Am I Better than You?

I have an issue with how to deal with “comparison”. I know it is not OK to compare yourself with other people, and I try not to do it but… I still believe that some people are more evolve than others… and the differences are obvious… I really believe that we are all One but then, what about all these differences? 

–

All is one, but not the same.

Water is one, but there is salty water, and sweet water, and boiling water, and ice water…

Sweet water we can drink, but salty water we can’t. So, from the point of view of drinking, sweet water is better than salty. Still, water is one.

At the deepest level, at its essence, at the most fundamental level, all is one. But at a more superficial level, there are many shapes and forms. And so, from the point of view of some particular needs, some shapes and forms are more useful than others.

From the point of view of the individual person, we are all at different places in our journey towards the discovery of this truth, and for this, we all need to learn different lessons at different times. But this journey is not a straight line, it is a spiral. Sometimes we are up at the top, and then, a moment later, we are down at the bottom. That is why we cannot judge other people. We cannot even judge ourselves! Why? Simply because we have no idea why we are dealing with whatever we are dealing, why we have the needs that we have, why we have the thoughts that we have, why we are confronted with the experiences we are confronted with. It SEEMS that some things are superior to others, and from one point of view they may be, just like sweet water SEEMS to be superior to salty water. But is it?

When we are judging other people or ourselves, we are misusing a great power that we are given, the power of discrimination. It is a power that was given only to us; no other beings have it; it is really the highest power of a human being. We need to learn to use that power, between other things, to see what is really useful for us at any particular moment, and what is not, to have the strength and courage to let it go. Not because it is higher or lower, but simply because it is not what I need for my life – for my evolution – at this particular moment.

From the practical point of view of a thirsty being, sweet water is better than salty, but from a higher point of view, they are just both water. From a practical, everyday point of view, different people are busy with different pursuits and needs and activities and hopes and dreams, but from a truer or higher point of view, we are all evolving towards love and harmony, towards that vision of wholeness and unity; we are all evolving towards God.

* It is definitely not easy to understand how everything can be love when there are so many terrible things happening all the time. These notes may point into this understanding: here and here.