A guy wanted to wash his car. He got a bucket, soap, and some rags and went outside. When he looked, he saw that his bucket had a hole in it.
"I need a new bucket," he thought.
So he went to the store to get one. He found a nice one in a hardware store and brought it up to the check-out counter. Digging into his pockets, he found he didn't have enough money.
"I need to get some money," he thought.
So he went out to find a job to get some money. After a while, he found a company that needed an accountant. In the interview, the boss asked, "Do you have a degree in accounting?"
"Gosh, no I don't," he said.
"Well, we can't give you the job because you don't have a degree," said the boss.
So he went to a nearby junior college and signed up for an accounting class. After the first day, he was at home doing his homework when his girlfriend came in and asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm washing my car," he replied.
Trace the thread of your desires back to its source. You will find the common denominator of all improvement to be an increase in the quality or degree of relationship between self and other. This is the basic goal. All other goals are that same goal, but hidden in the complexity of false solutions and misunderstandings.
There are two dimensions to improving your relationship with others:
These, taken together, are one goal.
In order to get yourself across to another, you should be self-enlightened. Then, you just reveal your true self. If you aren't self-enlightened, you will mistakenly try to get a false self across, and that does not improve relationship.
To receive another, you should be other-enlightened. Then, you just receive the other. You do not confuse the other with a state or condition (yours or theirs). To receive another, you must be open. Being open to another depends on your realizing and accepting that the other has independent choice. (Note that you can't just hold the mental attitude of openness. You must really be open.)
Learning information from others can result in a better understanding of life. The combined wisdom distilled from the life experiences of others is a treasure not to be missed. The best education is about the basic truths of life, taught by those who have realized Truth.
Incomplete communications and undigested experiences build up in the mind and body, acting as barriers to your basic ability to relate. Clearing is any activity that successfully removes these "charges" and opens the pathway to others.
Clearing is people understanding each other.
Working to improve the state of
understanding between individuals is
probably the most important
self-improvement approach that
exists. However, since understanding
involves getting oneself across to
another or receiving another, a
degree of Self-enlightenment and
Other-enlightenment is essential.