inhumanity Archives - Beyond Spirit Education

My question today is, “do you believe that you create your life by the thoughts you have? Can you, knowing that there is strife in the world, that there is killing in the world, really believe that you exist in a world of your own creation?

Thinking about that for a moment, are you responsible for that killing or that strife? Heady thoughts, aren’t they? Chances are each of us may be to some degree by our thinking the general lower thoughts of humanity that says, “they deserved that” or “they are bad people not good like me” and other things of the same ilk.

Does that make us bad people? No, not really, it just means we’re human beings with human frailties and judgments. We have thoughts that are historically human thoughts based on our geography, ethnicity, spiritual or religious upbringing, and many other factors that cause us “unknowingly to act the way we do. It can be difficult to know that we are being unjustified in our thoughts and actions sometimes as we float through life, because we do “feel” fully justified in our actions.

Sometimes we get involved in situations that we don’t even realize may be callous or hurtful to a group or section of the population that has, in truth, done nothing to deserve it. One example of this is or was military veterans returning from the war in Vietnam. During this time of political upheaval in our country our boys were returning from the war ill prepared for the horrendous greetings they had to endure at the hands of the young idealistic protestors of that unwanted conflict.

They, in essence, were treated as the enemy, when, in fact, most were conscripts of a war that nobody wanted outside of the government and corporations. Sadly, they were the easiest and most visible group for protestors to attack and get press. So, these men who spent most of their time just trying to survive in an untenable situation were smeared by the protestors and became a focus of the press, while the “directors and suppliers” of the war continued in business as usual.

So, did we contribute to that? Many of us did. I was guilty of it by protesting the war on campus in college, and even though I never called anyone a baby killer or threw red paint at anyone, I was still responsible for that general condition. And it wasn’t until I was drafted in my senior year of college that got to know the people who were the cannon fodder of the war, and realize that damage that we did to another human being in our idealistic unknowing.

And, this is not an isolated incident. It has been going on since the beginning of time. Imagine if didn’t consider our way of doing things better than anyone else’s way. Imagine what the world might be like if there was universal respect for everybody as individuals without regard for religious beliefs, ethnic heritage, sexual proclivity, or geography. Imagine if we wanted the highest and the best for each and everyone. Imagine the world without labels, without judgment.

If we as individuals can begin to see the good in each other and let this good by our guiding theme in our life, we can indeed begin to see the world as a safe place, as a place where our children are safe, where we are safe. This is how we can begin to live stress free in this world of our own creation. We don’t have to change the entire world ourselves. We need only change the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves within this world. The future is as bright or and dim as our thoughts. It is heaven or hell right now. We sentence ourselves to prison or paradise.

Where do you choose to reside? How do you choose to see your life?

~revjim

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We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics October 4th
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/courses/zoominar/
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/1st-century-mystics

As the Charlottesville incident is still fresh in our minds,I have to ask myself, Why?

First, why is there such a visceral reaction in me to this senseless violence , and second, what is it in me that creates a space that allows this to happen?

To the first, I just can’t understand what it is in people that brings them to such a place of loss that they see no other option than to do harm to another child of God. Where is the thought process that says this is an acceptable solution? In this country especially, where the standard of living, even for the poor and disadvantaged is so much higher than so much of the world, there is still a disconnect so deep that people would rather listen to others opinions, rather than discern any truth for themselves. Even self-proclaimed Christians seem to abandon the teaching of the man around whom the religion was born to resort inane acts, so out of character with their savior. Instead, they engage in hate mongering, acts of violence, discrimination, and other base acts of horror, in the name of religion.

Today, this is stretched to a breaking point by an ignorant, misogynistic and arrogant @POTUS and a militant, violence spouting media, that seems to have lost perspective as to their job of delivering the facts and instead incites discontent. This is not limited to the so-called alt-right. All the unknowing media is contributing to this base rhetoric of hate. Their opinions become the opinions of the unread, and self-absorbed everywhere and their untruths become rallying cries.

To the “What;” what can we do to alleviate suffering and maybe encourage a new and more loving behavior going forward?

To this, I can only speak for me. I can look inward to what it is in me that creates this reaction in the first place. I can look at my own thoughts of bigotry and hatred, however benign or repressed they might be. They must be there for me to react in the ways I do. I need to not only look at them, but I need to be aware that they are obviously somewhere in me, and in my awareness of them, do a healing process to bring them into my consciousness, so I can begin to release these thoughts.

In the Christian faith, Jesus’ teaching bring us to recognize the God within us, which is always there to guide us toward Love. In the Muslim faith, there is the inner struggle, jihad, which is our guide to bring us into the Love of God. In Buddhism and Hinduism, there is the desire to achieve selflessness, which brings us into communion with the universe.

Whatever the teaching, they are always toward Peace, inner and other. As Thomas Merton says, without a balance of the spiritual and the human, we are incomplete, not a “Whole Person.”

What does this mean for me? It means I need to do the deeper interior work every day. I need to be in greater awareness of all the exterior things that “effect” me, and I need to remember the Spirit moves in, through and as every living thing, always. If I can remember and live these principles, then I can remain in tune with the infinite, and I tune with Love, which God is, and I AM.

“To forget the self and its pettiness is to actually show up, open and embracing, in the present moment’s play of form and formlessness.
~ Kathleen Dowling Singh, Grace in Aging

from Love, in Peace,

rev jim

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#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

Category: inhumanity

Prison or Paradise?

Man’s inhumanity continues . . .