Raising
Consciousness
“A human
being is a part of the whole, called by us, “Universe,” a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from
this prison by widening our circle of compassion, to embrace all
living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is
able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such
achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation
for inner security.”
Albert
Einstein
Because of the time
change, I am waking up an hour earlier than my already ridiculous
time—about 4:30 now. It gives me an hour to lie in bed and think
about what is shifting in the human world. As an introverted,
intuitive type, that's what I do—try to make sense of things. I'm
glad we have all sorts of humans, aren't you? Watching the young
people take to the streets to protest the election results warms my
heart. It's feels like watching the future emerging right before our
eyes. Other folks are discussing and analyzing—trying to discern
when and why this world took a left turn? Why are we moving—after
the falling of the Berlin wall, the Arab Spring, the opening of the
lines of communication throughout the world by way of social
media—back to the “strong-arm” mentality of the dark past?
It reminds me of a
psychological experiment I read about long ago involving a tiger
who's lived in an enclosure at the zoo all its life. Every day, it paces
the perimeter fence to the point that there's a deep rut in the
ground. The tiger stops occasionally, and gazes wistfully out into the
world beyond its fence. Then, one day, the fence is moved back twenty
feet, the space that the tiger has to live in is more than doubled—in
fact, the fence is now an invisible one. The tiger takes one long
look at it, and then goes back to walking the path it's worn into the
ground. It doesn't trust its own eyes, and is maybe even afraid to
venture out. It doesn't know what to do with all that space and
freedom, so it keeps to the path it knows.
What happens if we take a
position outside our present moment and view human life on Planet
Earth historically? We would see cycles; stages of relative growth
and prosperity, times of famine and insecurity, times of overwhelming
destruction and disease. All the difficult times, while miserable in
the moment, have spurred innovation and resourcefulness, have forced
us to push ahead consciously in order to survive. Human consciousness
expands when we have to strive, when hardship forces us to push
forward. And, after all, that's what we're here for—not to get
rich, not to gain territory, or celebrity, or power—but to grow in
consciousness. Our job in this universe is to grow in compassion and
relatedness for all of creation. Sometimes, we need a kick in the
butt to spur us on. We're getting that right now.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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