By Forrest Rivers
Unquestionably, the media has focused much of its coverage on all the negative facets of the multiple crises that we are facing. However, the events of 2020 have provided an amazing opportunity for spiritual seekers and social activists, alike, to put forward a new vision for humanity. Crisis situations, like the type that have confronted us, tend to be the best of times to enact lasting change for humanity because the darkness of suffering has a way of pushing us into the light of new beginnings.
The kind of vision that we might together imagine is of a brother and sisterhood of compassionate beings who work individually and collectively for the spiritual uplift of all humanity. This vision would be rooted in the Golden Rule which states: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
In this vision, there would be no room for aggressors of our conscious exercise of free will, and plunderers of the Earth would feel shame among their friends, peers, and family. Such a vision would honor all forms of worship and ways of connecting to the Divine. Each individual’s religion would be seen in the same light as multiple paths that lead to the same mountain top of infinite bliss and wonder.
In this vision, there would be no need to discuss the abstraction of “individual rights”, because there would be no need to define what we were already free to say and do. Further, there would be no repressive force like our modern governments, in the first place, to secure such “rights” against. Rather than identify ourselves by our occupations and as consumers, we would dissolve all our identities and come to know our Buddha nature: as empowered strands of loving awareness.
In meeting our needs like shelter and food, we would all be encouraged to be radically self-sufficient, yet, we would be intimately tied to our communities through small scale systems of sustainable agriculture of our choosing. The value of how we earn our living would not be measured by such foolish standards as income, prestige, and academic degrees. Instead, the value of our work would be determined to the extent that it relieves suffering and contributes to the peaceful evolution of humanity.
In this new vision, we would heed the wisdom of an unknown sage who once famously said: “The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.” Before, we worshiped the mind as the master. However, in this painting of a resplendent future, children would be taught the ancient practice of meditation from a young age and would learn to see through the mind’s compulsive habits of thought and hubris of reason. Intuition would come to be known as the true staff of life and the mind would only be at its service. No longer would the blind be leading the blind because everyone would have received their spiritual vision.
The horrors, then, of poverty, war, and division would be read about as a hard lesson in humanity’s conscious evolution. As would the present desecration of the Earth by our “captains of industry.” Adults and children, alike, would also be taught about the beliefs and way of life of our native tribes to better ground them in our common roots of being. Men and women of all stripes would live by the axiom that says: “democracies die when the arts cease to flourish.”
Accordingly, all would be free and actively encouraged to pursue creative passions like music, painting, writing, and photography. Can these times really propel the human race in a new direction of peaceful cohabitation and oneness? Will 2020 be remembered as the year where the truth of these inspiring words by Hindu Saint, Vivekananda, was fully realized:
“The light comes gently, slowly, but surely it comes.”
The choice to ascend into the rarefied heights of “interbeing”, as Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh describes it, is entirely up to us as both individuals and as a collective. How many of us have surveyed the state of the world at the moment and thought: “There has to be a better way.” I’m sure many have now thought this. Rest assured, there is a better way. Have faith and carry on!
