We are caught in a world which we believe to be “the way things are” wherein one is to work hard over time to become something acceptable and admired by others and so rewarded in many ways. This is supposed to bring happiness, but it is very rare to find a happy person here.
It might be better to first use all your strength and concentration to find out what you might be without becoming something else. And whether the problems the world complains about improve over time in gradual steps or whether in truth the method of gradual improvement in increments over time actually brings us the problems we suffer. In that way, are we actually foolishly utilizing the cause of our misery to free us from the misery? I once heard a talk by a very intelligent scientist on the subject of the environmental disaster facing our world. It was interesting to listen to him but what was almost shocking was at the close when the great man was asked, “What must we do to save our world, Sir?” And the man answered, “Nothing”. He then stated the obvious. “All our damage to our home planet has been caused by a process of trying to manage and control it and that system will never bring anything except more misery. The method of striving to make the Earth behave in a way we imagine we are benefitted is the problem, not the solution.
Is there a learning in action that is radically different from the education system of gradual improvement over time we are the demonstrable results of as we exist today? Have we tried a new way? Have we striven seriously with dedicated passion to find out what our Planet would be without our efforts to manage it?
The greatest teaching I ever received was from a gentle man who listened at length concerning the dilemma I was in at the time and then quietly remarked to me, “Jonathon, you remind me of a man desperately trying to manage his own life”.
I want to point out one more thing. The system we employ to arrest, try, and punish people who misbehave depends upon our firm commitment to the theory a person can and ought to be managed over time to become a worthy person who will be law abiding. Who really believes that? That alone is the justification for the practice of crime and punishment. Is it sound? Or, could it actually be the very source of crime itself? If it is, boy, oh boy, are we on the wrong channel. Channel of the dumb. Plow men dig my earth. None of them along the line know what any of it is worth. Bob Dylan. “All Along The Watchtower”.
What if rather than becoming offended by the wrongdoing of another we follow instruction from a poem of love which suggests we utilize the offending behavior as a fact to inform us that we need to change not the offender who is our brother or sister and one whose conduct in all ways points to us all. After all is said and done is the underbelly of a society ever less the thing than all the rest? And can we not look directly at a fact without a word defining it? Just look. Could it be that in the radically different approach suggested by a poet many will be spared the pain which caused the offending behavior? If it is so, boy, would we be on the right channel. Channel of the bright! Then might happiness begin to blossom the world over and we would take care not to trample all those flowers ever again.
