I have been in a creative period lately. In addition to writing material for the book I have begun writing poetry again. The writing process for me has always been a very trying one. With poetry, the inspiration comes of its own and in no predictable or regular schedule. I have gone for a year without writing any poetry. And any attempt that I have previously tried to coax the inspiration out from me ends in frustration, failure and a contrived disaster. So I wait it out. It is frustrating because writing is my life's work and I know it. To have it rest in such uncertainty with regard to time and arrival involves some pain and dismay. But there is value in all things. Our task is to find it and cultivate it to fruit and turning. Having said that, the primary flaw in conditioned mentality has to do with one's view of value. Conditioned mind views value as a purely dualistic affair: either/or, good/bad; only these two, living life at the poles. But just as light brings forth color in a limitlessly varied and progressive spectrum, so is value expressed in such variety. Better said: take a coin and divide it until all you have left is one side without the other. Impossible, of course. And imagine how frustrating and depairing it would be to keep dividing said coin over and over, with greater and greater difficulty as the coin becomes more thin, all the while believing with all of one's soul that it is possible, that it is one's only salvation: to divide one side from the other. This is our pain. But look at the coin again. In addition to the two inseparable sides of the coin, there is also the metal out of which it is formed. This seems obvious, but relate it analogously back to value and we see the point and how foolish it is that we don't see something so obvious all the time. There is one side of the coin, heads- the good, let's say; and the other side of the coin, tails-the bad, let's say. Then we have the fundamental, the metal out of which it is made, or we could say the Ground value of the coin, that out of which both sides are composed. This represents the Quality which is beyond dualistic value. I tend to prefer analogies from nature, and so do sages and saints going back all through history. It makes sense since in addition to us being a part of nature, more importantly, Nature is a part of us. Analogies for relative value/Ground value can be found everywhere in nature. One of which is water. On the surface of the ocean we have the waves and the troughs, the rising and the falling; or the good and the bad, the subject and the object- relative value. Then, beneath the surface, beneath the waves, we have the Deep, or more clearly, the 'wetness' of the water itself which pervades and composes all the ocean; waves, troughs alike. This is our Ground value again: the Value or Quality which is everywhere and nowhere at once. And before we all start thinking that none of this bears any relation to reality and has no practical value, think of your life for a moment...has it not been composed of both traumas and successes, happiness and sadness, good and bad, 'music' and 'dissonance'? Realize then that since we are most of us living from conditioned mind that our pursuits and purpose have been almost exclusively dedicated to some version of separating the 'bad' from the 'good', and eliminating the former and accentuating the later. Has it worked? Can it work? Remember the coin. No, it is a pursuit that is doomed to failure and self-perpetuating loops, self-reinforcing delusions of despair and suffering. That is something which is easy to see. So then what? Do we give up and become a nihilist? Not at all, for that would only be half the way. We awaken and realize that there is value in all things and that the purpose of life is not to separate the 'good' from the 'bad', but to focus on transforming our perspective ever-higher and our selves into an ever-broader being that we may contain more within Witnessing awareness. Our task is to convert the troubles in our life into perfections. These things which we call difficulties are our opportunities, these sufferings are our fuel for growth, these pains and trials are our purifying fire. But avoiding them our increases the heat of such fire to our demise. The Wisdom traditions are rich with such lessons about Non-Dual perspective, in fact that is their unifying thread, their central and sole purpose. The book of Job in the Bible speaks of the human being being refined by the heat of difficulty, 'as the heat of the fire separates the dross (impurities) from the gold thereby purifying.' In one of my favorite Buddhist stories, a farmer comes to the Buddha who has by now become a legend as a teacher of renown, even salvational power. The farmer is deeply skeptical and confronts the Buddha with the material of his life: "I have a good family; wife and son, who provide me with happiness and sustainence. But sometimes my son disappoints me and sometimes my wife and I argue and have conflicts. I have a farm which brings forth good crop, but some seasons the crop isn't what I expect, the crop cannot sustain us as I wish. I have a sturdy house which stays cool in the warmest months, but sometimes during the heavy rains the roof leaks and my possessions become drenched and we must start over. What can you do for me?" At this the Buddha looked at him with compassion and said, "I can do nothing for you." At this the farmer became incensed and raged at the Buddha: "What good are you then? You fooled all of these people. You deserve none of their reverence or respect." After a moment the Buddha than said, "See, at any given point in a person's life there are 85 problems. You may deal with one, even to resolution, perhaps two or three, but thereafter, one, two or three new ones come along to take their place. This is constant." The farmer having gone from anger to confusion and curiosity now then inquired, "If this is constant, then it seems hopeless. What can be done? What can you do?" The Buddha opened again to the farmer, "About this I can do nothing. I cannot help you to eliminate the 85 problems. What I can do is help you eliminate the 86th problem." Now the farmer's anger turned completely to a receptive curiosity, "What is the 86th problem?" The Buddha then knowing that the farmer's time of opening had come says, "The 86th problem is the mistaken belief that you hold that you shouldn't have problems." - And its as simple and direct as that, and all of that. And its also as difficult as trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. The greatest and most powerful force of opposition to liberation, freedom, happiness is our very self. That which we seek to gain liberation from is that which is doing the seeking.