Recently a friend commented that he was not paying attention to affairs of the world as presented through the media because he felt overwhelmed by the demands of family, job and personal needs. He found the world's "pain" too great.
This seems to be a common condition. There is certainly plenty of pain in the world. Pain is a signal that something needs attention. Our bodies use pain to draw our focus to areas of distress. Feeling overwhelmed by pain suggests a need to "empty" or heal some of the painful issues that we carry. That which is difficult to see in ourselves we readily see in others. When the world reflects back to us our own pain we may feel compelled to avert our eyes.
The word "wisdom" literally means the realm or domain of seeing. We have the power to choose (or not to choose) to see the world in many ways. The world's and our own problems will resist change until we choose to see. The process of seeing begins to shift reality. Physics tells us that matter shifts in response to being observed. Does reality change when we reflect on it? How did it get to be this way?
What appears as solid matter is not. Science has shown that solid matter is composed primarily of energy. Energy in all its forms is the stuff of the universe. It permeates our bodies and the bodies of all life forms: trees, bacteria, flowers, viruses, vegetables, ticks and chiggers, weeds and animals. It permeates the "nonliving" beings: mountains, rivers, rocks, water, atmosphere, atoms, volcanoes, weather, molecules, earthquakes, heat and cold. It also includes thoughts, prayers and dreams. The sun, solar system, stars, galaxies and space are made of the same energy expressed as an infinite spectrum. Energy is sometimes also called "spirit."
What is the unifying principle around which the energy of the universe is organized? It is variously named God, the One, the Universal Mind, the Great Spirit, Whatever, the Tao, Bob and many others. Call it "What You Will." Characterized by creativity, it is also the force of destruction. Light does not exist without dark. The discussion of "good" and "bad" and our judgment of the same deserves it own website.
Collections of similar energies form what is called the group mind (for species), the morphogenic field (after Rupert Sheldrake), or the collective unconscious (for humans). The combinations and groupings of energy seem infinite. Our personal collection of energies is known as our soul. Our soul is said to holographically represent the universal energy (spirit).
Where do we fit in this scheme? What is our role? A Hindu saying is, "God sleeps in stone, breathes in plants, dreams in animals, and awakens in man." Aldous Huxley said our business is to wake up. Are we being asked to recognize our deep connection with all creation and the role we play, as creatures of conscience with the power to self-reflect, in the ongoing creation of reality? Not only are we not victims but we have to take responsibility for the realities before us.
This responsibility may be hard for some to accept. After all, "I" didn't cause or create the wars, starvation, hatred, poverty, disease, bad weather and the destruction of air, water, topsoil, or forests. But we each have input into the group mind or collective energy that is the human family. We can't change the thoughts, feelings, or inputs of others but we can heal our own pain, suffering, and lack of peace or justice.
None of that is here in me, one might say. Dig deeper. If we see it in the world it is present in us. Averting our eyes will change nothing. Business (busyness) gives us the socially approved avoidance excuses. But sooner or later we must see. The stronger we resist the more difficult the situation becomes in order to get our attention. The word apocalypse means lifting of the veil. Veils keep us from seeing.
A recent letter to a local paper decried the "screwed-up thinking in this country and the world." The writer called for prayers that "the hearts of people around you will be turned to God." There lies the problem: thinking the hearts of others must be changed (especially to our point of view). It is our own hearts that must turn, especially if we see the world as "screwed-up."
For all the world's "ugliness," we must not fail to miss its beauty. It is offered to us daily if we take time to notice. That beauty is also in each of us.
Discover magazine's recent list of "20 Ways the World Could End Suddenly" concludes with comments on the nature of reality. Do we only think it's real? Waking from a dream of being a butterfly with no sense of being a person, Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu asked, "Was I before Chuang Tzu who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being Chang Tzu?"
Or as the children's round tells us,
"Row, row, row your boat,
gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
life is but a dream."