We
live
in a gigantic terrarium surrounded by the vacuum of outer space. Every life
form is dependent upon the others; humans, animals, foliage, fish, reptiles, birds,
insects, water, air, soil. Each group cleans the refuse of the others, keeping
our world in perfect balance. If one group becomes too contaminated, the whole
terrarium will die.
The human species is not superior to the other life forms in this world;
we are the stewards of this planet. We do not have more rights than the
birds, fish, trees, flowers, insects and mammals. We don't own the rivers, the
wetlands, the forests and the mountains; all are creations with equal rights to
live and die with dignity.
We
can't wait for Armageddon, a spiritual savior or beings from outer space
to rescue us from our madness. This planet is our mother, our father,
our place of worship, our paradise. Learning to honor ourselves, each
other and our home is our greatest challenge. It's time to begin
our
Spiritual
Evolution.
The number one problem on our planet is child abuse. Our relentless indifference
to the silent screams of millions of helpless children is an abomination. Infants
born unloved, unwanted, unclean, starved, sick, addicted. Men, women, cultures
dumping their fear, hatred and frustrated dreams on tiny beings.
We
can deny and excuse our behavior, but child abuse does not go away; it
remains festering in the unconscious. Without healing, child abuse gets passed
on to the next generation by parenting or other positions of power. There
is a direct correlation between adult dysfunction, failure and anti-social behavior
to psychological, physical and social mistreatment in childhood.
It's essential to understand that children accept full responsibility for
their neglect, poverty, cruelty or humiliation. It's inconceivable to a child
that any older sibling, parent or adult is accountable regardless of the circumstances.
Even if the child has the smallest degree of awareness, their inevitable conclusion
is that they deserved it; whatever happened
must have been their fault!
They carry this guilt in their unconscious as a belief system all of their life
or until it is healed.
Every infant that's born is a precious flower with the potential for joy
and fulfillment. To expect that an unloved, deprived or damaged child can mature
into a healthy, ethical, successful citizen of the world is absurd. Every abused
child knows of the enormous effort expended to overcome the infinite ways in which
relatives, friends and authority figures torture innocent children. As a civilized
people, it's time we stopped denying this generational monster and work to insure
love, safety and support to every infant born on this planet.
From infancy, most girls are socialized to believe that
the primary purpose for their existence is to have babies. This barbaric stunting
of half the world's population to a life of servitude and inferior status is perpetuated
by many institutions for a variety of reasons. Left alone to make her own decision
without cultural, family and religious propaganda or pressure from men for sexual
gratification, many women might choose to wait until they are emotionally and
economically mature enough to take proper care of their infant.
Just because humans happen to be at the top of the food chain does not
make us superior to the other life forms on this planet. We must recognize the
equality of the other creatures and plants with which we share this delicate ecosystem
and which do not have any political voice. Our intelligence is to be used
to share our planet's resources not to usurp them.
Although there are huge open spaces of land, our planetary resources are
not infinite. Demographics show that the majority of people gather in fruitful
areas where there is significant trade and resources. Studies also demonstrate
that too many people crowded together resort to violent behavior. These facts
are supported by the continued growth of cities that contain ravenous amounts
of poverty. Our attitude toward copulation and procreation is primeval. Which
group suffers the most from this egoistic self-indulgence? Our children.
It's imperative that human beings become aware of dualistic
thought, the theory of opposites. Most people are raised to think about life and
relationships as either/or; we're taught, even brainwashed, to take sides, to
choose one way or the other. From childhood, we're bombarded with one way to do
everything; that our behavior is either good or bad. As adults, we're required
to think, work and act in one specific direction if we want to be successful.
There's even a saying; you can't have it both ways. It's the flat earth perspective.
