It seems to me that many people are heavy of heart these days; whether it is because there are so many news bulletins, each competing to give the most negative and morbid picture of what is happening in the world, I don’t know. I am sure there is a connection. Most people seem to accept that, because of human ingenuity and clever technology, the world has become a much smaller place. Consequently, many of us ordinary folk are able to travel to different parts of our world with relative ease and to obtain a clearer picture of life in other countries, from this and via television. These things have the potential for making our lives much more interesting and fulfilling. However, this does not appear to have happened. Why I wonder?
Perhaps it is because we are using the fruits of our ingenuity and technology incorrectly. It is wonderful to be able occasionally to visit some exotic part of the world that one has only dreamt about in the past and to discover for ourselves if everything we have read about the place is as described. It is fine to be able to leave the shores of our own country during the cold months of winter and journey to somewhere warm and sunny; just as it is fine to be able to fly to a country that has much snow and enjoy all manner of winter sports not available in our own country. All this should lead to a better understanding between the citizens of the various countries but does it? I think the level of understanding grows no more than a little. The reason is perhaps, that such journeys are taken for almost exclusively, self-centred reasons and often little or no contact takes place between the visitor and the ordinary people of the country being visited.
Governments, rightly or wrongly, have used increased technology to produce more destructive weapons of war so as to be better able to impose their own view of what is right and what is wrong upon the citizens of other countries, whether they want it or not! The governments themselves do not describe it in this way of course! Far too many people have cynically used increasingly sophisticated technology to control people’s thoughts and reactions, in order to further their own vested interests. It is small wonder, therefore, that the levels of stress and unhappiness amongst ordinary people have increased so much.
None of this need happen, I submit. The ingenuity of human beings in exploiting the Earth’s resources and our own inventiveness could so easily be used much more constructively. If more of us were prepared to think for ourselves instead of being lazy and allowing others to take on that role for us; if we stopped to think that our minds are being manipulated in a thousand different ways and tried to do something positive about it; if we took time to be still instead of being whirled along in the maelstrom of modern life; if we looked around us more and began to appreciate the beauty and majesty of the natural world. If enough of us did this, we might at last begin to see swords beaten into ploughshares and true help, with no strings attached, being offered to countries and people in need.
Fear is the emotion that has driven humanity to its present excesses, excesses that are widening daily, the gap between rich and poor. Fear is what has persuaded countries to focus so much upon ‘defence’ and so little upon understanding others. Fear is what is despoiling our beautiful planet to feed the ever open mouths of materialism.
Only one thing can counter fear – LOVE! There is love a-plenty in the world but it appears to get swamped at every turn by the negative emotions generated by unrestrained self-interest. The wonderful property about love, unconditional love, is that it does not oppose fear; it does not oppose hatred; indeed it opposes nothing. Just as it is not necessary to heave out the darkness before flooding a room with light, so in the same way, love dissolves fear and hatred. Equally, just as one small hand on the light switch enables that transformation to take place, so a small number of truly loving people, dedicated to spreading the light of love around our world, can have a disproportionate effect upon the darkness that fear and hatred have created.
The good news is that the number of such people appears to be growing. More and more people are beginning to question the headlong dash to exploit the Earth’s resources, regardless of the consequences to ourselves and to future generations; more and more people are spending time learning to be still and in that stillness discovering who they really are and finding in the process, they are no longer stressed; more and more people are rejecting creeds and dogmas and using their inner awareness to order their lives.
Oh yes, there is much reason for hope and less cause to be frightened for the future of humanity than we think. Though things may look dark at times and it seems the forces of negativity are winning, this is not the case. Lift up your hearts; reach out with love to the world around you; refuse to be intimidated and manipulated; look within; find the beautiful light of love that is there and let it so shine before all that it will illuminate their road as well as your own.
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