An important conversation—
a conversation that needs to happen, and deepen.
This Earth is no longer solid ground, terra firma. What world will our children live in? If we want them to have a world that's not a complete disaster, we had better do whatever we can to help change the destructive patterns by which humanity is bringing life on Earth to ruin. Yes, that requires us to make our lives bigger and more useful than survival-as-usual. But friends, you can see there's no other hope for a world worth living in tomorrow. It's a clean job, but somebody has to do it! Indeed, a bunch of people have to do it. I ask you, will you be one of those people, or not?
Now let's go through the issues slowly and thoroughly.
A guy does the best he can do with what he's got to work with, or at least he would like to think so. But surely, if he's sincere, he needs to ask, what can I do that will make the right kind of difference? Specifically, what must a person do to become part of the solution?
First, see
See the handwriting on the wall. Our world is going to hell. The ground underfoot is unstable. And you very well know that we'll all see—experience—major destabilization and deterioration in our lifetimes. And you know, too, that today's children will get the (almost unimaginable) worst of it.
Why is it happening? Because selfishness is running amok on the planet. Running roughshod over the Earth and its inhabitants. What could possibly prevent that? Higher values. But where will those higher values come from? Uh...
See the error of
selfish ways and leave those ways behind.
They used to come from religion and spirituality, but both of those have been turned into tools of selfishness. People need to see that humanity has been betrayed by religion and by spirituality. And humans have betrayed themselves and true spirituality, by selfishly pursuing what they call spirituality, and by demanding, accepting, and following selfish forms of religion and spirituality. That's ego stuff, not spirit stuff! Going forward, if the planet and its inhabitants are to be saved from doom, the people must see with their own eyes and their own integrity the error of selfish ways. And they must leave those ways behind, and start living unselfishly. It's love, broadly—or else. Or else what? Or else there's no force to stop the slide down the slippery slope.
Believe
There's no
time to
waste doing things that won't make a significant difference towards
saving
this world.
A person has to believe that they can help significantly. There's no time to waste doing things that won't make a significant difference towards saving this world.
What if someone thinks she can help by being a masseuse, for example? Then maybe, working twenty to thirty hours a week for ten years, she helps a thousand people relax a bit. Are some of them still better off today? Maybe a tiny bit.
What about other creative-uplifting contributions to the human race, like painting pretty pictures, making movies or music? Wouldn't that help? Such stuff might make someone smile now and then, but the joy created won't do much to convert anyone's morals to the kind that could significantly help the world. And look around: Almost all the forms of creative expression have gone the way of ego. For example, the music available is largely corrupt. One song recommends vainglory, another recommends violence. Silly ego romance remains the main theme of songs, and it is less than useless. It pumps a lot of energy into selfish fantasy.
The fact remains, selfishness is bringing the world to ruin. Endless wars, the disturbance of the entire planetary system, relationships going the way of the dinosaur—those are all effects of selfishness. What will the masseuse do about that? And what will you do?
Do you have the integrity to realize that you have a responsibility to the Earth, to the human race? As a responsible member of the human race, what are you going to do? As a responsible child of God, what will you do?
You'll try to help people somehow, right? Every tender heart wants every little flower to bloom to its capacity. Most of us have that kind of interest in humanity. And no matter what they are doing vocationally, anyone can make a small positive difference in improving people's self-image slightly. Show them respect and care. When they get too nervous, try to calm them. You can make them feel better about themselves. A phone operator can do that much. But exactly how helpful is, "I'm an okay person"?
You can only help people significantly if you can awaken in them values more profound than selfish self-respect.
Do you really think the world would be a much better a place if we had a bunch of people walking around thinking, "I'm an okay person after all, and by golly, people like me"? Is that really the best you can do? Surely not. You can only help people significantly if you can awaken in them values more profound than selfish self-respect.
One might recommend spirituality or religion. After all, traditionally, those were forces against selfishness, and sources of higher values. Love thy neighbor as thyself, you know. But look closely: the spirituality and religion which were supposed to help man with morality have become tools for selfishness: Instant salvation. Prosperity doctrine. New Age crystal protection. And at the top of the pile sit selfish mystics saying, "Save yourself, never mind other people!"
With religion and
spirituality serving
selfish purposes, nothing
remains that can save
the world—except
the
heart of humanity.
With spirituality and religion defecting from the high way of true love and true morality, the world has no protection against the destructive tide of egoism. All that's left is materialism, egoism, and self-survival. With religion and spirituality serving selfish purposes, nothing remains that can save the world—except, that is, the heart of humanity. The heart knows better. That's why the very best bet for helping this planet—the only real hope—is the heart and soul of humanity. To connect people strongly with that.
Restore true heart connection and Godly heart values
Reject selfishness, and establish
in its place a strong connection between man and his
own true Godly heart.
We must restore the true purpose of religion and spirituality—to reject selfishness, and establish in its place a strong connection between man and his own true Godly heart. And that true connection can only be restored authentically, not formally and symbolically. Until and unless that happens, there's no real hope for the world, no force opposing the precipitous slide of humanity down the slippery slope to destruction.
The true values of heart and soul do need to be restored, but they're not being restored—and will not be restored—by the corrupted forms of selfish living and selfish spirituality that are now all-pervasive and practically taken for granted on this planet. What will you do to help the needed restoration, the revival of heart, so as to restore the only thing that can save humanity: right relationship to man and God.
Why not leverage your talent by helping something that helps
a whole lot more
than anything you
can do personally?
Here's a thought: Why not leverage your talent by helping something that helps a whole lot more than anything you can do personally? That's your invitation to a higher calling. We're trying to raise consciousness in those who might very well want to be responsible citizens, who really are doing the best they can with what they have to work with, but they have almost nothing to work with. And therefore, though they may be working, they are accomplishing precious little.
We need people who see the plague, the dark tide of selfishness, and recognize the terrible significance of the fact that there's practically nothing opposing it. Almost no one resisting it. No known alternative to it. And then...
Find the alternative. Find someone with a radically different message, a message that appeals to a different aspect of humanity: the good part. You're not going to do much all on your lonesome. Join with somebody who offers one hand to hold, and points with the other hand to a path that's genuinely different than selfishness. Find a path whose marketing appeal doesn't cater primarily to selfish interests (such as personal enlightenment, "spiritual" means for getting success or material gains, blind faith salvation, etc.).
Of this you can be sure: selfish mentality behind any activity is a problem —the problem. Every selfish life is a fundamental deviance from the sensitivities and impulses of the True, Godly Heart.
by David Truman
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