There is a great indelible interconnectedness of humanity. When we fail our friends and neighbors, and even the stranger down the way, through our vanity, selfishness, greed, envy, fear, indifference, or complacency, something dies in us all. When we fail to even know about, or acknowledge someone's suffering, which is in obvious sight, much less attempt to ease it, the world is made a darker place. The failure of that individual to act represents an atomic failure of humanity itself. The world markets of optimism and hope can plummet because of the actions or inactions of a single person. The upside to this is that the good works of even one person can represent the whole of humanity's triumph through that sole heroic act. In reality, one person can make a difference, and a difference that can move through the masses as a seismic wave, transforming an entire ethos overnight. Look at the enormous impact the frail-bodied Gandhi had on two violently clashing cultures, with his simple spiritual exercises of defiance, selflessness, loving other people and valuing human life. And that was even without the power of media to move his ideas around quickly. Like a cultural or emotional butterfly effect, one person really can make a difference. Each person is the revolution.
If you want to be successful at anything you do, it will help you to first be a successful human. Since human life is a social life, becoming a successful human means being there for other people. The greatest joys in life are found not only in what we do and feel, but also in our quiet hopes and labors for others. No time is better spent than that spent in the service of your fellow human beings. We are here to spend ourselves on others; for each person is a great treasure. Success doesn't just mean happiness, success means doing the right thing, which often involves sacrifice and pain, but ultimately leads to deeper feelings of fulfillment. The greatest happiness comes from feeling and expressing our love for other people, and particularly our families. If you think about it, we love most those who we serve most, whether it be children, employees, friends or our communities. And this means that we can bring about a greater love for one another, though a life of simple, but meaningful service.
The answer to so many of our problems is simple balance. The answer is intelligent compassion. The answer is love. The self-revolution of greater individual consciousness is the absolute path to humanity's next great step forward. All revolution begins with self. How can you create something pure, when you are yourself an unnatural creation? True creation requires authority and authenticity. When you are not free, you are not creating; you are being created. If you are a creation of conditioning, then part of your new creations really comes from what created you. So, in this sense, revolution is really about a personal revolution of consciousness
Knowledge can be useful as a tool and reference point, but only as a beginning of a greater journey to something so much bigger, and yet so much more simple and liberating. People who seek after knowledge for knowledge's sake become trapped in a process where the means becomes the end. That is so sad. They are like a crippled Beethoven forever learning how to compose, instead of simply writing down the beautiful music that is written into the fabric of their souls already. People like that become seekers for seeking's sake, and they seldom experience the joy of knowledge as a state of consciousness. Instead, they spend their lives trying to learn everything that exists beyond them, in the hope of finding the truth that already lies within. This is the battle between the cunning human mind and the quiet, intuitive inner-self. Connecting with essential truth and knowing oneself is the only way. Surrender is the path to freedom through our unique authenticity, where we experience the flow of life not through the narrow lens of the mind, but through the vast refuge of the heart. As Joseph Campbell said, "follow your bliss." This concept speaks to the ultimate path as humility and surrender. Nothing else is needed. Freedom is the realization that it is sufficient to simply be a human being.
The intuitive spirit-nature we all possess is a beautiful gift, but too often that gift is suppressed. In many ways people have been denatured and lost that magnificent gift. In the physical realm, the best athletes do not rely solely on knowing all the different technical aspects of their game. While technical knowledge is useful, it is only a small part of a true master's brilliance. The master of any craft is first a master of self, cooperating with innate intelligence within. They detach themselves from the rote instructions and trust in instincts to emerge naturally to carry them forward to excellence. That is why you cannot create a champion athlete. All you can do is free the person to access their own innate potential. Knowledge works the same way. We already have everything that we need to know in our intuition and our instincts. It is pointless trying to absorb all the knowledge in the world. That is partly because we do not need so much of it, and partly because we can never achieve knowing everything in our lifetime. What we do need is to be open to what we already have within us.
