Embrace the negative

Embrace the negative

November 2014

If as a society we were to embrace all that is negative instead of rejecting it, perhaps we would reach an authentic stage of peace and harmony, says Suma Varughese

For the last couple of years, one of the insights that have driven me is the recognition that all dualities are two sides of the same coin, and the reason why they seem so opposed is because of the human tendency to crave the pleasant and recoil from the unpleasant. If we have the capacity to freely welcome unpleasant sensations such as anger, grief, jealousy, guilt and shame, they would speedily dissolve into their opposites, such as joy, peace and acceptance. This is because these qualities are who we really are – they form the foundation of our nature. Our constant resistance to our negative emotions prevents us from getting in touch with them, for negative emotions always obscure our positive and permanent nature, just as clouds obscure the sun. In truth all emotions are energies that come and go if we do not interfere with them. Look at the way children experience their emotions to the fullest possible extent, release them from their system, and are back to laughing and playing in no time. We too are meant to be like this.

This understanding has really assisted me to welcome my negative emotions, for I know that they only will lead me to their opposites. Anger leads to peace, greed to desirelessness, impatience to patience, and so on.

While at the personal level this insight has helped me move towards integration, I used to find that the daily newspaper still used to rattle me with its ceaseless focus on the negative. Rapes, murders, accidents, bank robberies, and wars spill out of every page. I used to find myself particularly perturbed by the sexual abuse of little children. Every fibre in my body would rise up to protest against this atrocity.

However, of late, I have decided to use my integration insight to come to terms with societal outrages too. Just as we individually need to integrate by accepting and befriending our rejected and negative parts, we need to do the same to the society we belong to. So each time I read any negative news I find myself willingly accepting it because I know that it will help us as a society to transcend it and become whole.

Thus corruption is embraced because only it will lead us to our natural integrity. Rapes and other sexual crimes are embraced because they only will lead us to our natural purity. Thefts and embezzlements are embraced as they only will lead us to our natural honesty. Wars are embraced for they only lead us to peace.

In truth all emotions are energies that come and go if we do not interfere with them.

In the last issue the writer,  Warina Tilli, wrote about how he had given up the habit of reading the newspaper because it disturbed him so much. Most readers will resonate with his predicament because if there is one thing seekers are allergic to, it is bad news. And as long as we cannot bear them it is right and proper to reject them.

But once we find the capacity within us to embrace them, let us do this because ultimately, we are meant to embrace all of life and to live in harmony with it. An edited and carefully pruned world containing only that which we like and resonate with, is not the ultimate state we are meant to arrive at.

If enough of us were to do this exercise, perhaps these renegade energies will be banked, and leave our system, bringing us that much closer to the peace and harmony of the natural order.

 About the author 

Suma Varughese is a thinker, writer, seeker, latent crusader and Editor-in-Chief of Life Positive. Write to her at suma@lifepositive.net