Dualistic thinking is so ancient that it's believed to be the only way
to look at reality; when, in fact, it's only a style, a theory. The linear perspective
of a straight line, a beginning and an end, is based upon left-brain, dimensional
thinking; but the universe is actually curved. This flat vs. the round universe
is a perfect example of the dualistic approach; it has to be one or the
other. Dualism makes it impossible to conceptualize curved and straight-line
beliefs simultaneously. When one looks down the street, the world appears to be
flat, but we know the planet is actually curved. To accept both realities as fact
is to think non-dualistically.
Dualistic thought promotes the impression of 'us against them', exacerbated
by man's obsession with competition. Some people are so rigid about competition
that they refuse to conceive of a life without it. Why can't competition and
cooperation exist simultaneously?
Dualism provokes the ancient fear of 'the other'; the outsider, the stranger.
Whatever and whoever seems incomprehensible becomes the enemy. Clan against tribe,
man against weather, positive against negative, good against evil, man against
disease, religion against science, old against young, men against women, rich
against poor, conservatives against liberals, man against God and on and on and
on. This antagonistic form of processing information promotes individuals
and groups into destructive, irrational commitments; such as war, racism, cults
and dying for their cause.
The Eastern philosophy of embracing the negative may appear inane, but
we must learn how to apply multiple perspectives to our beliefs and relationships.
The professional classes and religious institutions ignore the fact that
we're animals at the peril of us all. I can understand why it's convenient to
pretend that we're a species apart from the rest of the mammals. But the fact
is that we eat, sleep and procreate, we digest, urinate and defecate, we gather,
fight and protect and we are born and die like the other animals.
The purpose of parenting and socialization is to diminish destructive animal
behavior; such as hatred, bullying, cheating, lying, killing and stealing; while
at the same time, preserving our beneficial heritage from the animal kingdom.
We have much to learn about ourselves from observing the herds and the wild beasts.
As Ken Wilber suggests, the human ego is conflicted between our animal
nature and our divinity. The ego must constantly choose which system to honor;
the dance between arrogance and compassion, ethics and individual needs, revenge
and letting go.
It is insane to claim that human beings are separate from the rest of the
creatures on the earth and have some superior ability to overcome poverty, child
abuse, starvation and cruelty; or that we can remain healthy without clean air,
food, water, trees and open spaces. Humans can exist under extraordinarily terrible
conditions but they flower best in an environment of beauty, love, affection and
belonging in the human community.
Human beings have been domesticated for so long that most
of us are unaware of its oppressive effect on our thinking and behavior. Animals
need social order; however, the domestication process severs us from our instincts
which are essential to our survival and well-being. Our instincts give us
vital information about what's going on around us and the motivation and behavior
of other people. Domestication eradicates our individual ability for self-preservation,
creativity, independent thought and action. Domestication kills the spirit, stifles
the mind, breaks the heart and destroys the body.
Throughout history, kings, queens and other despots found it advantageous
to subordinate and exploit everyone who wasn't part of their group; other cultures,
ethnic groups, women, children and conquered people, forcing them into slaves,
servants and peasants. In order to survive, people became resigned to their status
of birth and to believe they didn't deserve any better. They passed this belief
down from generation to generation. Historically, the ruling groups invoked God's
beneficence while the rest developed customs, such as ceremonies, superstition,
luck and fatalism to rationalize their inferior status and make themselves feel
better.
Today, the majority of people have been domesticated to accept their powerlessness
without questioning the wisdom of those in charge. This attitude permits poverty,
class systems, injustice and social paralysis.
Recently, the domestication process has begun to pervert human needs (belonging,
love, safety, food, water, shelter) by substituting them with wants. Social, political
and commercial institutions are seducing people into believing that popularity,
power, money, entertainment and material possessions will bring us happiness.
This causes desperation and depression as people frantically search for a
deeper meaning to life.
Wherever people interact, they automatically follow their animal instinct
to form a hierarchy; it provides safety and facilitates communication. Although
many people sincerely desire to work within the spiritual concept of cooperation,
it takes great effort to counteract the compulsion of human beings to put the
leader on a pedestal. This behavior exists in families and in social, political,
religious and business organizations. Unfortunately, hierarchies are dualistic,
undemocratic and unequal. More importantly, the human hierarchical
system is extraordinarily perverse.
