Let's create something new
Some reflections on feeling yourself as part of something bigger and the power of the collective
A Monastery in Coimbra
A monastery in the middle of Coimbra.
I love these worn-smooth stones at the entrance.
I like running my fingers across them
wondering how many feet have touched them.
You cross them
and all of a sudden you’re in a different realm.
The sound of the chaos of the city
gets swallowed by the tick walls.
These courtyards with their archways.
I wonder how it feels to take endless rounds here,
with every spark of attention turned toward God.
In deepest concentration, fulles devotion.
I remember the Buddhist monks
walking their rounds around the temple,
whispering mantras,
their rosaries hanging down from their hands,
carefully counting one of the 108 pearls at a time.
Sometimes I had a feeling
that there is too much control in that.
But I remember myself
walking in this state of full concentration,
all attention turned inward.
An external prison, so it seems.
But inside: freedom and presence.
No need for more than what is.
No longings.
Remembering: the prison is always inside you.
It’s never outside.
Human Realities
No, I’m not naïve.
I have spent some time among monks and nuns.
They are full of human passions and sorrows as well.
It’s not like they just disappear,
when you enter a temple or monastery.
Rather the opposite,
suddenly they seem to be everywhere.
Rising to the surface.
Fully illuminated.
So, you can’t ignore them.
In Lumbini, for example, the birthplace of the Buddha:
A nun who takes out her resentment —
about that fact she will never reach the same rank as a monk,
while being the one who does all the management,
the bureaucracy, the finances,
while the monk can focus on representative functions,
is the face of the monastery, gets all the attention, —
on the kitchen helpers.
I feel her frustration in every step she takes.
But what did I expect?
To be around superhuman beings?
A little power in her powerlessness.
Don’t we all do that?
Powerless in one moment,
in full inferior mode,
playing superior in the next,
pretending that we have power.
No, all of that doesn’t just disappear.
It becomes highlighted.
Being Allowed to Be Silent
And yet I feel a kind of humility in such places.
No— that’s not the right word either.
It is the feeling of “being allowed” to be.
”Being allowed” to be silent.
”Being allowed” to be nobody.
”Being allowed” meaning:
Without being looked at strangely or judged for it.
Without having to overplay one’s own emotions and moods.
Trying to “look okay”.
But to be with what is.
Of course, we can do that anywhere.
Why would we care about other peoples’ looks?
But there is something else
about places like this monastery.
Here, one is not alone but
one can be with oneself among people.
Yes, that’s it:
Being among others, while being with oneself.
It’s a feeling of freedom and connectedness.
True unity.
Not the one where you have to abandon yourself,
sacrifice yourself, earn your place.
Make sure that everyone is okay with you,
so that you can be yourself.
I feel it when dancing, when making music.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s around strangers or people I know.
Being with oneself— and at the same time part of something greater.
A vibrating, living riple of a collective wave.
A tiny vibration of the Big sound of unity.
Unity in Crises
In sports, in team sports,
it sometimes happens as well.
This feeling of harmony,
when your individual goal merges
with the collective one.
Or in crises, in disasters,
when suddenly everyone understands
that they belong together.
Yes— existing for oneself,
your own suffering and personal complaints don’t disappear,
but you’re connected in the shared endurance of a disaster.
That reminds you:
We can only achieve something
when we act as a collective.
When we remember
that separation is only an illusion.
Crises help us overcome this:
to develop compassion,
to break through categories.
The fires in Portugal affected everyone:
rich and poor, black and white,
newcomers and locals.
Of course, there are differences in the means to deal with them.
But even that exists only on the surface.
Emotionally we are all affected in similar way.
No status, religion, skin color, gender
can protect you from that.
We just forget.
The Unstoppable Power of the Collective
Anyone who has ever experienced this collective force—
when everyone pulls together,
works toward a common goal—
will never forget it.
This unstoppable power
that can shatter all boundaries.
This feeling of unity,
in a moment when nothing else matters
but creating together.
It is like musicians on stage:
They fall into a trance,
surrender to the moment
and let the music move through them.
They themselves become instruments,
playing one another,
communicating with one another—
and something unique emerges.
A work of art possible only in that one moment.
A moment of trust,
of devotion,
of forgetting.
Creating a New World
Only when we forget everything else—
do we understand what truly matters.
Only when we give ourselves up
for the collective whole
can this work of art come into being.
Then a New World can come into being.
Let us use these moments of chaos, crisis, and destruction
to create something new—
instead of sinking into personal suffering
and creating more separation.
Instead of waiting for the “others” to change,
Waiting for the “others” to solve it.
Powerful people shaking hands
for the sake of a photo.
While nothing is actually done.
Let us dedicate our potential
to the shared creation of a new world.
That is why we are here.
That is why we are alive.
Nima
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