The Case for Judgment Day (written at the time of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico)
As a kid I remember looking forward to Judgment Day. At the time it felt completely natural and I was convinced most people, almost all people, - except perhaps very few -would feel the same.
I guess, I implied, it would bring the end of suffering and wished sincerely God and Jesus would please hurry up. The stories of the wailing and the chattering of teeth were just a little spooky, but didn’t seem too bad to me, considered the occasion.
Over the years the topic somehow lost its appeal. - It didn’t blend well with new, “spiritual“, kindly-loving and politically-correct concepts and language. Only on the odd occasion, reading indigenous or other prophecies, stark feelings of a looming and inevitable reckoning again produced shivers of anticipation in my stomach, but dampened with doubt, after so many years of watching the world go from bad to worse.
Sometimes I notice in disbelief: “we have the year 2010”, and the old paradigm, we knew fifty years ago to be old and in need of transformation is still running the show. I can’t believe it! -
And now the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico! Slowly the magnitude becomes apparent and seeps into the collective mind. Through the image of a bleeding earth, a new appreciation of the desperate situation of the mother-ship emerges.
And all the people, who know it to be true, that THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS, do they also know now, that simple damage control cannot be top priority here? - As much as we all desire for this terrible poisoning to stop, we may have to address the underlying issues.
That’s where Judgment Day comes in. Seriously.
Just think.
How can we tackle the underlying issues of the oil catastrophe? –
- First we would have to identify those issues,
- then we would have to be clear on our desired outcome and
- finally have the leverage to be shifting the system.
What are the underlying issues? – This question reminds me of the famous line: “How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?” – What comes to mind? – Our fascination with technology, human propensity for error, desire for material wealth and comfort, our enterprising spirit, lack of understanding of our natural environment etc.? –
Another way of distilling the point here would be to ask, what single - human - condition is responsible for this and any other similar disaster or ongoing problem and which, at the same time, can we do very well without? – It has to be something that will allow us on one hand to be, who we are, human, learning, developing, having fun, playing around with things and on the other hand it has to be something, that we realistically can change about ourselves by insight, an act of will and on the basis of a few easy to understand rules, a coherent new paradigm.
I think, there is an answer to this and it is not even new. This disaster in the Gulf occurred not as the first of its kind. There were many direct warning shots, other spills etc. but also indirectly related problems like greenhouse gas production, traffic problems and resource wars. In other words, it was a foreseeable disaster, not in its individual detail but in principle and it will not be the last one, unless the underlying mechanisms are identified and corrected.
It may not be realistic to expect, we should never have started out on this track. After all, we learn by doing. But what stopped us from correcting the course, once the problems became apparent? – What prevents people from doing the right thing in any number of scenarios? –
People seem to have a capacity to blind themselves to the rationale of life-affirming strategies, when they want to protect personal gain, when money, fame or power can be achieved or maintained. The initial, natural and healthy tendency of looking after oneself and ones family turns counter-productive. The joy of creating wealth, abundance and comfort becomes an exclusive luxury for the few. The voice of reason goes unheeded. Therefore the underlying issue can be described as:
- “a sustained prioritizing of self-serving interest over the well-being of others, - respectively
- giving priority to the interests of one’s own tribe, group or nation over the well-being of all those who seem not to belong.”
Of course this is not new – and, oh, well, you may say, but people just are like that. They follow the pleasure principle. No chance of changing this. –
Really? – Is there a contradiction between following the pleasure principle and abandoning self-serving interest, when it threatens the well-being of others? – Can we really enjoy our material comfort, when next door people live in misery as a direct result of the way we gain our comfort? – No, human nature is not like this. Millions of people have demonstrated, that they feel very different, have given their voice and acted in solidarity with their neighbors. Many people have sensed the supreme pleasure that can only be had when there is peace and well-being all around and how it is incompatible with creating suffering for others.
So, whatever the difference between the ones and the others may be, it is not a fundamental human attribute. Whatever happens within the minds resisting accountability, - it is not something so completely automatic, instinctive and undetectable, that it cannot be identified and voluntarily changed.
What then is this change, this desired outcome? Simply a new set of technological solutions wouldn’t do, nor would some social-political-economic compromises set down in thousands of pages drawn up by an army of experts, implemented by a second army and hollowed out by a third. –
The most effective and lasting change would be happening within the minds of the key players in politics, economy, administration, media, religion, military – people who are in the positions to directly influence procedures. – They would need to think along different parameters, so that their sharp intelligence, their amazing creativity and ingenuity produces a river of sane, appropriate and far-reaching strategies. They know their fields, they are the ones to come up with the bright solutions, abandoning the path of hiding behind factual constraints, inventing excuses and hard to verify, specialist maneuvering in favor of more or less hidden personal gain.
This kind of transformation, this shift of paradigm could only happen, if the futility and the counter-productive nature of the present approach became inherently clear to those key players, if they directly perceive the suffering they cause for others as their own suffering and their own actions as a result of their choices for which they are completely responsible. In this way the desired outcome can be described as:
“an awakening of a critical number of key players to the fact
- that they belong,
- that separate existence and hence self-serving interest is a vain and illusory idea, producing endless suffering only, -
- that they feel personally responsible for the suffering they create and the suffering they fail to relieve
- and they therefore turn their powers to benefiting the whole.”
