based on the comparison. So, if this reality is our creation, then it seems to me that it is about time we learned how to drive the vehicle. You are your own creation. You’re not an accident, and if you’re not an accident then how do you go about accepting YOU, while at the same time being bathed in Duality? We STOP comparing! What we can’t do is stop our noticing differences. It’s part of our blueprint and allows for the illusion of separation and the establishment of individuality. It is the judgment (what the channel Elias calls the belief system of Duplicity) that we place on the comparison that often brings us conflict. The judgment of differences brings mass conflict as well.

This is not to say that we do not continue to have opinions and preferences. I prefer vanilla ice cream, but don’t for a moment think my preference should be shared by everyone. If you prefer brussel sprout ice cream I notice the difference and the noticing ends there. I don’t go into ‘you-must-be-nuts’ mode. Do you? If so, then you are comparing and elevating your preference and your choice over that of another. Comparing also creates the illusion of happiness , or, if not happiness , then at least no conflict. This comes from the elevation of ourselves over others by way of the comparison. The opposite is also true. In the US we have an expression that epitomizes our proclivity to compare. “Keeping up with the Jones’s,” has kept our focus outward and locked on ‘judgment.’ More is better than less. Big is better than small. Rich is better than poor. Without duality these differences could not be discerned. There may always be big and small, more and less, rich and more. But as we learn to drive our vehicle we may find that one is not ‘better’ than the other. They are merely different aspects of the same coin.