The Power of Maybe

Not a victory is gained, not a deed of faithfulness or courage is done, except upon a maybe....And often enough the faith beforehand in the uncertified result [the maybe] is the only thing that makes the results come true.
William James; from The Will to Believe (pg 43)


"Maybe",  A Story

I am going to begin by telling you an ancient Chinese story. It was originally told by Lao Tzu  many, many years  ago and later relayed by many spiritual teachers including Allan Watts(see the link below to his narrated animation) and the authors of the wonderful little book I am reading now, Experiencing Spirituality. It goes something like this:

There was once a hard working and devoted  farmer who lived way up on the hill above the village.  He was a faithful man and  loved his horses and he loved his children very much. One day, his favorite horse ran away.  His neighbors, hearing the awful news, flocked to his side to offer their condolences.  Clicking their tongues, they voiced their desire to commiserate, "Oh this is such terrible luck!  What an awful thing to happen.  The absolute worse, don't you think?" To which the farmer, with a look of calm acceptance on his face, replied, "Maybe."

The next day, as the farmer was milking his cow in an open stall overlooking the village, he saw in the near distance his own prized stallion leading a herd of beautiful mustangs toward his farm.  The horse was not only returning but bringing six more soon to be prized animals with him.  The villagers, huffing and puffing with excited effort, ran up the hill behind the herd to congratulate their neighbor.  "You must be so happy", they exclaimed.  "Isn't this the most wonderful thing to happen? What great fortune, don't you think?" To which the old farmer, not removing himself from the task of milking his cow and with a look of calm, acceptance on his face replied, "Maybe".

Later that week, his eldest son who the old farmer heavily  depended on to help with the farm, saddled  one of the wild stallions in an attempt to break him in. He was thrown high and far, landing in a way that broke his leg in several places.  Knowing that the old farmer would now be forced to watch his beloved son suffer while he was left to run the farm himself, the  villagers once again climbed the hill.  They gathered around  the old man so they could commiserate with him.  Clicking their tongues and shaking their heads they cried, "Oh my, I can't believe this happened to you.  What terrible, terrible luck, don't you think?"  To which the old man replied while he tended to the splint on his son's leg and with a look of calm acceptance on his face, "Maybe".

The day after the fall, conscription officers marched to the village to take away all the young men of fighting age for the emperor's army.  The old farmer stood on the top of the hill and watched  as many strong, strapping and beloved sons were taken away. Once again, the neighbors saddened and disheartened by their own losses, climbed the hill to tell the old man how fortunate he was for the turn of events.  Crying and weeping in their own grief they exclaimed.  "Oh how very lucky you are. This is the  best thing that could have happened to you, don't you think?"   To which the  old man replied with a look of calm acceptance on his face, "Maybe".

(I added my own little bits here and there lol). 


So what is the moral of the story? 

Well Lao Tzu said it best in Verse 58 of the Tao-Te-Ching, Happiness is rooted in misery, misery lurks beneath happiness.  Who knows what the future holds? 

In other words, do not get too hung up on circumstances or on emotions.  We never know what life is going to give us and emotionally reacting as socially expected is not a necessity for peace.  Staying calm and accepting of the  fact that life is unpredictable, is.


Let all things be exactly as they are. ACIM-W-268

So What Does this have to do with anything?


So what does it all have to with my topic today? I wanted to talk about the not so obvious meaning of the word 'Maybe. ' Maybe is a word of faithfulness that implies  there just may be  more than this, what we seem to be going through; there may be more to life than circumstance; there 'may be' a way to get through whatever life has to offer; 'there may be' light even when everything appears so dark  and 'maybe' there is more blessing than we realize in things that don't go our way. 

Maybe doesn't give us any certainties but it certainly offers us hope and possibility, doesn't it? If maybe  makes us put away the ego ingrained notion that we are powerless to change or  stuck in the emotional holes we are in, for even  the briefest of times, is it not a word we should be reciting often?  I think it is a pretty darned amazing word, don't you?

Now I am going to get intense!


Depression

I have been thinking heavily on the effects of depression.  I see so many people in this world of ours suffering with it.  I also see people I love gasping for breath  under the hold it has on their minds.  I see and hear loved ones  choking on negative thoughts as light and beauty gets zapped away from their perceptions and maliciously replaced with veils of  darkness and hopelessness.

The Canadian Association of Mental Health reports that one in four people in Canada will be effected by this darkness at some point in their lives. The world statistics are even graver. Depression, in today's society, is very real and most tragically, it can be lethal. 

To me...this 'disease' is ego at its miserable worst. Ego strips beautiful minds, with the potential to do so much good, of hope just so it can survive. Plaguing the world with fear based negativity and its selfish  attitude, "If I gotta go down, you are coming with me', it robs so many of the precious will to live.