What a steep order, you may say, this is utopia, a dream of paradise, - in line with “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”. – Hmm, have you never taken this seriously before? – Is it really unrealistic? –
Take a moment, make a thorough list from your family, your workplace, your community, state, country and the world. See them, hear them, sense them, feel their energy, the kind of atmosphere, they would bring to a room and breathe it in, thereby calling them to the spot in front of your inner eye, this certain percentage of the population, from the very rich and powerful to the ordinary opportunists in politics, economy, administration, media, religion, military, who have so far resisted awareness...look at them as if they were your best-beloveds, your dearest, your children - and feel, they are here in your charge and they all, somehow, seem to linger for something they can’t quite make out...
You are aware, you are meeting them in their dream-state! - Perhaps you notice the fog of legal and illegal drugs hanging around them, recognise the elaborate diversions and the confused ignorance, and you call on the ferocity of the mother, feel her energy pierce those veils and bypass all distractions, cutting through to their core. Awaking they stand, flooded with clear, bright light from all sides, their records laid bare. Watch their faces as their own conscience dawns on them, how they cannot but tally up their account, visualise them becoming aware of their own personal responsibility for what they do in their lives and for what they are not doing.
This is not about collective responsibility even though it is shared by many. The truth of Judgment Day is, that each one will feel the entire situation to be entirely his or her sole responsibility. The certainty, you can read in every-one’s mind, is: “I personally would have been the one person, who could have changed it all.” - and so it really is, according to the deep laws of creation.
Aware and fully conscious of their own personal responsibility for this possible future, devastated planet, when oceans collapse, oxygen production drops, food production is disrupted, temperatures run away. When they look at their home planet, suddenly feeling again their long forgotten love for her nature, her beauty, her smells, remembering the mirth of their childhood, how good it all felt, and how easy... the truth and the foresight is pounding in their heads, awareness of their own personal responsibility comes crashing down with the same force, they themselves used before, in order to shield themselves from this awareness.
You carefully watch them in your inner eye, like you would watch over a child going through a fever. You know it is burning up the disease. Like a guardian angel you watch over them, you may see them moving about uneasily, hear their labored breath, sense their inner quaking, when they feel the karmic weight of the consequences of their actions... Not as a blame or a guilt, but as a very real, terrible option, something they will carry on their karmic port-folio, very matter-of-fact.
The beauty of this moment in history is, that it is not yet too late. -
And so you may imagine those key players, this certain percentage of the population, from the very rich and powerful to the ordinary opportunists, who have so far resisted awareness, to be waking from their fever dreams, yet unable to shut off, night after night, and day after day, more and more conscious, sweating, struggling, trembling until they finally break through and behold the wonderful idea: Sin? No more! - Simply letting go of their self-serving interest, letting go of the concept of self-serving interest - and naturally they look to what is needed to redress the underlying issues completely, unconditionally, beautifully - how wonderful, to do the right thing.
With joy you witness how they draw a deep and relieved breath, the first pure and easy breath for a long time, perhaps ever since they can remember, now, after having made their wonderful choice...and emerge cleansed, strengthened, determined and clear. - Happy, in a very new kind of way, exhilarated and instantly rewarded by a wave of bliss, their right choice giving them already a small taste of the sweet future they from now on will co-create.
Perhaps we are to orchestrate the "Last Judgment" all by ourselves. Would make sense, wouldn't it? - No-one coming out of the subtle realms to do it to us or for us, but we, exercising our integrated wholeness, have to do this job, as it said in the little film "The Call":
"We are the ones, we have been waiting for..." -
To me it makes perfect sense, that for this evolutionary shift of consciousness to occur, that so many people are working towards, a “Judgment Day”, a shedding and burning up of old patterns is also required. - From my own experience, I know the quaking of conscience. It is inevitable. It is healthy. It’s a part of waking up.
This is not necessarily a devastating process, but it looses its destructive feel only, if there is no resistance. The more resistance there is, the more uncomfortable it gets. Because it is ferocious. Ferocious it must be, like a mother tigress defending her young. So, no-one is making "judgement day" uncomfortable for us, we ourselves do it by our resistance. -
"Loving kindness" vs. "judgement day"? - no, don't think so. Loving kindness is the bedrock of "judgment day".
After all on "judgement day" anything that is not "loving kindness" goes to the dump as well.
If I imagine, I were an unaware stock-market dealer, I would prefer to be woken up like this rather than "spared" and then later find myself with my karmic responsibility at a time when it is too late. -
I declare to Great Existence my own willingness to be shown any and all consequences of my actions or non-actions and be shaken up in the subtle states of my conscience, so that I may pierce whatever fogs I draw around me and I wish nothing more than to behold the way to lay my self-serving interests aside and be inspired to actions that are right and in harmony with the requirements of the whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment