jump to navigation

THESE CHANGING TIMES June 24, 2008

Posted by Roy Whenary in Living In The World.
add a comment
Throughout History, and around world, there have been many major upheavals. It seems that we are at such a time right now. When we look at what is happening in the world, there is so much that we could call GOOD, and so much that we could call BAD. We may be worried for ourselves, or for our children. But it is always good to stand back from emotional involvement in such things. We cannot change what is happening. Even world leaders cannot change things that much. So first we need to accept what is – knowing that our influence may have some effect on what is happening, but not being too attached to achieving exactly what we ourselves envisage, and not expecting too much. The happenings in the world are just too immense for any one human being to turn them around just like that. However, what we can change is how we are in the world – how we behave, how we treat people, how we view ourselves and what we contribute to society and the world at large. Ultimately, the world is a reflection of billions of (so called) ‘individuals’ minds and actions.
First step to all this is in knowing who and what we are – not according to some theory or other, but actually … through observing, listening and feeling what is our own presence, our own footprint, in the world. Are we so wrapped up in our own egocentric reality that we relate to all and sundry in a dualistic fashion – as ‘me’ against the world … as ‘me’, asserting and defending my position in the world? Aside from my programming, my conditioning, in this world, what am I? Do we have any sense of who or what we really are? Is what we are simply what we do, what we think, what we want, what we save for ourselves?

Looking at the universe ‘out there’, we can see that life on earth is not of such major significance, and what we think we are, as individuals, is almost certainly little more than a projection of our programmed mind. When we look a little closer, we see that neither body nor mind is of any permanent substance – little more than empty space. However, the trick in life is the realisation of that empty space, as the fundamental ground of our being. It’s emptiness is the emptiness of any meaning according to the mind – but not a total emptiness in terms of its transformative power in the world, for when we realise that we are in truth empty of substance, our relationship with the world takes on a whole new dimension. We no longer see the world in terms of a separate ‘me’ and ‘a world’. As Krishnamurti used to say: “you are the world” …. and, in fact, the world is a reflection of what we collectively take ourselves to be. When we take ourselves to be separate individuals doing everything in our might to grasp whatever we can for ourselves, then we create conflict in the world, because we are immediately set in opposition to every other me who is doing the same thing.

This is all according to the historic, inherited programming of the human species. But it is not the only possibility for the world. When we realise our true nature, in the ground of our being … we no longer give energy and power to conflict in the world. Exploring this possibility is an option we have … either continuing as we have been, or looking into (and devoting ourselves to) how we are, truly, in the depth of our being. One road leads to conflict and the other road to liberation … not only for this little ‘me’, but also for humanity as a whole.

(24 June 2008)