It saddens me deeply to  look upon this global and somewhat 'personal' issue and I feel somehow that  'I" in this little vehicle of skin and bone with just a few meager gifts and talents to offer, am supposed to do something about it.  I feel the inspiration to do something about it!  Not just to help my loved ones 'get through' it but to help others in the world as well. 

Say What?

At the same time the inspiration arises, I shake my head over the immensity of the problem and my own  grandiosity.  "Who am I, to do anything?  What have I got that can help?  Is my wish to help just my  ego stepping in with its desire to be recognized for some martyrdom award? Isn't help the sunny side of control?  What can I possibly do  when I can barely take care of myself, let alone my loved ones?

When I silence ego, I hear the faint 'maybe' vibrating inside me and I know that 'maybe'  isn't of me but of something so much greater. That 'maybe', may be the response to my prayers.  I had asked over and over recently to be shown where I should now serve in this world of ours.  As my ego slips away, I so know it isn't all about me anymore.  I asked that I be taken where I am needed most.

Is it  to this area of mental health, where the inspiration is pointing?  'Maybe'. 

Can I do good here?  Maybe.

Infuse the world with Maybe.

Maybe, all my part entails is helping to infuse the world with the power of 'maybe'?

I fell in love with the word 'Maybe' today because I suddenly realize its power.  This whole problem I see  is a result of a lack of maybe in our world.  Be it deemed a biochemical imbalance or a human response to trauma....depression is a symptom of a greater 'maybe-less' disease. 

So what do we do about it? Besides improving access to and service from our mental health systems; besides removing the damaging stigma from society, once and for all; besides increasing public and professional understanding of the  disease, we, as people, need to  infuse this anemic world with 'maybe'.  We need to offer  faith in something bigger than our own little 'me-sense'.

Is  that where I come in? May be.

Could it be in spirituality ,that the answer to depression lies?  Maybe

I recently came across a wonderful TED Talk Video on the possibility that depression is not just a biochemical disorder or a response to life circumstance...but it could also be a door that opens to something greater. It could be gateway for the Divine to come through.

Could depression take us closer to God?  "May be"

If anything, it can be the solution to this epidemic, may be.  The clinical psychologist and scientific researcher speaking in this video states that the frontal cortex of people with depression was shown to be thin and fragile...but in those who claimed a spiritual faith/practice( which they did not doubt)...the cortex is thick and strong. Hmm!

Could science prove that spirituality is the best antidepressant there is?  "May be"


Whether science proves it or not, it is time for me to do my small, possibly insignificant part, to bring hope back to the hopeless. It is time to encourage the use of the word that inspires faith and is inspired by faith.  It is time to fill the world with the possibility of 'May be."

And I don't mean maybe.  :)


Suppose, however thickly evil crowds upon you ,that your unconquerable subjectivity proves to be their match, and that you find a more wonderful   joy than any passive pleasure can bring in trusting ever the larger whole[spirituality].  Have you not now made a life worth living on those terms? What sort of a thing would life really be, with your qualities ready for a tussle with it, if it only brought fair weather and gave these higher faculties of yours no scope? Please remember that optimism and pessimism are definitions of the world, and our own reactions on the world, small as they are in bulk, are integral parts of the whole thing, and necessarily help to determine the definition. They may even be the decisive elements in determining the definition. (James; page 43-44)

Maybe the use of 'maybe' could be the decisive element that brings the world from pessimism to optimism; and from darkness in to the light.

All is well in my world!


References:


ACIM Workbook; Lesson 268

James, William ( 1896 ) Excerpts from The will to Believe as retrieved from: https://books.google.ca/books?id=3PxcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Not+a+victory+is+gained,+not+a+deed+of+faithfulness+or+courage+is+done,+except+upon+a+maybe&source=bl&ots=56Y0niqHP2&sig=yRW8gwM-zjeAacyV9_DMB6Ibcxo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOr8j1jtbdAhVpplkKHaE2AWsQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Not%20a%20victory%20is%20gained%2C%20not%20a%20deed%20of%20faithfulness%20or%20courage%20is%20done%2C%20except%20upon%20a%20maybe&f=false


Kurtz, E. &  Ketcham, K. (2014) Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling. New York; Penguin

Miller, Lisa (July, 2014) Depression and Spiritual Awakening-Two sides of one door. TEDx Teachers College. Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c5t6FkvUG0

Tao-Te-Ching (March, 2016) Allan Watts on the Tao of Gain and Loss http://tao-in-you.com/alan-watts-on-tao-of-gain-and-loss/

Chapter 58, Tao-Te Ching. Retrieved from Wassu http://www.wussu.com/laotzu/laotzu58.html