In the animal kingdom the leader is selected by brute strength and, when the
herd is in danger, the leader takes the initiative, makes the challenge and often
gets killed; but the structure usually remains intact. In the human system, the
hierarchy is based on the leader's ego, which is fragile. Humans, therefore, have
created the facade of infallibility, hero worship and even divinity on their leaders;
while the second rank, the enforcers, bureaucrats and sycophants unite as a protection.
This forces the remaining underlings to deny, compete, evade, lie, kill and even
die while proclaiming the magnificence of their system while struggling their
way up the ranks.
Those who socialize, live or work in any hierarchical group such as offices,
families, political systems and businesses are powerless to improve the system
for fear of reprisal; there is no provision to make major changes because no one
is allowed to question to leader. The more fragile the leader, the more oppression
to prevent dissatisfaction. People within the hierarchy are fearful and intolerant
of any criticism so the status quo continues, no matter how dreadful or damaging
it is. Dissent, sometimes violent, is the only way to create any improvement unless
the system finally collapses from the weight of its own failures.
In the meantime, great and unnecessary suffering takes place because of the
refusal of the entire hierarchy to admit that the leader can make a mistake. Although
we have fables of heroes who refused to be subjected to the power of corrupt authority
figures and legends of children who defied perverted adults, the hierarchical
structure will not, in fact, tolerate whistle blowers, insubordination and black
sheep. They are usually punished severely; and, very often, killed.
In addition to the misery that inflexible hierarchical systems
create, another consequence of this distorted social system is that the individuals
within have no real personal power; they only have the illusion, which depends
upon how well the leadership can manipulate the masses. Most insidious of all,
is the inability of anyone within the structure to assume responsibility for their
decisions. The brings up the most infamous quote of all, "I was just doing
my job."
To be sure, there are many circumstances when strong leadership is needed,
but leaders are not divine. It will take courage, awareness, perseverance and
diplomacy to overcome this most pernicious human dynamic.
The male perspective has designed the whole world. With few exceptions,
the masculine concept has designated every theory, thought and application in
our entire universe including God, logic, science, religion, ethics, medicine,
philosophy, law, communications, language, the arts, commerce and food. While
men have been making all these decisions, women have colluded in the process.
The majority of women enjoy having men make the decisions; mostly because of hierarchical
upbringing and because of the desire for sexual favors.
There is no question that men are physically stronger than women and should
have an equal role in the development of every aspect of society, but their intelligence
and creativity are not superior to women. Although men have had more opportunity
to develop their abilities, their predominantly aggressive, arrogant and narcissistic
approach has skewed every conceivable aspect of human existence.
Before humans understood the meaning of menstruation, sexual intercourse
and birth, men were fearful of the power of women. Many men still have the need
to oppress, subjugate, humiliate and brutalize women.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, the Roman church and the male physicians
grew fearful of the healing and intuitive abilities of women, not understanding
they had the same abilities. Demonstrating their aggressive solution to problem-solving,
they decided to exterminate women instead of working with them. They tortured
and burned millions of women as witches believing that would eliminate the problem.
Today, many males as well as females dismiss, ridicule or
usurp the feminine perspective of society as weak. Some women are gratuitously
allowed to contribute, but many are but male clones who’ve been taught to think
from the male perspective. Women, and men, who have a softer viewpoint are too
often humiliated, ignored and suppressed by the predominate cultures. In fact,
many women work harder than the men to suppress their female colleagues. This
is when female competition is unhealthy; women clawing at each other instead of
giving each other support.
For thousands of generations, the potential of young women has been suppressed
by fathers, mothers, siblings, husbands, religions and superiors. As a result,
the male perspective dominates: government, birth, death, education, exchange,
transportation, villages, families, houses, furniture and kitchen appliances.
This is not only ludicrous, it's dysfunctional. It's also hierarchical, dualistic,
domesticated, undemocratic and unequal.
