AUTUMN

I am in Upstate New York at the moment and the leaves are changing colour. The sun is shining brightly and the leaves look so beautiful it takes my breath away. It makes me realise yet again what beauty there is in this wonderful world of ours and how sad it is that there is so much stress and unhappiness to mar the enjoyment of all this wonder and beauty.

If only – ah if only . . . !! If only we could bring ourselves to the point where enjoying the beauty of the earth and doing our best to enhance it were among the most important things we feel we can commit ourselves to. If instead of feeling threatened by those we do not understand, we can try harder to obtain understanding. If we could only see that we are all swimming in the same universal sea and that because someone is swimming in a different direction from us does not mean they are our enemy. If we could see that helping another swimmer in difficulties is so much preferable to either pushing them under the waves or ignoring their cries for help. All these things would change our perspective and create for us a much more satisfying and worthwhile stay upon earth.

As I look at the autumnal beauty all around, it is difficult not to believe in the rightness and perfection of the natural world; to believe that all nature, the animals and humanity are part and parcel of the same wonderful design and that each is as important as the other in the scheme of things that the Great Spirit has created. We are meant to enjoy it all but to work in harmony with not only the natural world but with ourselves also. Disharmony and disease are inseparable. Much of the disease we see throughout the world springs inevitably from disharmony; whether it is the disease and death spread through warfare and terrorism (which is just another word for warfare), or the spread of diseases like cancer and hypertension that are the result of the desperate unhappiness of people. Unhappiness created by the struggle going on within us between our higher, spiritual self and the ego that is ruled by the five senses.

Inside we know what is needed for happiness on earth and it is rarely to do with maximising our material possessions. Inside we know that war and violence resolve nothing, are destructive and generate a cloud of negativity that at present surrounds our globe and adds to the total sum of human misery. Inside we also know that disputes more often than not result from two things; 1)Our refusal to make a real effort to understand one another and 2) Greed, the selfish desire to possess more and more material things, especially money.

Is there anything we can do to reverse the process? There is. We can as individuals pay more attention to the beauty of the natural world. When, as we gaze upon it in wonder, and as a result feel the light of the spirit shining around and within us, use our imagination to project that light outwards and upwards. If enough of us do this it will disperse the clouds of darkness created by war, hatred and misery and the suffocating pall that hangs over the earth at present will melt away. The effects of its removal will bring about a dramatic increase in inter-personal understanding and a vast reduction in sickness.

Surely such a prize is worth making an extra effort to spread the light of the spirit as widely as possible?