There is an underlying current—underneath all of the anger,
frustration, bitterness, hate, and violence—this current is what is churning
within us, our desires, passions, superficialities, the sense of lack and the
need for more—more material objects, more money, more fame, more fortune, more
recognition, more stuff to attempt to fill that void that is within us.
Pick up an object right now. It can be anything, a vase, a
chair—anything. Now, if you had more of that object, would you feel better?
Maybe, if they were in different colors? If you had 10, 20, 50, 100, a 1000 of
them—do you think you would feel better? No, you wouldn’t. You would have
numerous amounts of them, but you would still feel the same way about yourself
as you did when you had just one or even none of them.
Our society has to change—from a selfish, self-centered one,
to a compassionate and giving one, starting with our families and the way we
treat one another. The majority of our society, especially in the West, lives
from the ego (the false idea of oneself) instead of from the heart, where
celebrity, status, and wealth are cherished and sought after. People cannot
live joyful and peaceful lives with themselves, with others, with their
families, nor can humanity come together, united as one global family, when
they are constantly competing with each other.
I do not see much change happening in the world as far as
lessening the focus off of our egos, and becoming more selfless, more
compassionate; however, it is possible to turn this world around, but it starts
with each individual, starting with our families, being present and selfless in
all of our actions and interactions with others.
If you do not think that ego is a problem, then you choose
pain and suffering over peace. You are a part of the unconscious majority that
chooses to cling to living a separate life a part from the rest of the world.
When you choose to remain in the egoic state of consciousness, of what's in it
for me, of competition, power, and wealth, status and recognition—when you
idolize celebrities, would rather hoard than give, and when you choose to turn
a blind eye to children and families who are—still, to this day, senselessly
starving to death in Africa—this is the result, the outcome, of where our
consciousness is at, the underlying current, that results in children and
families starving to death.
Here is another example of the aftereffects of the
underlying current: I have never seen pictures of children who were physically
abused until I visited Petro Neagu’s blog today. It was the most horrific thing
I have ever seen! Most of them, were babies and toddlers. It appeared that one
of the children had passed on. She was under a sheet, lying on the floor with a
pillow under her head, as though she was sleeping, but in shades of blue. It is
deeply saddening and disturbing to see such extreme physical violence against
children. If you want to become actively involved in helping to prevent child
abuse or if you think your life is hard and you find yourself complaining about
how nothing ever goes right for you, nothing ever good happens in your life,
visit her website and read this article:
In order to wake-up and come to the understanding of what we
need to do to turn this world around, all we have to do is watch our kids. What
our kids care about, tells us what we care about. If all they care about are
celebrities and becoming famous, then we’re in trouble, on a personal level and
a societal level. It is our responsibility to teach our children life lessons
that will, not only, be beneficial for them as they are growing up into adults,
but that will also benefit our society as well—everyone that they come into
contact with. One of the main ways children can learn to be more compassionate
is to actively do volunteer work, taking the focus off of themselves and
helping others in need. Otherwise, they are just sitting around playing their
video games, gossiping online, or watching movies and—guess what, they grow up
to be adults just like you and me, and when they don’t get what they want, they
lash out at others, verbally and many times through physical violence.
Our society has to change, from an always getting mentality
to an always giving mentality. Otherwise, we not only contribute to our own
pain and suffering, but we also contribute to the pain and suffering of
humanity. As long as people continue to remain passionate about all things
superficial, nothing is ever going to change. The level of consciousness of
this planet will never rise any higher than it is and we will continue to
remain stuck in this egoic state of consciousness of endless amounts of pain
and suffering.
When you see violence on TV, or on the internet, or you hear
about it from someone, you can’t just think, “They need to be put away, to be
brought to justice,” because, it’s not just their problem, it’s our problem.
It’s the underlying current of faulty and false ideas, notions, and perceptions
about ourselves and others, our clinging to material objects, greed and
selfishness, that drives this kind of behavior. When there is inequality and
greed, people suffer, families suffer. They suffer from poverty, starvation,
and homelessness. It’s that underlying current that bubbles up to the surface.
Until the current changes and we start to live consciously—egoless—selfless
lives, where humanity is more important than ourselves, the issue of violence
and unrest will continue to rage on.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
said it best, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly
sick society.”
So, we have to wake-up from the dream of illusion and
delusion, the societal illness, the norm, to see reality and what no longer
serves us, humanity, living beings, the earth—but, to wake-up from it, you have
to see it, a light bulb has to go off in your head. You have to be sick and
tired of the way it is, the way your life is, the way life is, the way humanity
is. When you’ve had enough of pain and suffering and cannot continue on any
longer, that is when you are given the opportunity to wake-up.
You either wake-up or check out. And sometimes, you need to
check out, temporarily, to wake-up, because you are surely not going to do it
if you continue to go to work, play, and hangout at the fishing hole of
delusion, where you will find the majority.
I see and hear people complaining all of the time about the
system, the government, the corporations, Wall Street; however, these same
people are still actively shopping and buying the products and services of
these corporations. We have the power. The consumer has the power. If it wasn’t
for us, those greedy corporations would not be where they are today. They would
not be lobbying the government, because they would have no money. We have to
wake-up. Even while most of us have had enough, we are still ignorant to what
we are doing to ourselves. Instead of blaming, we have to be accountable for
the choices that we make. This is not to say stop buying
merchandise—no—research the corporations that make the product and offer the
services and the financial institutions that you are investing your money in,
first. If they are destroying the environment on a major scale, if they are
involved in child labor, if they are creating more unemployment, so that people
end up homeless, etc. don’t buy their products or services anymore. It’s
simple. Even better, buy your products from small, mom and pop businesses, as
opposed to the major corporations, which own most of the products you see on
the shelves.
If you want change, you have to open your eyes and see what
the real problem is and quit looking at the surface level of appearances. You
have to dive deep and take action that lessens the problem and does not
contribute to the problem.
If We Really Want
Change,
We Have to Wake-Up to
Reality,
But, Not Just
Wake-Up,
We Have To Take
Action.
The Violence Is Not
The Focus.
The Underlying
Current Is.
Copyright © 2012
Pamela J. Wells. All Rights Reserved
Image licensed under
Bigstockphoto.com
Feel free to add a
comment, if there is anything that you would like to add or any experiences
that you would care to share.