There are many people out there now investing their savings in gold, and buying guns and ammunition, and stockpiling food, in preparation for the coming breakdown of "civilization" as we know it.. Somebody commented recently on another blog (sorry - I failed to bookmark it and can't find it now) that out of investing in gold, guns, and gardens, only the gardens make sense. I agree with this.
Greed breeds greed, and violence breeds violence. The breakdown of the economic and political systems will free us from political and economic servitude, and will give us a chance to reinvent our way of life in a higher mold. This means becoming re-attuned to nature, and to the spirituality inherent in each and every one of us: the being - the spark of life - inside the human body.
This is the new paradigm - the universal tide is rising towards enlightenment, and it wants to take us with it - either we go with willing determination, or we drown.
Those who cling to old paradigm ways - the selfish pursuit of money or wealth or power, greed, corruption, violence, a fear-based approach to life - they will drown in a hell of their own making.
Those who focus on virtue and love and benevolence, the qualities of divinity - those who find their inner strength and proceed to use it for the benefit of all - they will rise with the tide, and will find themselves cast onto new shores, where many things will become possible. The meek shall inherit the earth.
Either we stay in the darkness, or we move towards the light. Gold and guns are part of the dark old paradigm ways of existence. Yes, if I create a garden that grows food for my family, then others who are hungry and angry may take it by force and steal all the food. I can either live in fear of that, and get a gun to defend my garden, or I can trust in karmic law, and peacefully tend my garden while sharing its' produce with my neighbors. I choose the latter defense - the defense of "do unto others as you wish others to do unto you". Fear attracts the very actions we fear - darkness attracts darkness - while peaceful inner strength creates a canopy of protection - light attracts light. Darkness flees from light. This new paradigm approach recognizes that at the spiritual level - the level of "being" - we are all one. If I hurt you then I hurt myself. If I share with you, and embrace you, and love you, then I will be loved in return, and will receive the embraces and gifts of others.
There is nothing the dark old paradigm forces can do when faced with light. The old paradigm is based on fear and manipulation. Where there is fearlessness and determined independence, the old ways break down - the destructive forces destroy only themselves.
So, violence committed against us, or threatened against us, does not justify the use of violence, or the threat of violence, by us. We should never resort to violence, and we should always stand up to it, fearlessly. Gandhi understood this, and lived his life by principles of non-violence: "There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."
It is, of course, not likely that the average man in the street will suddenly understand and adopt such principles - many people will react in a more primal way, and out of fear and desperation will create an ugly, bloody, mess. In the short term. The final death throes of the old paradigm will not be pretty.
But we should not succumb to that fear ourselves, or we will be consumed by it too.
Those of us who have higher principles must live by them, and trust in our karma, fate, God, or whatever we believe in. The worst that can happen is we die in the carnage, at which point it is worth asking if life is worthwhile in a deteriorating "mad Max" environment. I believe in reincarnation, which makes death easy to face, and I believe in karmic law, which makes principles very important indeed. We can escape our bodies, but we cannot escape the consequences of our actions.
Our gardens will feed us, and nourish our souls. The hoards of gold and guns, on the other hand, will attract greed and violence and misery. You cannot eat your gold or your gun, and once you have shot the gardener, you will soon starve. Even if the gardener dies, he or she will die happy and fulfilled. The miser and the gunman will live and die in fear and misery.
We are entering times that will test our beliefs and our inner strength to the utmost. I believe that those of us who clearly see the writing on the wall for this "civilization", still have time to find ourselves a good environment to sit out the impending systemic breakdown, and time to prepare ourselves psychologically and spiritually for what we are about to face. But time is running out. We must reach out to each other and prepare for a better way of life.
3 comments:
Hello there.
I was just doing a random search on Google, and this blog popped up.
I found it rather interesting as I am currently reading the classic Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I also just finished a book called the 5,000 Year Leap (I don't remember who wrote it). You might find some interesting material in both of them.
I am afraid, though, that I don't quite understand your premise. If man evolved, as you imply he did (if not here then in some other posts), then he is really nothing more than a dumb animal whose purpose is to reproduce and populate the earth. Man is doing this pretty darned well, I think; you point this out. But then you confusingly refer to "spiritual evolution". What is this? If the whole purpose of evolution is to procreate and dominate, why should spiritual concerns get in the way? In fact, they could be considered counterproductive; being distracted with emotions and spirituality takes time away from making babies. So this "spiritual evolution" concept seems nothing more than an oxymoron, because the main premise of evolution is that there is no God.
So, by acknowledging spirituality, you acknowledge that there is something more than this material world. Something that gives man a higher purpose. What is it, then? To become more developed spiritually? Who or what set that in motion? Your answer is Karma. But if Karma is the process of self-enlightenment, how could it exist before there was a "self"? Would there not need to be a supreme being who created Karma like everything else? So for there to be Karma, there must be a God who rules over us and has created us.
