I don't experience this very often, but...
When
I am feeling moments of sublime clarity, I hold great compassion for those burdened with financial wealth and possessions and power in our current society. The weight of it all must be suffocating. And the inevitable disconnection from humanity must be so
harsh and isolating.
I have had experiences of realizing, "Oh, if they only knew what I knew, they would see through the illusion
of the need for more, they would live much simpler lives, and they would be motivated by love instead of fear." And, in a deeply profound way, I have seen that their suffering is my suffering, and mine is theirs.
Of course, I would guess that most of them don't have the same sense of this, and possibly have little or no understanding of the depths of their suffering. They're "living the
dream", so how could it be otherwise? And so I imagine that with any of the inevitable human feelings of discomfort that arise within, they fashion those feelings into problems in the outside world of form, and then keep coping with the use of their drug of
choice... the ready convenience of money and power, in a society that worships it.
And so what really are the chances that any of
them would ever realize any of this enough to completely change, or to consider the effects of their part in a system of incredible inequity... enough to choose to dismantle the very systems that hold their money and power in place? Who would ever voluntarily
do that?
And what hope is there that I or anyone else could consciously do anything to foster the revelatory insights that would be
required for them to completely change their realities and behaviours? After all, I find it challenging enough just to navigate the ongoing lived integration of my own revelatory insights. And I still easily fall into the same traps that the rich do (and everyone
else)... "if only this were to change, I would feel better", including my desire that THEY change.
But ultimately, I'm guessing that
their spiritual enlightenment is way bigger than my job description. For starters, we don't even hang in the same circles! LOL!
So
in light of that, what is to be done?
I guess that I can simply keep holding a space that allows for an understanding of their -very
human- suffering... our mutual suffering. We're all in this together in ways we can't even begin to fully comprehend.
I can keep knowing
that any desires that arise within me to demonize them will just do ME more harm.
I can keep finding my own way back to peace, keep
looking toward the bigger picture of the world I want to live in, keep doing the work I'm drawn to in that regard, and keep leaning toward the security of KNOWING the deeper true nature of the human self and of life, which is always "working perfectly" despite
whatever my mind continually reduces it to.
In writing this, it occurred to me how much I spend time thinking about how I want others
to change (including myself), and what could be done to make that happen. That desire probably comes from a career background in human development (a hazard of the job), although I get the sense that pretty well everyone on this planet mostly wants other people
to change.
But what if no one had to change?
I wonder if it would be possible for me to never again wish for anyone (including myself) to change?
What
if my vision of life began to be set from a complete forgetting of the past, where I could only see moving forward together with everyone, exactly as each of us uniquely are, and toward something equitable for everyone... perhaps a type of world I haven't
even imagined yet?
What would be the possibilities of living from that mindset?
And how could I, as a perfectly imperfect human, keep finding a way to lean toward this felt-only, appreciation of what is, and beautifully unclear sense of the future, without ever falling back
into my mind's habit of needing to change what is already past, whether it's situations or people, including the easy-to-point-to 1%?
And
could it be possible that the most profound change actually comes from not wanting change at all?
I have no idea, but whether this
type of future is with a 1% or not, I'm now genuinely curious about what this would all look like... in work, in service, in community, and in life.
With Love and Laughter,
Jonelle