Tag: God

  • Spiritual Lessons From Beggars

    Spiritual Lessons From Beggars

    Jacques de Villiers – writing quest: Article 47/365

    I’m that guy. When I see that the robot is red I slow down so that I can catch it as it turns green. All in the effort to avoid the beggar. And, if I am confronted by the beggar (damn you red robot), I do that verkakte, patronising shrug and mouth, “Sorry, no money.”

    Don’t get me started on shopping centre car guards. I’ve been known to leopard-crawl to my car to avoid being seen by one. I close my car door quietly and slink low into my driver’s seat. God forbid I alert the Velociraptor, and he chases me down.

    Now I know that you’re not as crass, cruel and cowardly as me. You’re probably kind, courteous and generous. This article’s not for you.

    My white guilt and privilege smacks me around the head. I feel sorry and sympathetic. I’m pissed off at a country that has allowed this travesty to happen for reasons we are all aware of. But, mostly, I’m irritated at the beggar/car guard for making me feel shit. 

    I don’t feel shit any more after coming across a story by Carlos Castaneda. He was sitting with his spiritual teacher, the Yaqui shaman, Don Juan Matus at a restaurant in Mexico. They watched as beggars took scraps off the table after the patrons left. Don Juan asks Castaneda if he felt sorry for the beggars. Castaneda affirmed. Don Juan then asked him if he felt superior to them. Sheepishly, he affirmed this too. Then Don Juan asks him, “What makes you think that they haven’t found the path before you?”

    Damn right. When it comes to matters of the soul, it doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO or a street sweeper. We’re held to account equally. All that matters is how you conducted yourself here.

    Have you ever asked, “Where are you God?” The answer will probably be, “I am here begging in front of you. I’m helping you reverse your car out of the parking space.” So, basically, he’s everywhere. This effectively means we should always be in a state of awe and gratitude every second of the day. 

    And, if like me, you believe that we signed a soul contract of how we are going to show up in this world, then the beggar is where he is supposed to be. I appreciate being given a chance to show compassion and empathy, and to feel grateful that he is also participating in this game. 

    He shows me my frailty. My vanity. My shame. My guilt. My anger. My kindness. My compassion. My love. He’s just doing his job. He’s allowing me to look at things that trigger me negatively so that I can let go of them. And, he’s allowing me to be generous and kind. And, most of all, he’s allowing me to see God in all his glory.

    So, nowadays, when I don’t have money to give (or even if I do), I look at the beggar and think, “Wow my friend, you’ve chosen a hard path to play your part. It’s not a path I would have liked to sign up for. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to show you compassion and love. “I wish you abundance, today.”

    “Thank you, God, for showing yourself at the robot today.”

    We are all here for a purpose. Let’s honour that and play our role out to the best of our ability.

  • Great artists crave appreciation

    Great artists crave appreciation

    There’s one thing artists crave more than food. And, that’s appreciation.

    All humankind craves appreciation.

    The thing is that we were created to be appreciative by the great artist.

    When he spoke his first words, “Let there be light”, he got the ball rolling. He called light, day and separated it from dark, night.

    He was pleased. And, this was only day one.

    Like all artists, God wanted someone to appreciate and be in awe of his great work.

    So he created humankind in his own image to be in awe of his creation.

    He saw the world through each one of their eyes and he was pleased.

    Humankind appreciates little

    But, soon he must have realised that humankind appreciated little.

    So, he manufactured the original sin. Humankind fell from grace and was separated from Eden. And from him.

    He brought darkness and separation to humankind.

    It was only when humankind was disconnected from God that they realised what they’d lost.

    And, ever since then, humankind has been trying to get back to their source and reconnect with it. That’s our real journey, today.

    • If there’s not darkness, there cannot be light.
    • If we don’t struggle and suffer, how do we know what happiness is?
    • If we don’t struggle and suffer how do we appreciate it when the struggle and suffering ends?
    • How can we be grateful?
    • How can we be in awe?

    Our greatest sin

    Our greatest sin is ingratitude. We were given the perfect home and the perfect life. All that was required of humankind was to be in awe and gratitude for the great work of art we live in.

    Humankind and its self-indulgent, entitled nature stuffed that up good and solid.

    As instruction, let’s take a tiny event in time. The impending ‘Day Zero’ in Cape Town is almost upon us. The day the taps run dry, darkness will descend upon South African humankind.

    Nobody appreciated the Eden we were in. Nobody appreciated the water supply. There was no awe and gratitude for this great blessing. Judging by the way we’re destroying God’s masterpiece, the darkness is only going to get worse.

    Oh, you thought you were his masterpiece?

    Maybe.

    But, perhaps you and I are just meant to be the witnessers of his masterpiece.

    And, if you believe we are his masterpiece, then we’re stuffing that up as well. Our smoking, drinking, drugs, avarice, selfishness and carelessness is destroying humankind.

    Can you imagine how aggrieved we’d be if someone defaced Leonardo da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa? The world would be in uproar. We would find it hard to believe that a right-thinking human could commit such a terrible thing. Why, it could only be psychopathic degenerate who could do such a revolting deed, couldn’t it?

    By that logic, then it can only be a degenerate who would stuff up his or her own body and the planet that houses it, couldn’t it?

    It’s sad that we would be more upset by the destruction of a Mona Lisa than the destruction of our own bodies and planet.

    HumankindThus, we were created to bear witness to God’s great masterpiece. He sees every nook and cranny of his art through our eyes.

    He painted this picture and gave us this story to enchant and entertain us. All he wants in return is appreciation. He doesn’t get that enough (or at all) so he gives us his great gift, the gift of suffering. It is only when we don’t have that we appreciate what we do have.

    For there to be light, there has to be darkness. It is the way of things.

    The trick for us is to appreciate every moment we have left on this plane. Let’s be in awe and gratitude for this great gift that we have right now.

    God’s an artist. You’re an artist. Let’s celebrate and appreciate this.

    Jacques de Villiers helps organisations, professional speakers, authors and entrepreneurs triumph through: sales training, motivational speaking and consulting.