Our world is in turmoil. The current belief systems of humankind pervade our psyche, and lead us into judgment lacking compassion. The world is currently defined by a detrimental economic reality, which is taught as a form of spirituality.
War, disease, and natural disasters influence the economic stability of the world, and at this present time the American economy is in a recession. It is a fact that war stimulates the economy; war is the only one of the three conditions for a change in the economy that can be controlled.
This connection to war -- this economic validation of a system that leads to the destruction of human beings and our world -- is perpetuated by a system that equates finances and strength. This is an incorrect understanding of true power; this belief system must change, so that we as a human species can change.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen monk and writer, explains a belief of his in the book Buddhist Peace Work. The following quote is from the chapter "Ahimsa, the Path of Harmlessness." He writes:
"Real peace must be based on insight, and understanding, and for this we must practice deep reflection-looking deeply into each act and each thought of our daily lives. 'With mindfulness -- the practice of peace -- we can begin by working to transform the wars in ourselves."
The great Tibetan monk Thuksey Rinpoche, elaborates on this theme in writer Andrew Harvey's autobiography of his travels in India, A Journey in Ladakh. Harvey quotes Rinpoche as saying:
"As long as there is Samsara, there will be an evasion of the inner perfection that is man's essence. This is perhaps the saddest of all the tragedies of Samsara, and the most painful. A man is starving in one dark room, while in another just across the corridor from him there is enough food for many lives, for eternity. But, he has to walk to that room, and before he can walk to it, he has to believe it is there. No one else can believe it for him. No one else can even bring the food from that room to him. Even if they could, he would not believe in the food or be able to eat it.
The Dhammapada says, 'Buddhas neither wash away sins with water nor remove the sufferings of other being with their hands. They do not transfer their realization to others. Beings are freed through the teaching of the truth, of the nature of things.' But to be taught, they have to want to listen, and to learn they have to have the humility to want to change. No one can make them listen or want to change."
Nietzsche is quoted in the above book as well:
"It is a sign of having turned out well when, like Goethe, a man clings with ever-greater joy and cordiality to 'the things of the world' for in this way he adheres to the great conception of man that man becomes the transfigurer of existence when he learns to transfigure himself."
The way we as human beings are taught to be in the world today is based upon a foundation of power that is collapsing. It has always been taught that the strong survive, and they will dominate the weak. The "powerful" and "moneyed" factions rule the world at present -- exploiting Nature, and human beings.
We human beings, as our group reality, believe in our bones that the world is still created thusly. We have bought into the illusions created by those who hold the range of how perception is shaped and formed to support these ideas that are killing us, and our planet.
My question for you is this: Do you see yourself living in a future where honesty, integrity and love are the staples of the society in which we live? Action to create change will be based on the concept of satyagraha, or truth force-love force, which is the basis of compassionate action taken for others. These are the building blocks for the new society we will be living in as we create new perameters of self-improvement and self-actualization.
Do you see the raping of the environment, and the toxins spewing into the atmosphere (while poisoning all of us) continuing into infinity, and still happening in a world that is no longer based on money equaling power?
Dr. Martin Luther King himself seemed almost surprised that his own hopes for a system of non-violence equaling cultural change could be realized in his lifetime. Yet, he was able to learn from and merge his understanding of Gandhi's non-violence movement, and then combine it with his own Christian doctrinal understanding of love -- once he had grasped the concept of satyagraha. He had denied for years to himself the possibility that action and change in our culture could take place through non-violence. He did not grasp that compassion in terms of love (as it taught in Christian doctrine) could happen during the civil-rights riots of the Sixties. But, then he observed how the people of Montgomery, Alabama began their boycott of public transportation.
What had disempowered African Americans now became the means by which they took their power back -- through Rosa Park's example. He witnessed, then became a part of (and a voice for) a new power that implanted itself into American society through this act. His own transformation was now complete. Dr. King now had his new dream he could now act upon.
We are what we believe as a society. You know this is true as well as I do. I too, just like Dr. King, know that a new dream is possible now because I have transformed my own powerless beliefs into value-creating ones. These beliefs are still unfolding, and they are not based on money equaling power.
Search yourself and ask yourself: What dream can you dream in a future created on a respect and reverence for all Life? By this, I mean what can you give up in order to learn this new, and authentic means for understanding power, which is not based on destruction and lack, robbing others of their power?
In conclusion, I would like to end with a quote from Andrew Harvey, from his latest book, The Direct Path.
"What is attempting to be born, I believe, through the agony and terror of this extremely dangerous but also extremely creative and fertile period, is a new humanity, one that is in direct and unmediated contact with the Divine, free of divisiveness, body hatred, and bias towards transcendence that disfigures all the inherited patriarchal religions, and so is able at last to inhabit time, the body, and the earth with ecstatic consciousness and a passionate and radical responsibility towards all living things....
"...Everything that divides one human being from another or from Nature must now be revealed as the convenient social, cultural, or religious fiction it is; everything that in any way disempowers or depresses the divine power and consciousness innate in every human being must be unmasked as a lie of power; everything that provides authentic help and truth and wisdom from whatever areas of human experience or pursuit must be embraced and fused with every other source of awareness and empowerment to provide the human race in this, its hour of danger and need, with the resources of integral wisdom that unites the highest scientific, technological, economic, social and psychological knowledge of how to shape the immanent to mirror and enshrine the ideals of equality, justice, and compassion on every level."