It is very important to learn to listen to yourself. Where do you get your messages from, your own inner-guide and voice of reason, or Madison Avenue? Is your original voice even yours, or was it branded into your soul through commercials between cartoons? Who are you, really? We must stop allowing propagandists to manipulate our emotions; the steering wheel of our total being. As an organism, your inner-intelligence knows how to keep you safe. As a being of mysterious complexity, listening to the essence of natural messengers will lead you in the right direction, but you must squelch out any external noise, if you wish to hear the sublime voice of reason within. Do not think of this as "spiritual" if you have a problem with that concept or term; just recognize these complex communications as something beyond our complete understanding, beyond science, and beyond full description. We can call it natural or nature (deeply connected to nurture), or we can simply call it being. How many times have you wished you would have listened to your intuition and inner voice? Do not let words, logic, and reason get in the way of your reliance upon this amazing inner awareness. There is enormous power and wisdom in intuition, and in simple, natural beingness.
Humanity is full of beautiful people; unique and precious, each of us are fine, worthy and wondrous beings. Every person has something meaningful to say in the conversation of life. Let people speak. Let people disagree. Communicate. Listen. Have high-respect, if not for your opponent, then for your own comportment and conduct as a good listener. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to agree with people and their beliefs to defend them from injustice. As free as you allow others to be, such freedom you create for yourself. We each have a miraculous capacity within our mind to evolve and to learn new ways of understanding. The great procession of life's challenges and conflicts ever advance, and every difficult moment is a new opportunity for each of us to showcase the evolved state of humanity we all wish to see. When you close your eyes to what apparently "is," and look inward to the infinite truth of what is possible through imagination, you will discover vast landscapes of uncharted territory, clear open spaces for all people to exist together in harmony. We can build these beautiful visions together, through respect. The essential respect is the one in your own heart for yourself. The expansion of your own consciousness, capacity for love, humility and compassion — this is the path; this is the way.
We may at times encounter resistance, and find new understandings to be a source of fear and confusion, yet as human creatures we are nonetheless deeply compelled to evolve, and this is an inexorable and natural process. The process of social evolution is a natural emergence, based on free communities of social interaction and communications. This underscores one of the reasons why freedom of expression and freedom of peaceable assembly must remain sacrosanct. This is especially true of dissenting opinions and acts of absolute opposition and defiance against injustice. It is everyone's duty to oppose all forms of injustice, particularly the act of trying to silence the exchanging of ideas in relevant venues, where difficult, and even painful dialogue so desperately is needed. The higher-mind universally condemns any use of force, which seeks to intimidate, impede, or squelch free expression and peaceful assembly by those wishing to enter into the conversation of change. It is hardly possible to conceive of any act more disturbing than the intimidation of another free person. It is unimaginable that any person or group would dare to touch another person's body, or dare lay a hand upon a free, human being merely wishing to express themselves. It is unconscionable! We must always stand in solidarity and in absolute defiance against such acts of intimidation. Unless you are harming someone, you should never be touched or intimidated. Never stand by and allow a hand of intimidation to be placed upon the sacred and free body of an unwilling participant, nor allow a monster to reach into the mind or heart, and silence a free soul, with fear and threat of liberty lost. The most cunning enemy comes at your energy, image, or name, but the base and ignorant brute, the foul pig of a despot launches his whole selfish being — mind and body upon you, to suffocate your freedom. No law should allow or promote the silencing of opinions, or the directing or disbanding of peaceable assembly. Strangled in the clutch of brute intimidation, we are all made victims; first by the foul deed, and second by those good souls who do nothing to oppose it. Any law, or law body enabling injustice, must be reformed, and must be relentlessly ignored, with loving contempt.
True evolution is beyond the myopic sight of political thought-forms, or empty clamor and rebellion. True evolution is a journey into the vast gateway of new vocabularies, concepts and even expanded understandings of life itself. It is about taking those new vocabularies, which often belong to new generations, and speaking new languages, and through those languages, creating new narratives; narratives that could have never been expressed without those many new constructs.
Consider each mind as a flower, which goes through its own cycles of growth, budding, bloom and decay. Somewhere along the path, the cerebral flower of the mind comes into full bloom, and through dialogue with others and cross-communication begins a wondrous process of cross-pollination with other mind-flowers. Before you know it, new flowers with new colors, patterns and shapes begin to emerge everywhere; idea-flowers which have never existed before, not even in our wildest imagination. This process exposes the genius of natural designs and laws which are far beyond our weak intellect's comprehension. What is essential is that we come together in community and communicate, and do so as respectfully as possible. The change will emerge on its own, and will carry the unique imprints of each participant forward into the mysterious creation of that which is beyond imagination — a new world.
