I believe in a phenomenon that I am known to call ‘universal connection’. Yesterday, one of these destined events profoundly affected the frame of mind I was in and took me from feeling quite down and depressed to feeling a joyful epiphany. Let me tell you what happened. You see, I don’t believe in random and arbitrary coincidences. My understanding is that life is a combined relationship between the free will of humanity and the will of a higher power that I call “The Great Spirit”. I believe in a paradoxical type of destiny that is preordained by this higher power, but can also be altered by our own decisions that we make in every moment of the day to day, opportunities and obstacles present themselves and then we have to decide whether or not to take any action. specific to the situation.

OK So yesterday I wasn’t feeling too good; I have a history of depression and anxiety and I perceived some events that happened to me as quite negative. Well, it just so happens that the day before my Tai Chi instructor sent me an email that had some links related to depression, since they knew about my problem. I looked at a site that was about a new form of neurotechnology in which listening to a certain type of CD is supposed to send the mind into a deep state of meditation. I admit I’m skeptical about this sort of thing, since of course money is always supposed to change hands. The nice thing about this particular site is that they offer a free sample CD that I ordered.

Anyway, I started to peruse the information on this site and found some quotes from famous people. One that caught my eye was by Rabbi Hillel and since my good friend at work is very interested in Jewish culture and religion, I cut it out and pasted it on Messenger for him to read. Feeling depressed, I left work early and went home to read some more of a book that I’ve been enjoying a lot lately. It’s called ‘The Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior’ and it’s written by Dan Millman. It is the sequel to a book that I really loved called ‘The Way of the Peaceful Warrior’. After reading a chapter or two, I got to Chapter 17: ‘Courage of the Outcast’. The chapter began with these words:

If I’m not for myself

Who will be for me?

And if I’m only for myself,

It’s me?

And if not now, when?

(Hillel, Sayings of the Fathers)

This was the exact quote I had sent to my friend earlier that day! Of all the quotes in the world, of all the chapters I could have read, of all the days of my life; This quote appeared twice in one day! I knew there had to be a reason for it to happen so with the help of my friend I did some research today on the internet. This quote has been translated from the Hebrew, so now I realize that it has been interpreted in many different ways. This is the general meaning I have come to think the words mean:

‘If I am not for myself, who will be for me?’ It is related to self-esteem. It means that if you do not believe in the spiritual aspects of your Being and love yourself for your divine essence and not only for your ego, then others will only see you as someone who has not really formed an identity of their own. If you do not love and have faith in yourself, it will naturally be difficult for others to love and have faith in you.

‘And if I am only for myself, what am I?’ For me, it’s about spreading your love and faith to those around you. It’s very important to do things that make you feel better about your own self-esteem, but simply doing things for yourself is selfish. The best way to become a strong and happy person is through the service we can do for others. We have to realize that others are just another form of ourselves, the ‘me’ that is intrinsic to all life forms in the Universe (Great Spirit), and their well-being is just as important as our own.

The last line, ‘And if not now, when?’ It refers to the action. It is all very well to have this knowledge, but it is the act of putting it into action that is most important. Now is the only time that is truly real. The past is gone and can never be relived, while the future has yet to appear and for some of us (while in human form) it will never come. Any second could be the last, so now is the time to put our knowledge and beliefs into practice by integrating them into each of our movements.

I believe that these ‘universal connections’ happen all around us every day of our lives. We just have to focus our attention to see them; although sometimes they are so deep that they jump out and hit you in the face!