A koan is a riddle or puzzle that Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. A friend who happens also to be a Buddhist priest says when he wrote about the latest events in Orlando, the following:
“There is much that we can do, but first and foremost we must realize “I am you, though you are not me”—the great Buddhist koan that urges us to see others as ourselves and to deal with them as sensitively and kindly as we would be dealt with; to understand that their shadows are our own.”
His Buddhist Koan is similar to the Great Commandment with a little twist — “to understand that their shadows are our own.”
Do you see yourself in other people’s shadows? I hadn’t thought about it that way, but as I meditate on my friends words I understand the truth in what he says.
Perhaps, a giant leap in understanding our brothers and sisters is not only doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, but realizing that other’s shadows are ours as well.
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