Most heroes of world history are violent men of war. Is
it so strange that our heroes of today are also violent men?
Personal integrity is a commitment to quality in life, leadership, business,
government, craft, relationship. Every human being is endowed with some creative
ability to contribute to society. Personal integrity depends upon commitment to
ethical standards relating to that contribution. All endeavors in the fields of
farming, the arts, libraries, crafts, business, politics, education, organizing,
medicine, science, law, building, parenting and other skills are equal in their
need for quality and integrity. Ethics demonstrate the individual's dedication
to personal integrity while contributing to the greater needs of society. Integrity
is an integration of the ego and the soul. In order to counteract the prevailing
cynicism, all who contribute deserve respect and generous payment for their endeavors.
Unfortunately for the world's children, education is a political agenda,
not an intellectual one. The more uneducated a child or an adult, the easier it
is for the hierarchy to manipulate and control them. Unfortunately, the arts,
economics, parenting and social interaction are dismissed as frivolous when they
are, in fact, vital to the well-being of people of all ages as well as the cultures
in which we live.
All children should have the opportunity to study other
cultures and be encouraged to participate in athletic events and community projects.
No child should be eliminated from any subject because of economics, gender, ethnic
origins, family traditions, religious beliefs or aptitude. The purpose of education
is to inform children about their cultural history, language, geography, business,
mathematics, law, reading, writing, the sciences, all of the arts, psychology,
sociology, politics, cooking, nutrition, automotive, shop, sexuality and other
subjects suitable for the development of a healthy, fulfilling life.
Children deserve to know how to function in the world, to build their talents,
abilities, minds, bodies and social connections and to expand their left, right,
cognitive and motor brain functions. Tracking is destructive; all children need
to be exposed to all of these concepts whether or not they will use them in their
adult life or whether they receive high grades. Testing has become a weapon for
political ends instead of a guide to assist children in their learning process.
Entrance exams should be used as an incentive to maintain higher educational standards,
not as a punishment.
Every adult should be encouraged to continue in their education
throughout their lives so their brains don't atrophy into a vegetative state.
Our planet is a closed system; there is no `away' to throw our garbage,
our industrial, nuclear and chemical waste. We have not yet devised a cleaner
to scrape the air, the oceans or the soil. Out of sight is not out of mind; and,
if you don't want it in your back yard, then it shouldn't be in anyone's back
yard.
Our air, water and soil have been circulated by the planet for billions
of years. The air you breathe is the same air the dinosaurs breathed; the
water you drink is the same water in the tide pools that began the evolution to
human life. There is no new air or new water.
Every life form on the planet contributes its waste back into the ecosystem
for reuse; that's how our world has been sustained for millions of years. Every
life form excepting human beings, who take and despoil; giving back huge amounts
of contamination. There has never been any species on the planet who has been
more wasteful than humans and yet we consider ourselves a superior species. We
waste and throw away food, objects, plants, air, resources, water, other species
and other people with total abandon; as if we were Gods, and then laugh at those
who would reuse and recycle as cheap. It is an affected exhibition of affluence
to leave food on the plate, throw away expensive items and discard material objects
as trivialities because we are tired of them; while in other countries, people
pick through the garbage, collecting clothes, paper, pins, paper clips and bottle
caps for reuse.
Every life form on the planet needs clean air, water and soil. Denial of
our greed and ruthlessness as a way of life is polluting our planet; oceans, rivers,
plains, wetlands, forests, skies and soil. Denial as a social disease has been
polluting the minds of our children for thousands of generations. Future children
will pay a heavy price for our degeneracy.
In the western world, the industrial revolution has put a car in every
garage, a refrigerator in every kitchen and a chicken in every pot. Mass production
has brought toilet paper, refrigerators, central heating, electricity, cell phones,
computers, trains, automobiles and airplanes to billions of people. It has brought
the people in industrialized nations clean water, strawberries in December and
entertainment every night. Mass production has performed miracles.
