Let’s imagine a paper planet inhabited by paper people. They have their paper lives. They even have their paper purpose in this paper life, a purpose combined with special skills. They have been given the ability to create self-adhesive pieces of paper, and this endless production has become the meaning of their lives.
They tape everything and everyone. They tirelessly stick small or large, colourful or monochromatic, ordinary or unusual post-its on everything.
Great is the variety of these stickers, because their appearance and quality depends on the personal characteristics of each person.
Some pride themselves on how many stickers they can stick on, and with how little difficulty they can do it. Others, one can easily see, do it with satisfaction and pleasure.
Still others do it out of duty, because, after all, they know best what kind of post-it is due to whom, and it is incumbent on them to reveal this to others. The latter occupy special places in the hierarchy of the paper community.
They have different places on their paper planet and organise different events.
Some join groups and, in seclusion, peel off one of the formerly glued stickers to stick another in its place. They call this development of consciousness.
The paper planet is plagued by ever-growing baobabs. A large group of human beings is busy plastering totally these baobabs with stickers so that they cannot be seen. This is such a common practice to cover the one truth with many different opinions. This is such a deceptive intention, behind which lies the ease of opinion as opposed to the difficulty of distinction.
Chatting – and what do you think of people?, Acrylic painting by Wiesława Żarnowska
In one corner, an auction is taking place. ‘Spirituality’ has gone under the hammer. The winner will be the one who covers spirituality with the largest number of the most delicate pieces of paper. Whole groups are working at it. These particular pieces of paper are so delicate, even ethereal, that you almost can’t see them.
The winners of the bidding even believe that they are not there at all, and only a few manage to escape the manipulation.
In one square, a large group pays homage to their ‘god’, who stands in the middle of the square draped with stickers of the highest quality. This is a huge, majestic statue made of stickers. But no one sees this and when asked, they can’t answer the question: who do you worship in this way?
Their god is drowned in stickers, and they believe he speaks to them in holy words and quote him by reading their own stickers.
In one corner a competition is taking place. The goal of the competition is to encapsulate ‘knowledge’ as quickly as possible, so that nothing of its true source can make it to the paper planet. There are the records of those who tried to change the fate of the paper men. But these records have faded also, losing their power of transmission under the weight of interpretation.
There is also ‘love’ sealed with post-its. They are of a peculiar kind, because they use this power in a particularly perfidious way by putting it in the same bustling square as the god. And then they link it with big words, big feelings and lofty talk of a force about which they know nothing.
Do you see this lunacy? Yes, you certainly see it, we all see it.
Do you ‘really’ know how great an obstacle this is? Do you realise the magnitude of this obstacle?
And this is where the key questions arise:
Man, what will you do about it?
I, Man, will place a sticker with the words: “Abandon this pernicious practice!”
And you, O Heart, what do you think?
I, the ‘Heart’ think of the shell surrounding me and about the great longing. I am cowed, oppressed and constantly silenced. Separated from my head. But if you place your hand on me, you will feel the never-quenching heat. And I assure you that if you take off one sticker, two more will burn in this heat.
And you, O Head, what do you feel?
I, the ‘Head’, feel like a sticker factory. I am separated from my heart. I feel as if my task has been redirected to the opposite, darkened side, and as if new baobabs are growing on me every day. But I still serve, and if you take one sticker off me, I will pave the path for the two rays of sunshine on your path.
And you, O Path, where are you leading?
I, the ‘Path’, am so covered by your imaginings that I can no longer guide you in pure truth. You make me the way you think of me.
You are the master of creating obstacles on me that you do not see. You don’t cultivate the ability to discern and you are not attentive.
On the one hand you say:
“After all, it’s going to be the way it’s supposed to be anyway,” so you abandon the search, appeal to faith, bridge the anxieties of longing and extinguish the inspiring embers of your heart.
And on the other hand, you want to act but do not let yourself rest with your imagined failures, demons of pessimism and constant avalanches of the ever-recurring thoughts.
How often have I, the path, been seen as difficult and insurmountable in your thoughts? How often do you distrust me when I suggest something new, something different, something you don’t know? How afraid are you to take a step other than the one you have been taking for years, how afraid are you to leave this field of illusion of security and predictable development?
And yet this one step into the unknown can start a new life.
How can I lead you to the Light when you are bored in the darkness of your habits and fears of peeling off even the smallest sticker?
Producing the same thoughts makes you take the same decisions.
The same decisions lead to the same behaviour. The same behaviour leads to the same experiences.
The same experiences lead to feeling the same emotions.
The same emotions drive the same thoughts. The same thoughts create an unchanging reality.
Your path is a merry-go-round.
So where is the way out of this wheel of self-adhesive stickers, this madness of opinion, similar thinking and the comfort of the same habits?
It is the same texts over and over again, the same people saying the same things, the same symbols, the same habits, the same perceptions. It is the entrenched beliefs that sabotage our ability to transform internally, to put down the autopilot.
One might be tempted to consider that getting off the merry-go-round is to abandon the autopilot.
Every time you think in a new way, you change everything. It’s that stepping into the unknown that is about to become the known. A clear thought connected to the heart paves the way for inner inspiration. One step is reciprocated by two further ones.
And you, inspiring Ideas, what do you say?
We ‘Ideas’, carry a great burden of stickers and know that few still recognise our true origin. Where we come from is overwhelmed with opinions and fears, and few see that our source is the deepest inspiration.
And you, deepest Inspiration, what tune will you play?
I, ‘Inspiration’, am your treasure. Protect me and don’t drape me with stickers anymore, wanting to tell the world about me. Live from out of me, and the whole world will know about me, for it will be illuminated by Light.
And you, O ‘Light’, what will you say?
You are wonderfully silent.
