The Creative Use of Pain, Crisis & Failure
Pain, crisis and failure can be preludes to, and most certainly are messengers for, ecstasy, harmony and triumph. Like the I Ching hexagrams of the Book of Changes, the extreme Yang of pain and crisis can quite naturally turn into the Yin of ecstasy and harmony whilst the Yin of failure can equally naturally turn into the Yang of triumph or victory; or as Jung pointed out: follow anything far enough and it will turn into its opposite.
Just as the extreme of grief and crying flips into hysterical laughter, so we can laugh until we cry or have tears of happiness. This follows the natural law of balance. In pain is the existence and potential birth of ecstasy; in crisis is the seed and promise of harmony; in failure is the blueprint for triumph.
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My Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer has a fundamental role to play for much of the western world, whether you're religious or not. Even at secular funerals, the one concession that is often made to the thought of a creator is to include the Lord's Prayer.
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Given this unique preeminence, surely there's nothing that can be said about it that hasn't been said before. And yet a study of it, going back to the Greek, shows up some surprising clues that could lead to a reappraisal, not just of the prayer, but of the message behind Jesus' teachings.
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This essay takes a fresh look, with an open mind, considering the meaning of each line, and seeks to put it into context of how we are being taught to live our lives.
