There is a certain time to act and there is a certain time not to act. This is called rhythm. This is called the cycle.
The opposite of rhythm and circulation is rigidity and persistence. One can also replace these opposite pairs of terms by „duty“ and „right“ or by determination and desire.
We can say that if we follow the rhythm of action and non-action, we will follow the „duty“ imposed on us and find our universal destiny. We can say that if we do not follow the rhythm of action and inaction, we will fall into rigidity to defend our „right“ to live according to our personal desires.
If I use the word „duty“ in conversations in this context, I encounter reflexive resistance and rejection from many – actually most – of my addressees. The desire for duty is not particularly strong. Perhaps the duties of everyday life are already so overflowing that where we can choose – can wish – we are happy to do without them. Only the duties of everyday life are not to be compared with the duties of our way, of which I speak.
The purpose of the duties of everyday life is to let us serve as a component in the machine of material society. Since we have only a specific and limited function there, they only let us go along purposefully in a narrow and high-walled concrete channel. They are compulsion.
In contrast, the duties of our path release us into a vast sunlit plain where we can see far and unite with our fellow creatures. These duties have the purpose of serving everything and everyone at all times and in all places. They take us by the hand and lead us to our destiny.
The creators of the duties of everyday life know of man’s inner need for purpose. Only they cannot offer him more than the concrete channel and life as a disposable cogwheel destined for wear. So the concrete canal is colorfully painted with „Fun! „, with „excitement! “ and with „Play! “ thunderously roofed over.
When I talk to people who are in this channel, they increasingly find my words or the topic „Exciting!“. It seems grotesque to me, because what I talk about has nothing in the least in common with „excitement“. On the contrary. But these people have forgotten the words in that concrete channel that would actually express their feelings. Actually they want to say: „Touching. My heart aches. I recognize a longing. I become sad because I realize that I am missing something. I want to cry out loud and sob. I grow. I feel unknown power. I feel home. “ But the only word that spontaneously comes to mind is „Exciting!“.
But the wonderful thing is: The other words can be found again by them. It only needs a certain time outside of this glaring channel to remember them again. Outside the channel that negates the rhythm of the seasons. Outside the channel that wants to turn the dark night into day. Outside the channel that does not let people walk in their natural circles, but forces them to defend their position. Once this step out of the channel into the plain has happened, the word „duty“ takes on a different meaning again. The aversion to this term learned in the channel dissolves and then the word „duty“ gets a connection with the word security. And the words „desire!“ and „right!“ show themselves in all their rigidity, loneliness, abandonment and shivering coldness and hardness. They show themselves in their helpless ego-centeredness and disorientation, which produces fear and from it hate and destruction, when wish meets wish and „right“ meets „right“.
Whoever finds himself in the plane feels the striving for right and desires only as confusing blockades that deny him the view of his destiny. As shadow plays that distract him from discovering his guidance and following it in serenity and security.