The balm that frees the world
Everywhere out there I feel trauma. Standing in the chasm is terrifying and it hurts. How can we let these insane things happen? How can we be in the midst of what looks like another world war? What can I as just one of 8 billion people do?
Practically I’ve been donating to various charities like this one spare a rose, and offering my services to raise money for flood recovery here. And I’ve been sharing as many of the stories of real people going through these harrowing times to raise awareness on social media. On an inner level I have been practicing this meditation daily. Being and beaming light to those in need.
As good as it feels to help and be part of a larger community willing and wanting to serve others in crisis I keep thinking about the broader and bigger picture. How can we truly ‘be the change’ we wish to see?
My Vedanta master in his talks on the nature of conflict puts it simply. “Countries don’t fight, countrymen fight. Beliefs don’t fight, believers fight. Idea’s don’t fight, the ones having the ideas fight. Countries, beliefs, ideas are all innocent.”
The one wielding the sword makes the scar. And where is the battlefield? In our own heads. A war begins with one thought, which becomes an idea, and an ideology. If my idea takes a hold of me, it can take a hold of others and become a shared idea. Shared ideas of community, growth, and service or shared ideas of conquest, suppression and slavery. It’s all up to us.
The problem isn’t even our ideas. The problem is we haven’t a clue who the ideas belong to. We don’t know who we are. We don’t even know what we’re doing here. We’re walking around on the most beautiful planet, in a creation where absolutely everything is given to us, with the ability to enquire into the inner workings of any aspect of creation I.e. the composition of a banana. Yet we never enquire into the nature of ourselves, the enquirer.
The conflict begins when I take everything that I have to be who I am. Starting with an idea that I’ve created of myself. “The sense of I”. I am so and so, and I have these beliefs and I like these things and I do this stuff.
There’s only one thing causing the problem. Ignorance. I haven’t a clue who I am. I know who I ‘think’ I am but who I actually am, eludes me.
I am innocently ignorant.
As my teacher shares all that’s needed is education. Knowledge. Knowledge is the balm that frees the world.
with great respect...
Rachel