But whenever something within our vast, planetary eco-system becomes too
powerful, too massive or out-of-balance, some unseen force is activated, producing
waves of counter energy to flow into the contextual environment to re-establish
equilibrium. In the process, because of the vacuum of inertia that exists while
the change in motion takes effect, before the counter-weight moves in the opposite
direction, there is much suffering.
Mass production has eliminated the apprentice system, pride in craft and
halted individual initiative. It's replaced quality with quantity and eliminated
diversity in favor of the profit margin. Politicians are expected to make social
decisions based upon the stock market instead of what's best for the public interest.
When money replaces the value of excellence, everyone loses; the customer loses
the ability to choose from a variety of superior merchandise and the businesses
lose because the public grows cynical and becomes an adversary.
Consumerism has invaded education, the living room, our bedrooms, our minds
and our nursery. Corporations gobble up small businesses, discourage entrepreneurs,
strangle innovation and are killing small farmers and cottage industry all over
the globe. Obsolescence is built into most products because selling is the only
object. If we use money as a standard for our values, we are adopting a materialistic
world in a moralistic vacuum.
Multinational corporations are controlling and fixing prices, preventing
collective bargaining, imprisoning dissent, killing diversification, stifling
innovation and creativity, gobbling up small businesses and despoiling the environment.
This is certainly undemocratic, unjust, unequal and eradicates competition,
the cornerstone of the free enterprise system.
Global corporations
are dictatorial, hierarchical centers of power that eliminate freedom of information
and freedom of the press. Multinational corporations are nations without constitutional
rights and individual freedoms; kingdoms without any restraints or the need to
care about anybody or anything.
It's a wonderful thing to support innovative projects with large amounts of
capital; but, to assume that businesses will continue in an unending upward spiral
is unrealistic and goes against nature. It's supported by the same belief that
you can continuously win at gambling. Everything in the universe operates in cycles,
and that includes economics. Nothing goes endlessly in one direction.
The need to predict and control the future is a human folly that has no
basis in reality. When one tries to force continued profit, something has to give.
That something is quality, job loss, lower pay for workers, lower quality of product,
cheating, lying, stealing and graft.
Every human being has some skill that is valuable. Not only does impersonal
business consolidation rob individuals of the freedom for common exchange but
it takes away their dignity and the value of their lives.
The human ego is insatiable. Without some form of restraint, human obsessions
cannot be stopped. Multinational corporations allow no social variability and
cause the population to submit to spending their energy working for the benefit
of someone else. It allows no economic space so the creative pool can invent or
test new products and art.
The great middle class was developed through mass production and must be
preserved; but it must not replace the power of the individual to create a product
of value for the purpose of individual exchange.
The minds of the majority of people are trained by the extended family
system, otherwise known as group thought. Throughout history, children have been
conditioned by family and social groups that functioned from an authoritarian,
hierarchical perspective. This atmosphere discourages individualized thought and
action. Even those raised in the nuclear family structure develop most of
their values, behavior, interests, attitudes and beliefs through group thought.
Though the individual doesn't count as much, it feels good to belong because that's
our primary, animal instinct.
This structure allows individuals within the system to evade personal responsibility
for actions of the group; social, economic or political. It gives the leader the
responsibility for making plans, solving problems, enforcing rules and giving
directions. It also conditions the children to grow up and choose a similar
system as an adult rather than to develop independently as an autonomous being.
The most destructive consequences of group thought are cults, peer pressure,
depression, fatalism, dependency on the media or drugs, personal apathy and the
refusal to vote.
The world's population has been domesticated to believe there is no alternative
way of life. Besides, it's easier that way. And although people complain, most
won't openly question what happens. Yet, it's imperative for personal development
that individuals achieve autonomy. The need for individualism is the reason for
the fanatical fear of communism.
Individual autonomy is essential for divine expression. Without the
ability for personal contact with the creator; individual, evolutionary development
cannot take place. Spiritual, artistic and intellectual creativity cannot
exist if the individual mind is not allowed to have the space, silence and time
to make its own connection with the divine.
