Nothing in the desert is superfluous — would you agree?
If it ever was, it burned up, evaporated, or died long ago.
You may find it unpleasant to even think about Emptiness as such. The associations that come up: boredom, lifelessness, stagnation, scorching heat.
And yet you can't say the desert has no life. Little — but some.
The unbearable conditions allow only the chosen few to exist.
Tumbleweeds, dung beetles, venomous snakes, and scorpions.
And of course, quartz. After all, the desert is an ocean of sand.
In other words, it is the union of opposites. An oxymoron. A paradox.
Yes, a viper is not as beautiful as an eagle, and a cactus doesn't smell like a rose.
But notice that an eagle and a rose require stable, favorable conditions, while a viper and a cactus survive on almost nothing.
Their thorns, venom, and attraction to waste are not signs of an easy life.
More precisely, desert creatures embody life in a "terrible" form.
Life in scarcity cannot be compared with life in abundance.
The right comparison is: life under deficit — or death.
The same applies to human pathology.
Everyone habitually sees in it a flaw, an ugliness, a danger. But few people are able to find in pathology a tiny triumph of being over non-being.
This applies directly to you — to your inner world.
Something about yourself almost certainly weighs on you, irritates you, repels you, or frightens you. That is the part of you that survived in spite of whatever tried to kill it.
And unlike a viper or a cactus, that part of you can transform into something magnificent and life-giving.
Try giving it your compassionate gaze more often.
If that's hard, look for those who can see life where no one else can.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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