The Best Thing You Can Do For Others
Wake up.
It shouldn’t be that hard: clearly we are all part of this vast web. Even the materialists have to admit this. If one node in this vast web is perturbed, angry, agitated, it affects the rest of the web. If it is peaceful, it similarly transmits. If that node exudes endless peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding, then perhaps a subtle hush comes over parts of the web. There might even be the potential for a collective shift, conscious or unconscious.
These connections aren’t limited to physical proximity or direct communication. We are connected in ways that are beyond the understanding of most, probably having something to do with light and quantum phenomena. Psychic phenomena and precognitive dreams etc are a regular part of life (I don’t bother arguing with people about it; if they know they know).
But even here, the conditioning of the material world, the world of subject and object, is very, very deep.
Now, many nondual teachers say something along the lines of: “The best thing you can do for the world is wake up, and continue waking up.” This is triggering. Do you see what is happening in the world? Don’t claim that you are doing something for humanity if you’re just sitting there meditating. People are out there getting their hands dirty, putting themselves at risk.
The point is: it is worth considering that this too might just be conditioning of the material world, of subject and object. That in fact waking up, and continuing to wake up is the best thing you can do for others.
And really, I want to believe this. I still don’t entirely, but I want to. For me seeing is believing. Start small. Start with the self. See how cultivating peace in part of the body-mind encourages peace in the rest of the body-mind. See how other parts of the body-mind respond. Then go out, or online, and communicate with others from that place. See what changes. I’m not convinced yet. I hope to be.
***
“Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring Your love
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt, true faith in You
Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul”
— Peace Prayer
(image by Romare Bearden)
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Would The Middle Way would suggest we love the world with our own awakening and with loving action also?
This feels right to me. Inward and outward. At rest and in action. A lovely pulse.
The St. Francis prayer took me by surprise. Seeing it in new light
Thank you for sharing 🙏