Thursday, April 8, 2010
How do we simplify the model?
When one looks at all of the world´s situations they look so complex. So many complexities in our lives, in the world, and if taken as a complete seems overwhelming. The key is to take it one step at a time. The best analogy is that of a mountain climber. He doesn´t take the whole trip in his head before he starts, otherwise he wouldn´t do it. He makes up his mind to go, takes the right tools, adapts, makes adjustments, in process, and step by step, one foothold and handhold at a time makes his way to the peak.
But what is our guide for our metaphorical journey to some desired destination. We have gotten so far off track, or down a dead-end road, that it is difficult to know what tools we have at our disposal to guide us toward a more harmonious world. Even our thinking is skewed. The knowledge, or what we know that we are, and what All That Is is, is quite skewed. So how do we get out of this culdesac, this dead-end situation?
I think it is a matter of finding a principle by which we can guide our thinking and actions and move toward improvement of our situation on a day by day basis. As we look at the various systems that we have created, they do not work. The evidence is all around us.
Now we may envision a new reality, one that we might call perfect, but we are so far away from that reality that we lose all hope which we have seen is another obstacle for progress. We must not work against ourselves, we must not allow ourselves to create barriers for us to achieve what our desired outcomes are. So how we accomplish this is to develop ways by which we can move progressively out of our collective conundrum, but this only happens on an individual basis! So, by what principle can we guide ourselves? I believe it is the Golden Rule – but what I believe is actually the most important universal law of the Universe.
A digression might be to talk about how just using the Word “rule”, (very likely it was supposed to be law) has made us forget, or not comprehend the true importance of this. The ten commandments were described as “rules” to live by. But as Emmet Fox wrote about in his book 10 commandments is the fact that they are actually laws. People have been inclined to break rules, because they really don´t understand that by doing things against rules they are really mostly hurting themselves. ¨Rules are meant to be broken” is a tongue in cheek saying, but who of us does not secretly believe this to be true. This may be a case where all of the things that we aren´t supposed to do, actually become very attractive and we secretly do these things but pretend that we are not. We then begin to hide from ourselves, dishonesty sets in, and then we are down the slippery slope of how can a person base a life on lying to oneself. We can see the results of this erroneous thinking by what we see in the world.
So, back to the Golden Law. It is a law. If I hurt you, I hurt me and you. But likely more me, because in the end, since the universe cannot operate on “fuzzy”, happenstance, fickle, occasional, or non-solid principles, or “laws”. For every action there will be a reaction. So if I steal something from you, at some time in the future I will pay that price (if not in this life, then in a future life). Most of us do not really understand the Golden Law. And it is not the point to follow this principle for selfish purposes, because if I am being nice just to serve myself, not concerned about the impacts on others, that is another trap.
To move out of this “far from the desired situation” in the world, I believe the Golden Law is the foundation.
Let us continue with our analogy, and imagine that our collective being has truly taken a trip down a street and we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a culdesac, or dead-end. And for several milennia we have been circling around in the cul-de-sac.
How do we get out?
The only way to get out of a dead end is to turn around and walk back out. We start to walk step by step out. But we need some sort of guide. How will we know if we have turned back around, and started to go back to the dead-end?
It is the Golden Law.
Albert Schweitzer called it reverence for life. This idea is that we do not harm any form of life. This includes other people, insects, plants, animals, the planet. This also very much relates to Free Will. If we impose our Will, on anothers Free Will, in the end, we are going to have to rectify, or deal with the repercussions.
But as one looks at the world, most of what we do ends up damaging something. This is the evidence of how far off track we have gotten. It seems that all of our “systems” hurt something. As we observe this situation we could become totally discouraged and not even want to start the journey back. But this is the wrong perspective. We must be like the mountain climber. Take the tools, how to think, common sense and the Golden Law and begin the journey step by step.
In essence the Golden Rule becomes our measuring stick, our guide in the process. We can measure each of our steps, thoughts, actions against this Universal principle which was given to us by Jesus, and step by step, day by day begin the journey back to create the new world. All that is required is the honest and sincere desire to take the journey. As we go along we can know, that in fact we are being guided by the perfect “program” – our feelings. Also circumstance, or repercussions are a guide. They have always been here, but this is evidence of how misinformed we have been. We have not even known that God had installed an operating system that guides us perfectly, constantly providing feedback in the form of “good” or “bad” feelings, or vibrational reactions showing us whether or not we are moving in the direction of what is in our best interest.
Self reflection is another key tool We have to be able to look back on what we do and evaluate whether or not we are making progress. This should be a continual, on going process.
Also, we need to be aware that our “knowledge base” and what we have to work with will be continually improving as we go along in this process. We will gain new insights, better understanding, better skills as we continually seek improvement and progress. We essentially tap into the Divine power of Love that will continually endow more of what we need to continue on our journey toward the perfect expression of the Golden Law. This is Law. And we cannot attempt to do something, with an honest and sincere desire to do good, and not be given, directly from Source the tools, education, resources, motivation, etc. to move toward our goal.
One of the most difficult issues is the principle of measuring, or judging our progress based upon the existing thinking and dualistic system that currently operates in our world, in our “human” thinking system. We have to be astute to watch ourselves from not beating ourselves up for not learning the lessons “we think” we should have learned. Feeling guilty, getting angry at ourselves, or others, again, is a huge sign that we are heading in the wrong direction. The key to the success of this process is to be gentle with ourselves and others as almost all of us have been battered by our own judgment of ourselves. We have become masters with a whip, constantly beating our own backs, having the mistaken belief that this might be an effective way to motívate ourselves, pushing ourselves along our journey in constant oppressive judgment of our progress. We are not pack animals (in fact this is not how we should treat animals either). This is the same method that was used to submit the slaves. If we are to become loving and kind to others, we must practice it first and foremost with ourselves. Of course, we must always practice this with others, the planet, and animals as well. For all really is just One. This is the great truth contained in the Golden Law. What we do to others we do to ourselves, the others, to the One, or to God.
But we need not become discouraged when we see how far off the track we have gotten. This, apparently, is the whole point of the journey. This is what God wanted. Rome was not built in a day. A 1000 mile journey starts with one step. And with the powerful, and all present One, guiding us, and loving us while we utilize the Golden Law as our guide, we will find ourselves on a joyous journey, day by day to our visión. Our destination. But the point is not about getting somewhere, but the journey.
I always find this conundrum of being 'off track' fascinating. How we are born having forgotten and spend our lives remembering. Whenever I find myself explaining this the logic of it never fails to baffle me. So much is changing right now and I'm convinced that next year will bring even more extensive change too.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicola, I wish I got messages when people send comments. I appreciate your sentiment here. Actually, Socrates was the one who said what you are saying. He said we don't learn, we are remembering. Thank you and I am going to ask you to be my friend on circles. Your messsage was posted at a very auspicious date and time.
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