____twoism

I would like to call to attention a previous post I made a little while back on this site, which has unfortunately been a worse diagnosis than I thought:

drillkicker wrote:I think before anything good can happen in our post-modern societies, we first have to ascend past this ridiculous ethos of ever increasing atomization and immolation of communities. We can't keep living as if we don't need the people around us in order to have a human life. The first step would be to stop allowing municipalities to grow and chop down the skyscrapers, as well as the system that led to them. The very existence of these dreadful Towers of Spite is an accusation against our collective philosophy, that of individual growth at the expense of others. The capitalist notion of competition only fans the flames of human passion and allows it to grow out of control. It's an infectious evil machination that has replicated itself across the world and it's inevitably going to drive itself to unbridled combustion, and we will see these ziggurats brought down. I'd rather see it happen in a controlled and careful way than as an unwelcome force of chaos.

Furthermore, our age, probably more than any in the past, has been afflicted with a ubiquitous lack of love. Somehow people in our current age have been allowed to grow up thinking that one can and must turn off the switch of empathy when associating with certain people. Wherever I go, I see almost everyone do this. Whether it's in traffic, at a bureaucratic facility, in a store, at the workplace, or even at home, people are always turning away from their hearts and looking their fellow people in the face as if they were a cold, lifeless demon. This is most vicious when it's from a distance, especially through the internet, where one can very easily and casually wish death on another person without a stain on the conscience. Video games and action movies help immensely to engrave this idol into the modern human ego, and they provide a plenitude of convincing polemic to tell us that it's completely OK to have this attitude toward others, and that it's perfectly normal to wish for the blood of another human being just as long as that person has disqualified himself from the privilege of compassion. This, in my view, is the problem of our generation, and I don't believe I've ever seen it addressed in a serious way by anyone, because it's so pervasive that it's extremely difficult even to question it.

As implied above, I happen to be very affected by violence and hatred among people. I have noticed a severe increase in both of these things over the past week especially, and have been very disturbed by it. People I thought were relatively rational have recently appeared as disciples to the forces of hatred that seek to destroy us from within, and it has left a morbidly bleak petina over the world. I have found myself without a communal spirit of love around me, which is essential to living a real human life. Even out here in the country, where the people are slow to excitement and harshness, I feel there has been a severe corruption within the local spirit.

For the past months, I have been trying my best to live a simple life, without any ideologies or divisive opinions, and at peace with all of the wonderful people of the world, so capable of manifesting beauty and love, icons of the peace that will one day prevail over the world; only now, I am finding that peace harder to see, and harder still as the day grows dim. The simplicity that I have been seeking appears far and elusive, with various ideologies and systems in the way, and I have noticed that the people I know are too busy looking for faults in others to see the beauty of love. I was not prepared for anything like this, and I don't know how to respond. It seems that people are only interested in rage and accusation now, and I feel unable to avoid the surging hostility. These artificial systems that we believe in only end in death and defeat if we allow them to rule us. There are things worth sacrificing oneself for, and things that feed the ever-hungering maw of chaos. The things that cause us to view human beings as demons of evil always, not sometimes, constitute the latter of these.

My greatest and sincerest hope for the world at the present hour is that we can collectively move beyond these passions and see one another in the pure and nourishing light of forgiveness. May new life arise from the ashes of wrath and grow toward a community of mutual sacrifice and constant thanksgiving.

I understand your concern, but it really helps to see where all this hatred and egoism comes from. Lately I'm a bit hesitant to put this up on the forums because I don't want to give the impression to force people in any direction or anything. So just my two cents and please don't believe anything I write, but find out for yourself if this is true! That is the only way it can liberate you. Never by force, constraint or belief.

First of all it's certainly not about denying anything that is happening in the world (right now), but to acknowledge it. However when you can clearly see that this is inevitable to happen and is actually needed for the world to come together as One again, it makes it easier to have peace with it internally, even in the midst of chaos and turmoil. It's supposed to be like this. No revolution is without bloodshed, sadly.

Somewhere a long time ago the One has been divided into two. This was when the illusion of the egoic mind was created. The One, or the essence of who we are, was temporarily lost and the ability to distinguish between good and bad was created. This in turn created all suffering and is the reason why you see what you see in the world today.

Long story short, almost everyone has temporarily lost their true position, their essence of who they are beyond their name, body, appearance, opinions, etc. And it is all created by the belief that you are a separate self, disconnected from the One Life and therefore disconnected from yourself and others. When a strong belief in you as a person is created, conflict will follow, with your emotions, your thoughts, etc. And because you are in conflict with yourself, you will be in conflict with others soon or late. This is how wars have started and will start in the future.

Our only real purpose in life is to find happiness, to become whole, which we already are deep down, though we have forgotten this Truth. It's as if your true nature is totally overshadowed by all this identification with thinking, creating a person based on thoughts which creates the illusion of a separate self, while in reality you are just consciousness itself, just like everybody else. The 'I' that is reading these words is the same 'I' that is typing these words. It's not about me, but about us. We are all One, yet we are all different and unique expressions of That which is beyond our limit of understanding.

This is what was forgotten, temporarily. Most of us are living a lie and deep down we know it. But Love will prevail because it is eternal and ever-present, even if it doesn't always seem so. Find the infinite space, peace, silence and wisdom in yourself and you will automatically help others, because you will be a mirror for them. One that is at peace, so they can recognize that peace that is reflected onto themselves, to find it in themselves. Because it is there, as it cannot leave you. It's ever-present and indestructible, only temporarily obscured.

That was a great post, Drillkicker and it immediately leapt into my mind when I was thinking about the last few weeks.
For me the construction, the system in which we live has become one of alienation and atomisation. Even those parts which originated with good intentions have been assimilated into a whole that institutionalises conflict, inequality and enforced scarcity. They have become the 'rules of nature' that we've all grown up with, unquestionable.
However I think the many protests across the world have their roots in empathy and solidarity, which is definitely a sign of hope.

jcnporter wrote:However I think the many protests across the world have their roots in empathy and solidarity, which is definitely a sign of hope.

Empathy and solidarity are indeed powerful forces, but my concern is that these forces can be redirected in the opposite direction very easily, especially during moments of extreme fervor. When this happens, it actually becomes the most destructive force possible, because it's very difficult to see, very difficult to predict, and almost impossible to stop. Whenever we act in the boldness of virtue, there are a thousand different evils that try to take advantage of that and steer us away, and when we're going at top speed, we sacrifice much of our ability to keep on the straight road.