While every person needs to develop its own autonomy, it also needs to
balance its narcissistic behavior with service, generosity, kindness, compassion
and humility.
Everybody is family, everybody is clan, everybody is tribe, everybody is
us. There are no outsiders, no enemies, no them, no others. We're all one family
of species with different faces, colors, languages, education, religions, nationalities,
cultures, beliefs. It's imperative that we maintain our diversity. How boring
it would be if we all drove the same car, ate the same food, spoke the same language,
wore the same clothes, had the same faces and went to the same church. Each group
or nation must maintain their individual and cultural quality of life while realizing
that one style is not superior to another. It's the differences that make us interesting.
Every person deserves access to mental, physical and emotional health.
Just as parenting, government, energy and information exchange cannot be solely
driven by the desire for profit, the motive for healing cannot be only for profit.
Too often, the profit motive destroys the integrity of the system.
The need to make a profit is different from the need to live comfortably.
Cultures must become aware of the difference between social services for the good
of all the people and those who wish to sell a commodity. Those who dedicate their
lives to contributing health, education, justice, rehabilitation, public transportation,
politics and the arts must be given adequate compensation, status and rest so
they can perform their most important functions to the best of their ability.
Research is essential and must be supported; standards must be maintained.
However, the healing arts must be available to everyone along with the endless
supply of healing herbs that our planet provides.
| 16.
GIVING & RECEIVING |  |
We must be balanced. The mystical branches of the world's religions state
that balance between giving and receiving must be maintained in order to have
complete health; in body, spirit, mind, societies and nations.
It goes against both nature and spiritual values to use anyone or anything.
Individuals and groups cannot take from the planet or from people without giving
something in return of equal value. This is the meaning of karma. To take and
not give is unbalanced. To give and not receive is also unbalanced.
As each part of our terrarium must work in harmony, so must the cultures
and individuals, within and without.
Birthing a baby is one of the most awesome experiences on this earth. Unfortunately,
too many babies are born without proper care for their physical or emotional well-being.
Even wanted babies are often treated like an assembly line of objects; not allowed
a natural entrance into this life. This deprives both mother and baby of the animal
need to feel and touch; the child to feel the warmth and strength of the mother's
body against its own skin, giving it comfort and security in its new home.
As our population increases, so does the number of unwanted elderly. As
the body ages, it deteriorates; the brain begins to shut down and becomes like
a child; an infant who can't take care of itself. But the body is no longer little
and cute; it's large, used, tired, and not very pretty.
Humans make plans for our deceased bodies, but ignore the feelings of the aged.
What happens to the soul trapped inside a body and a brain that is falling apart?
How do they feel, those human wrecks, alone, unwanted, unproductive; warehoused
in buildings and being cared for by people who are paid little and view them
with contempt? Who holds them when they're afraid and who comforts them when they're
alone? Who loves them when the food drools out of the sides of their mouths? Where
are the rights of the aged to die with dignity?
The anonymous and mastermind
groups are based on the same sequence as a church service.
Their wisdom is
the acknowledgment that our minds have not developed to the point where we can
manage our affairs without the help of the divine wisdom that pervades the consciousness
of our universe.
Call it what you will, it is critical that we humans begin
our day and deliberations with a non-sectarian invitation to that infinite intelligence
to enter our lives and assist us in resolving conflicts that seem insurmountable.
It is essential that institutions allow men, women and children the time, silence
and space to make that connection. The indigenous people of the world knew how
to work with the land and with their Gods. It is time that each of us reconnects
with each other, with out planet and our universe in the spirit of cooperation,
respect and love. Let us learn how to listen and work together with that divine
wisdom that can transform us in our common destiny.
Note
from the author: This statement is intended as a dialogue for humanity
in general and is deliberately non-specific regarding solutions. It is
essential that every nation, ethnic group, culture and village apply their
own creative vision as they see fit. -- MCS
© -
2005 M. C. Sherman
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