Up and… down

by Manuela Timofte

Up means beautiful, and down means ugly. Up is often considered to be beautiful, while down is seen as ugly. Where do you have the best view? (even if it is a matter of perspective though).

Only from above can you look down, and only from below can you look up. For instance, a mountain has a peak which we climb but we also have to descend it. In life, we often want to be somewhere high, because being low is not desirable. However, every climb starts from somewhere low, and we must get back down from the top because «every uphill has a down».

We tend to associate up with wealth and down with poverty, but this is a false value that we give ourselves and others based on what we see with our physical eyes or reason. We use a hierarchy born from rational thinking, selfishness, and the thirst for false power. However, if we honestly look at ourselves in the mirror or the people around us, we are all human, with our unique differences. It would be boring if we all looked and thought the same way.

We are taught to glorify those who are up there, even though they make mistakes. We dislike those who work «from below», but they also do good. We condemn those we consider bad, without accepting that they also have their good side. However, if the good ones harm, we will hate them too. We will also appreciate the evil one who does us good.

Nature teaches us many lessons. For instance, the sun illuminates us all, regardless of whether we are at the top of the mountain or at its foot. As one of the laws of Zamolxis says, «Don’t forget that you take the same steps to the top of the mountain as to its base, the air is the same above and below, the tree grows the same at the top of the mountain as at its base, the sun illuminates the peak of the mountain as well as the smooth earth.»

Beauty or ugliness, goodness or badness is what we see with our physical eyes and what we offer from within. It’s not for anything that what we see is our mirror. We are not only beautiful or only ugly, only good or only bad. We are both, we are the two poles that the hermetic axioms of Kybalion tell us about: «everything is double, everything has two poles, everything has two extremes».

What is above is like what is below; what is below is like what is above.
Kybalion

Within each of us, there is this polarity, and only when we accept both the beauty and the ugliness, and the good and the bad within ourselves, do we learn to accept ourselves entirely as we are. Only then can we accept others as they are. Only when we accept ourselves as a whole can we accept the world and the oneness of the Universe.

We can choose to see only the top, only the bottom, or the whole picture, both «up and… down».

Love, Manuela

https://inalove.world

The article was originally posted on https://medium.com