In our culture, we tend to have a very delineated view of the world. Things are either black or white, they’re either on or off, they’re either left or right. Everything has a “side†to it, or sometimes multiple sides, and I’ve always got to choose which side I’m on. Somebody’s going to win, and somebody’s going to lose.
The older I get, the less I think the universe is set up that way. Oh, I accept that we try and construct the world we live in that way, but I don’t think this is the “order of things†as they’re laid out in the universe. I don’t think this is how G-d sees it.
I write about this in my book – Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty – and I recently had a discussion with someone that got me to thinking about it a little differently.
M.C. Escher was inspired by a mathematical concept called the Möbius Strip. Think of it as a flat noodle that you make a loop out of and join the two ends together, but before you join the ends, you give the noodle half a twist. Now, there’s no inside or outside of the noodle, right? If you traced a path along the noodle you’d cover the entire surface – inside and outside – and end up right back at the same place.
Kind of like the concept of giving. In our delineated view of the world, there’s a giver and a receiver, right? One person is on one side of the strip, and the other person is on the other side. But when your heart opens during the act of giving, you’re much more accessible to receiving as well. On the other side of the interaction, the receiver gives gratitude back to the giver, creating a continuum in the giving cycle. Done well, there is no giver and no receiver, but only the blessing of giving.
Like forgiveness. In nearly every religion, the instruction to forgive each other exists, but we often come to think of it in our delineated fashion – thinking that if we want to be forgiven, then we first must forgive others. The classic if/then statement. But I don’t think it works that way.
Expressing forgiveness is something that’s contagious, and infects everyone around us. Forgiving enhances a state of forgiveness, and there’s no inside surface or outside surface. It just happens. We can’t make it happen, or keep ourselves on the outside surface of it, we can only contribute to the state that exists, or turn our heads and try and pretend it isn’t there by refusing to express forgiveness.
G-d doesn’t forgive us because we forgive others – we just choose to join the state that G-d creates – it’s all one surface. G-d doesn’t let us fall into blessings because we give to others – giving to others opens us to the state of giving, and lets us participate in the never-ending cycle of giving and receiving.
The Möbius Strip. Jump on.
