Spiritually flat

My little red wheelbarrow. Over the past several years I have used it to haul many things. Needless to say, it has lightened my load considerably.

On Monday, however, as I was cleaning the ashes out of the pit containing the Peace Fire, an ember fell next to the wheelbarrow’s tire and “pshsssss” the tire blew. Try as I might to continue to use the wheelbarrow (to finish the job at hand), it couldn’t be done. The barrow held the ash, I held the barrow, but the little wheel was flat, thereby, throwing the whole operation out the window (so to speak).

It got me thinking. Isn’t a chain only as strong as its weakest link? Doesn’t life itself require all its various components to be well oiled and well maintained to function properly? Neglect any one part and the ability to move from A to B is decidedly more difficult.

The question I want to ask is: How do we move the world towards peaceful coexistence when the spiritual wheel needed to carry us there is flat?  Politicians and world leaders seem to be more “religious” these days, but, gosh, their religion seems debased.

Bush Administration’s “pro-life” stance appears to be limited to the unborn and the brain-dead. Despite being panned by critics everywhere, the Iraqi Horror Picture Show continues its run, as thousands and thousands of born foetuses – ours and theirs—lose their right to life.

It’s true, many people still feel that the affairs of the world should be left to the bolder and badder among us. But look what that leaves us with: Are you satisfied choosing between Saddam Hussein and George Who’s-Not-Sane? Now I know those “God, guns and guts” Old Testament Christians might have forgotten, but Jesus did say that the meek shall inherit the earth. In all undue immodesty, maybe it’s time for us meek folks to boldly step forth and accept our inheritance.

For just as 2000 years ago Jesus stood up to a class that placed the rule of gold above the Golden Rule, today we face the modern version of the Pharisees—the Phallusees, I think they are called. They cynically cloak themselves in religious robes, but the only power they trust is the power of the stick. Well, there’s another old saying: It doesn’t matter how big your stick is, if you stick your stick where it doesn’t belong, you’re stuck.

Another sign of the up-wising and coming evolution is that people are growing dissatisfied with the positionality of “my side vs. your side,” and are seeing the whole issue of sides from a new angle:  Maybe we’re all on the same side. For example, this argument between creationism and evolution is just another way for duelling dualisms to steal our energy. I believe in both. I believe the Creator created us to evolve, otherwise Jesus would have said, “Now don’t do a thing till I return.” I have it on good authority that the Creator is pulling for us: “Come on, you children of God. Time to grow up and become adults of God instead.”

You are probably familiar with the story of the Native American grandfather who tells his grandson that there are two wolves fighting inside all of us: The wolf of fear and anger, and the wolf of love and peace.

“Which wolf will win?” asks the young boy.
“Whichever one we feed,” replies the grandfather.

As my guru Harry Cohen Baba has said, “Life is like a good deli. Even if something isn’t on the menu, if enough people order it they have to make it.” So what kind of new world order are we ordering up? Do we feed the wolf of fear and buy into the “it’s every man for himself” story? Or do we nourish the wolf of love and evolve into the “we’re all in it together” story?

Release the old story—been there, done that—and speak the new story into the world. Dare to imagine what we could be doing if we weren’t spending so much of our livelihood on weapons of deadlihood. Think about it … think tanks where they think about something other than tanks. Young people living for their country instead of dying for it. Health and education fully funded, and the Air Force having to run a bake sale so they can buy a new bomber.

I don’t know who actually wrote the above quote, but I like it. He/she goes by the name of Swami Beyondananda.

Time for me to patch the tire (tyre, elsewhere).