So we have established that there is a God. Would this God put us on the earth to do nothing but stay in our current state? Would God have given us our bodies, capable of so much, if he wanted us to sit and think? Meditating, effectively, on ourselves and how we feel? I doubt it. He would want us to build, to succeed, to prosper: to do something with our lives that would improve the lives of the next generation. To be fulfilled in our work. If we did well, we would be rewarded eternally at the end of our lives. What purpose is there to life when you teach that the highest calling of mankind is to do nothing but think? How did you feel when you made this blog post? Was your message posted out of the detached desire to educate your fellow man, or to fulfill a need that you had to improve the world? How is wanting to build or create something else so different from that? As you say, it is an instinct. Who do you think gave it to us?
CONTINUED FROM PRIOR POST
So, there is a God who has put us on earth to build and create. Now what would He have done about those twisted few who want to destroy? Let us sit and feel and build Karma points (KP?) as we watch them walk off, leaving our house burning and our family killed? Or, would he give us means to defend the work of ourselves, others, and the future work of the young? If our purpose is to build and create, villains cannot allow us to not fulfill our God-given purpose. So we must have been given a right AND duty to protect ourselves and others.
So, there is a God who created us and wants us to improve what we have been given for the next generation. But what worth is that statement if nobody owns anything? That would lead us to believe that the God who created us has given us a right to acquire property THROUGH JUST MEANS, and to subsequently defend that property from usurping by others. The improvements you make to that property are yours; you can choose what to do with them.
So if all of this is true, and logic tells us it is, how can guns and personal gardens be a bad thing? It must be the natural law of God that since our purpose is to create, those who would destroy must be stopped, through persuasion or violence. So guns would not be a bad thing. And if a garden that you create makes more than you and your family (if applicable) need, what should you do with it? Giving it away outright is not always a bad thing, but it would also be beneficial to trade it for goods or services you do not have. Then you would be trading what you have created with what another has created.
Let us also consider practical applications. If, in the post-apocalyptic world, a thug comes up and demands all your food, do you think it would please God to see him walk away, gratified with all you could give him? The thug would continue to take and destroy what others had created. You have the sacred right and duty to protect what is yours and also, by extension, what is others'. If you can dissuade him BEFORE you pull the trigger, you would be doing God a service by not destroying what He had created, the most sacred creation of all: Man. If he cannot be dealt with nonviolently, though, he must be stopped for the aforementioned reasons.
So what is wrong with guns?
And finally, the issue of gold.
Gold is a symbol of what you have earned, with a value independent of governments. It is a method of storing what you have created and sold (vegetables, for instance) and converting it into another kind of creation: wealth.
Neither gold nor guns nor gardens are bad, according to God and logic. What's wrong with them, then? Remember, this all started with the assertion that you believed in Karma. That led us unavoidably to this point. I am therefore using a premise you, not I, supplied.
As a finishing statement:
Violence is ugly, but sometimes necessary. When working within a good or even slightly bad system (i.e. MLK and Gandhi), nonviolence is good and really the only way to go. When there is a bad or even no system, though, there is no recourse but violence. Remember, the USA was founded through ugly but necessary violence. However, it has gone on to become the nation that has done the most good for the rest of the world. If the Fathers had done nothing but sit in a circle and feel Karma, where do you think this nation would be?
It wouldn't!
Thank you for taking your time to consider an alternate viewpoint.
In honor of Thomas Paine,
I will sign thus:
COMMON SENSE
Common Sense, thank you for your considered reply. You ask what I mean by spiritual evolution: the animal kingdom operates primarily from instinct, and the human race evolved above this to operate primarily from emotion, and then, in more recent times, from intellect (albeit that the majority of the human race has still not reached the "intellect" level..). The next step in this evolution is to operate primarily from intuition, from the heart or soul - a love based understanding that we are all interconnected at the spiritual level of "being" (rather than the physical level of "human"). So, by spiritual evolution I mean this progression from intellect to intuition. If you don't understand this then I recommend you learn advanced meditation.
Your arguments are based on logic and rationality, and you argue your points well. However, spirituality and intuition have nothing to do with rationality and logic - we must transcend the rational mind in order to experience and understand spirituality. This process of transcending our instincts, emotions and rational minds, is often referred to as "enlightenment".
From the viewpoint of the soul, when we hurt our fellow man, we hurt ourselves. This does not mean we should not stand up for ourselves, and defend ourselves against iniquity - indeed we should stand up for ourselves. There are times for being loving and times when we must be strong and forceful. At such times you would use a gun to defend yourself: I would use spiritual power. You may kill your assailant, while I may be killed - however my lack of fear and my dominant attitude in practice will unnerve most assailants and they would turn elsewhere for easier pickings - the principle here is that light repels darkness. Even if my assailant is ruthless and shoots me dead, I have lost nothing of significance, as I am a spiritual being and not this body that I inhabit, and I will reincarnate. As a spiritual being I am indestructible - we all are.
The key point in all of this for me is that we should not allow our actions to be ruled by fear. Violence preys on fear. When we have no fear then we repel fearful people.
If you are happy living in a world where everyone is separated from each other, living in secure compounds with their guns always at hand, in a state of alert waiting for the next attack, then good luck to you.
I envisage a new paradigm where such medieval scenarios are no longer appropriate or even viable, and where we human beings become loving and trusting of each other, co-operating instead of competing, and sharing instead of hoarding.
If I am wrong and your projected world (a return to medieval barbarism) becomes reality, then I would not want to be part of it anyway.
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