Transforming And Unifying

In order to be a giver, the giver has to have the intention to give and the capability to give. Then there has to be a receiver who regards what is given as valuable, appreciates receiving what is given, and can work with what has been given.

For the receiver to appreciate what is given and to regard what is given as valuable, the receiver cannot already have what is given. But, the receiver must have a physical, emotional, or mental space, an emptiness, in which to accept, put or place what is given, through which what is given can be used or developed.

There are many times in which we are given something we do not want. These times require us to make space and in effect transform ourselves to form the space in which to completely receive and develop what is given. This process is the process of transforming and unifying.

In one sense, the transforming and unifying processes are very simple. In another sense, they are very subtle and require explanation.

We are given something. To receive it, we must make a place for it within us. This means we have to accept it and go beyond ourselves to find a way to transform or develop it into the greatest good, the greatest benevolence that we are able to bestow through it. This process of going beyond how a thing initially appears to be is how we can be like the Infinite. For infinity is that which is beyond any beyond. To accomplish the transforming to go beyond where we are, requires attentiveness, restriction, creation, and development on our part.

In each moment we are given a situation. If we already have a place to receive the situation, we will judge that a good has been given and we easily accept it, put it in its place, and without thought or effort are able to work in or through the situation with joy developing what we must in the moment.

If we do not already have a place to receive the situation, we shall judge that a bad has been given and we will want to reject it. But our pushing it away will not make it go away. In each successive moment it will stay outside us and push on us, scratch on us, and find some way to bore itself inside of us, leaving us with the consequences of having pushed it away. This is the lingering experience of the bad.

But if we we are attentive, we can restrict ourselves in a way that creates an opening in our inner space. If we put in the effort to transform this opened space to receive the situation so that it can be developed, then the situation which was initially received as a bad will be received as a good. And a unification results.

Consider a concrete example: a city orchestra. The orchestra's sole purpose is to bring the beauty and harmony of music to its city. To economically survive, it must raise additional funds beyond its performance admission fees. This is the situation given. To receive this situation, each year the orchestra engages in fund raising activities setting a goal of some $200,000 to be raised.

During one year the fund raising is not going well. In fact, it is a disaster. The orchestra is close to having to declare economic bankruptcy which will cause it to go out of existence. Just days before the orchestra will have to close down something happens. This represents the situation of the current moment.

What happens is that two young brothers, ages 8 and 9, who take violin lessons and aspire to some day play in an orchestra, hear about the financial difficulties of their city's orchestra. What can they do? They decide that all the money they saved up in their piggy banks should be sent to the orchestra to help out. So they contribute their 153 pennies to the fund raising effort.

Now imagine the situation for the orchestra. It only has funds for a few more days of existence and it needs to raise $200,000, and nothing is coming in the mail on this day but this one envelope having $1.53. What kind of irony is this? What is God doing playing such a cruel game, to mock the fund raising effort by providing on this day $1.53? This is the thought rejecting or pushing away what has been given.

The fund raising disaster with the $1.53 received this moment represents the bad that is given. Recognizing what has been received without any judgement, and, therefore, without any emotional reaction, constitutes the attentiveness. The fund raising campaign which was designed to receive many checks of $100 each receives instead only 153 pennies. That fund raising how to which was already designed and implemented represents the space already filled and occupied. The $1.53 represents that which is pecking at the orchestra to get inside and occupy an appropriately formed space.

How can an appropriate space be formed for $1.53? Well, from the monetary point of view, the $1.53 represents just about nothing. But from where the \$1.53 comes and what it represents to the givers, this is everything.

The transforming and unifying take place as follows. Just as the $1.53 represents everything to the givers, for it is the total savings of the two young brothers, so must the $1.53 and the giving young brothers represent everything to the orchestra. To do this the orchestra develops a human interest story. They get the news media to broadcast pictures of the two young brothers practicing on their violins. The story shows the piggy banks which had contained the $1.53 and concludes with the simple declaration the young brothers make of how important music is for them.

This change in fund raising strategy constitutes, first, a restriction of the previous strategy and, second, a creation of a new strategy. The creation of the new strategy cannot come about until there is first a restriction of the previous strategy. The restriction opens the space, thereby leaving some emptiness. The creation of the new strategy forms the empty space which fully receives the $1.53 from the giving young brothers. The broadcasting of the human interest story develops and uses what has been received.

The transforming and unifying completed, the next moment begins. And what happens? The donations begin to be mailed in. And in a few day's time, the entire $200,000 that the orchestra needs is raised. Thereby, the gift of the $1.53, which represents a deficiency in its initial context, becomes a fullness in its final context.

From this example we see how transforming and unifying become the means to fully and completely receive what is given in a situation of deficiency, commonly understood as a bad situation. Through transforming and unifying, the giver becomes a complete giver, the receiver becomes a complete receiver, and there is great joy and delight in the good that is brought about through the unification.