The Absurdity of Humanity – Part 4
What are humanities’ biggest problems and how can we solve them? The answer to this is simple buts its implementation is so difficult that nobody wants to even acknowledge it's the answer. Even though we all, through our moral and ethical allegiance to the teachings and examples of Jesus, Buddha, Mother Theresa and the 10 Commandments agree it's the answer! Our problems were addressed by all the great beings from Jesus to Buddha to Martin Luther King to Gandhi, Mother Teresa and more! They also gave the answer. We must have agreed with their answer otherwise we wouldn’t have put them up on the pedestal, made statues of them, and even formed religions after some of them!
So, what are those problems?
War
Crime
Disease
Poverty
Pollution (toxicity)
Loneliness
Ignorance
What are the causes of these problems?
War - Greed, Fear
Crime - Greed, Poverty
Disease - Stress, Fear, & Toxicity
Poverty - Greed, Fear
Pollution -Greed, fear
Loneliness - Technology, Fear
Ignorance - Ignorance
Some of our problems are new to humanity like pollution, loneliness, and mass widespread physical and mental disease.
What is the solution? One thing the solution isn’t is technology. Technology is the same as fire. It is a tool that can be harmful or helpful depending on the mental state of the person using it. For example, social media is a technological wonder that tends to be incredibly harmful, and many new chemicals seem to be incredibly toxic. Yet lasers and robotics can facilitate lifesaving medical procedures. Technology, like many other tools, can be used for good or harm. Until, within our minds benevolent qualities supersede malevolent qualities, humanity will not be able to overcome its issues and new discoveries will have a malevolent effect.
Did you notice that all great beings basically said the same thing which is "develop the benevolent qualities of your mind"? Did you notice Jesus said do not judge and Buddha taught moderation and Mother Theresa compassion, Martin Luther King equality and Gandhi nonviolence? It seems we put these people on a pedestal, but we discard their message within our mind state on a moment-to-moment basis. In other words, it matters where your mind is dwelling right now. It doesn't help to do your morning prayers and then spend your day letting your mind run wild or meditating in the morning or evening yet outside of meditation allows your mind to run wild. Malevolent and benevolent mental qualities are like muscles. As you use them, they develop if you don't use them, they atrophy. The reason the goal of yoga is enlightenment or awareness is because we need to be incessantly aware of where our mind is dwelling to make sure we are not dwelling, indulging, and strengthening a mind state that exacerbates our issues and problems.
Gandhi said "be the change that you'd like to see" because it can't shift in the world if it doesn't shift within me. Now quantum physics has discovered the law of attraction which means like attracts like this means that we draw to us that of which we are. So, if we want to see more benevolence in our own lives and experiences, we must develop more benevolence within ourselves. It's kind of like your reality reflects your mind state. And humanity’s reality reflects where most of humanity's minds dwell. In other words, we can't make the problems in this world go away until the problems in our mind go away. Notice as the light shines from all directions the shadow disappears. One crazy revelation that our medical community is having is the discovery that most of the physical diseases are coming from our mind state (mental stress). So even on the most basic personal level of physical health cultivating a benevolent mind state is a prerequisite for physical well-being and so much more :-).
As more and more people embrace a benevolent mentality the cultural issues stemming from a malevolent mind state start to weaken and disintegrate. This is why the great ones did not emphasize mathematics or science or athletics, philosophy, or wealth. All the great ones emphasized one thing, a benevolent mind state. The crazy thing is this is the one thing that is not taught in schools. Sure, we are expected to be moral and ethical and to some small degree that may be emphasized in school curriculums. Yet it is not emphasized enough and there is no emphasis on the moment to moment place our minds are dwelling. Again, this is why the emphasis in yoga is awareness or enlightenment. The yogis want you to be aware of where your mind is dwelling this way you can decide whether your mind is dwelling in a malevolent or benevolent place. Without this awareness you have no choice. Without choice the mind will naturally dwell in a malevolent place because that will be the learned behavior it acquires from our culture.
Spending time in meditation is spending time cultivating awareness and as that awareness is cultivated it starts to spread throughout every moment of one's life. This awareness is the prerequisite to keeping our mind in a benevolent place and the impetus for healing.
See I told you it's simple even though it's not easy. Although as more and more of us attempt to do this it does become easier as each one of us get caught in the slipstream of our community’s benevolent mentality :-).
Sincerely,
bk